Filing Form FLLC-1 on your own, step by step

Gather the answers first. You need the company's name as the home state has it, the home jurisdiction, the mailing address of the principal office, who the managers or members are and where they can be reached, a Hawaii registered agent with a street address on the islands, and a decision on how long the company is to last. Item 8 asks about member liability, so have the operating agreement to hand. Without all of it, you will stop halfway and leave an incomplete form, which the Division's filing tips call the most common cause of delay.

The agent is either a person living in Hawaii or an entity that is authorized to do business here, and either way needs a business address in the state. You cannot name the LLC itself. Ask the person or firm to agree in writing before you list them. A friend who lives on the island can serve, but the role means being reachable at that address during business hours for years. A commercial agent charges a yearly fee.

Work through the form in order, using the item-by-item walkthrough beside you. Take the name from the certificate. Leave item 3 alone, since it is printed. Enter the agent in item 5 with a street address. Tick one box in each of items 6, 7 and 8. Print or type clearly in black ink, because a handwritten form must be legible and the Division accepts legible scans and photocopies of a completed filing.

You have three routes. Online, you use Hawaii Business Express, the Division's portal, where you complete the form on screen and pay at the time. By email or fax, you send a scan or a fax with the card details attached; email and fax filings must carry the card details, on the Business Registration Division credit card transaction form or with the card number, type, cardholder name, expiry, security code, amount, expedited or regular review, a phone number and an email address. By mail, you post the form and payment to the Division's P.O. box in Honolulu; in person, you take them to 335 Merchant Street, Room 201, Honolulu, HI 96813. The Division says registrations can be filed online or by email, mail or fax and accepts walk-in filings at its service window.

After you file, the Division reviews the form. If it finds a problem, a memo comes back naming it, and sometimes a staff member calls or emails the contact person you listed. You can also look the company up in the Business Name Search to see whether the filing has posted. Build slack into any deadline.

• The certificate is too old by the time the form is ready.
• The agent is a Hawaii address with no person behind it.
• The name on the form is the brand name, not the legal name.
• The management box does not match the operating agreement.
• Only one person signs, but the company's own law requires someone else's authority.
• A check covers fees for two filings.

If you would rather not chase the pieces, we prepare and file the application from your answers for $199, with the Hawaii cost shown as its own line. You review the form before it is filed.

$199 plus the state fee, including your first year of registered agent service; after that the agent service renews at $149 a year.