Vermont Secretary of State Launches New Online Business Filing System

December 19 2024

Montpelier, VT – In a press conference held at her 128 State Street office today, Vermont Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas announced a major upgrade to Vermont’s Online Business Filing System.

The office’s Business Services Division, staffed by a team of six, is responsible for processing and retaining a wide range of business records that are required to lawfully conduct business in Vermont. Registering a new business with the Secretary of State is among the critical first steps for any entity looking to do business in Vermont, allowing them to secure the business name, set up a bank account, get insurance, and engage with the state tax and labor departments.

In fiscal year 2024, the Business Services Division processed over 125,000 records, from new business formations to annual/biennial reports, and UCC filings. Shortly after taking office, Copeland Hanzas initiated a competitive bidding process for a much-needed overhaul to modernize the online system. The Secretary is proud of the new system and the team effort that completed the $5 million project on time and on budget.

“Our Business Services Division handles a huge amount of records every day, and up to 2013 they were doing it all on paper, which was of course very labor-intensive and inefficient. That year, the move to an online business system marked a significant advancement,” explained Secretary Copeland Hanzas. “But that was over ten years ago now. The original online system was stretched beyond its useful life, and it was high time for a new and improved system to better serve the public and Vermont’s business community.”

ReFrame Solutions, a software design company that specializes in public service platforms, submitted the winning bid to build a state-of-the-art online filing and records management system.

“Just like moving to an online system in the first place back in 2013 was a game changer, this new system is another huge leap forward,” said Business Services Director David Hall. “It’s going to improve our service, and it’s also going to more accessible, convenient, reliable and secure for users. Since the system went live on Monday, we’ve already processed over a thousand filings, and I want to give a big shout out to my team, our vendor on this project, ReFrame Solutions, and Vermont’s Agency of Digital Services. As we approach the busy annual reporting period in the first quarter of 2025, we’re going to continue to identify fixes and improvements that we can make to this system. We stand more prepared than ever for the tens of thousands of reports that will come into our office during the first three months of the New Year.”

Secretary Copeland Hanzas and Director Hall noted that the new system will not only make it easier to start and maintain a business in Vermont, it will also better support the Secretary of State’s key tenet of transparency in government and civic life. Its user-friendly and intuitive design will make for a smoother experience for businesses as well as for anyone researching business registrations in Vermont, with a comprehensive, searchable database.

The URL remains the same for the new system: https://bizfilings.vermont.gov/