In this Harbor compliance review, we cover the cost, pros and cons, and their top LLC formation service competitors.
Running a business can be complex, with many licensing and registration aspects to recognize for proper operations. Acknowledging correct business compliance is critical for any organization. In this Harbor Compliance review, we look at these elements and how they can help.
Choosing a company to ensure your business is compliant with all the necessary regulatory guidelines can save your organization time and money. For example, you will not have to worry about missing a deadline for critical business licensing or forgetting to file essential paperwork.
Let’s take a look at what Harbor Compliance is all about.
What Services Does Harbor Compliance Offer?
Harbor Compliance began in 2012 with a specialized team of government licensing specialists. Partnering with technology innovators in the market, they provide exceptional compliance solutions for various companies and organizations, including:
- Small to large private businesses
- Nonprofit organizations
Small to Large Private Business Compliance
Harbor Compliance keeps up to date with all the regulatory requirements of each state throughout the U.S. This way, it is easy for them to help your company stay compliant, no matter where you locate your business or where it operates.
You have flexible choices with Harbor Compliance. Using their software program, you can easily monitor all your company’s licensing requirements, entity, and tax management. In addition, they have options that allow you to determine how much of this you would like your company to handle.
The compliance specialists at Harbor Compliance can be there to aid your staff along the way, or you can hand over the reins and let their trusted staff take care of the nitty-gritty for you. If your organization needs someone knowledgeable to complete all these tasks so you can get back to running your company, the option is available.
Some tasks you can use them for with your private business include:
- Business Licensing
- Annual Reporting
- Foreign Qualification
- Registered Agent
- Corporate Lifecycle Management
Nonprofit Organization Compliance
Not every third-party agent can provide the services necessary to remain compliant. Harbor Compliance ensures that all their compliance specialists have the knowledge and experience to guide your nonprofit organization through every step.
Using compliance specialists can ensure your nonprofit follows all the necessary state regulations, save your organization time, and aid in building trust with reputable donors. Observing the most recent guidelines for beginning and running a nonprofit organization is critical for compliance, no matter where it is in the United States.
Forming a 501(c) nonprofit organization using the help of Harbor Compliance is simple. Because they have a 100% approval track record with the IRS, their nonprofit formation services come with guaranteed approval and exceptionally fast approval times.
Some tasks Harbor Compliance can help your nonprofit organization with include:
- Annual Reporting
- Charitable Solicitation Registration and Renewal
- Charitable Gift Annuity Filing
- Commercial Co-Venture Registration
- Dynamic Disclosures
- Foreign Qualification
- Industry Licensing
- Professional Fundraising Registration
- State Employee Campaigns
- Registered Agent
- Nonprofit Corporate Paperwork Filing
- Tax Registration and Exemptions
One significant aspect of nonprofit organizations is how compliance needs to change as they grow. Professional services can help guide your nonprofit through each step to ensure you meet the necessary requirements.
Benefits of Using Harbor Compliance
After examining many Harbor Compliance reviews, it is clear that they have a loyal client base with many satisfied customers. Here we break down many benefits of using Harbor Compliance for your company’s licensing and compliance requirements. It is easy to see why their 25,000+ clients are happy with their services and continue to use them year after year.
Some of the benefits of using Harbor Compliance for your professional needs include:
- Exceptional customer service
- Outstanding processing times
- Remarkable Better Business Bureau rating
- Customizable package pricing
- Nonprofit specialist
Manage Your Business
Swyft Filings offers clients a bevy of resources to help you better manage your business. Each feature gets included in their Premier Package, but you can also purchase all of these features a la carte. This offers customers the ultimate flexibility to only pay what they need.
The features they offer to help clients manage their business are Obtain Your EIN / Federal Tax ID, assistance with the 501(c)(3) application process with the IRS, and more.
One of their more prominent add-on features is their digital corporate kit, where you can store all of your important legal documents on the cloud.
This way, you can access your corporate paperwork 24/7 and know that your information gets stored in a formidable security system. Not only does this give you peace of mind, but it’s also convenient; instead of storing papers in some dusty cabinet, you can access your paperwork instantly when you need it.
Another helpful tool to help you better manage your business is the Minutes Manager feature. The Minutes Manager feature allows you to create your minutes and remain compliant.
In order to keep personal liability protection, every business needs to hold records that you conducted all the necessary meetings. With Minutes Manager, you can create these minutes and have them in your secure cloud-based account.
Out of all of their tools, though, undoubtedly the most significant feature is their registered agent services. When you purchase the registered agent service, Swyft Filings provides you with an agent that helps liaison between you, your business, and government agencies. What is a registered agent for an LLC?
The registered agents can provide companies with affordable, efficient, and professional service to keep your business compliant, help you meet important filing deadlines, help keep you organized, and more. Additionally, agents are available in all 50 states.
Exceptional Customer Service
Exploring many Harbor Compliance reviews, one constant factor is exceptional customer service. While many other competitors use automated databases and forms for many of their services, Harbor Compliance has humans that will contact you within one day and guide you through the licensing and compliance process.
Your company will receive a dedicated account manager to handle all your compliance needs so that nothing will be missed. Although you can do many tasks online yourself, your account manager is available and will respond to you within one business day if you have any questions or concerns.
Harbor Compliance provides both phone and email support from their account manager to their clients and other online support services. In addition, there are many online resources through their Information Center on their website, from webinars, articles, and white papers.
This third-party company has an extensive network of offices within the U.S. to ensure that all licensing and compliance tasks follow the proper guidelines and requirements, with quick turnaround, no matter where you are.
Outstanding Processing Times
Fast turnaround times are critical when you want to get a business up and running quickly. Harbor Compliance offers same-day service on registrations, giving companies a chance to focus on other elements of their business.
Although Harbor Compliance does not state specific processing times for all their services, they use expedited filing whenever they can. For example, they will process all LLC formation paperwork within a single day, making them one of the quickest turnaround times for compliance companies.
Because they have a large network of offices throughout the United States, this helps to speed up processing times in states that do not recognize digital filing. This way, they can transfer paperwork to out-of-state offices quicker within their organization and increase processing times to a few days rather than a few weeks.
Remarkable Better Business Bureau Rating
It can be challenging to find a third-party company that will suit your business needs while maintaining a reputable persona. However, Harbor Compliance is one of the few compliance specialist businesses with a high A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.
Naturally, any organization with a client base of more than 25,000 will have some unfavorable reviews, but they seem few and far between with Harbor Compliance. This excellent BBB rating shows how they take customer service seriously and aim to provide the best services for all their clients.
Customizable Package Pricing
Harbor Compliance offers two separate packages to suit your business needs. Although some organizations may find that providing only two packages is not versatile enough for their business, others find that they cover all the necessities.
You can choose between the Formation Package at $399 or the Compliance Package at $799. But, of course, the Compliance Package contains more elements and services than the Formation Package, making it quite a bit more money.
Alternatively, both packages they provide include having Harbor Compliance as a registered agent, which is set for renewal automatically for $99 annually unless you cancel the service.
Nonprofit Specialist
Not every third-party compliance specialist will be ideal for your nonprofit organization. However, if you are forming a new nonprofit or are growing and evolving, Harbor Compliance is one of the best choices out there to guide your organization through the process.
Harbor Compliance provides exceptional nonprofit guidance every step, no matter where you operate or what industry you are in. Your nonprofit can receive good standing certificates quickly with all up-to-date records and filings using their corporate filing services.
The tax registration and exemption services from Harbor Compliance are vast. Thankfully, they can support the 29 different types of 501(c) organizations through the IRS, making your nonprofit’s corporate income, sales tax exemptions, and payroll filings less complicated.
Check out the meaning of Limited Liability Company here.
Disadvantages of Harbor Compliance
Naturally, every company will have some disadvantages since it is impossible to meet the needs of every single person in the U.S. Although Harbor Compliance tries to provide a robust collection of services for their clients, there are some drawbacks when using this organization for your professional compliance needs.
Being aware of the drawbacks can give you a more well-rounded look at what this organization offers and if it is suitable to use for your company.
Some disadvantages of using Harbor Compliance include:
- Some services can be quite expensive or limited
- Not an accounting firm
- Do not offer legal advice
- The website can be hard to navigate if looking for specific services
- Canceling the service is not a quick process
Some Expensive Services With Limitations
Unfortunately, for many organizations, the services Harbor Compliance offers are pricey and can fall out of your company’s budget. They do offer two separate packages to help cater to different budgets, but even so, when compared to other third-party compliance companies, they are priced significantly higher.
Unfortunately, these packages are not as flexible as other competitors’ offerings for some. While they include several standard compliance and licensing elements, they can fall short if you need more specialized services.
Not an Accounting Firm
Unlike other third-party organizations that provide license and registration services, Harbor Compliance does not offer any accounting services. Therefore, while they can help your business with its annual reporting, they do not provide professional tax advice.
If you need help with specialty tax information, you should reach out to a professional accounting firm.
No Legal Advice
Harbor Compliance does not provide any legal counsel or legal advice of any kind as part of its services. Although they employ many legal professionals, they do not offer this service to clients.
If there are any legality concerns with your company, you will have to seek out an independent law firm for further clarification.
Confusing Website
If your company is searching for one particular service from Harbor Compliance, you may find it challenging to navigate through the website to find it. Although they outline their products and services, pinpointing specific items is more complicated than heading to a page to obtain a full-service package.
At the time of writing, finding pricing packages through the Harbor Compliance website is difficult. For example, their LLC landing page is not linked to their main company page, making finding information from the Home website challenging. Therefore, if you need more details for LLC formations, you will need to use a search engine to bring up results that link to it.
So, if you are looking for actual package prices and detailed information, you will have to contact a representative.
Canceling Their Services Is Not a Simple Process
Because the Harbor Compliance package comes with annual registered agent services, your company must go through some steps before canceling altogether.
It is necessary to first appoint a different organization as your company’s registered agent before you can cancel the services from Harbor Compliance.
However, suppose you do not go through the necessary steps to appoint another organization to act on your company’s behalf. In that case, Harbor Compliance will still charge you the annual fee, according to their terms of service agreement.
The Takeaway: Is Harbor Compliance Worth It?
After examining this Harbor Compliance review, you may be asking if their services are worth the higher prices they charge compared to other competitors. Of course, your organizational needs will determine what services you require now and in the future and whether Harbor Compliance is the best choice or not.
Before deciding on any third-party compliance business to guide your company, it is critical that you examine their services. This way, you can determine if they can provide exactly what you need or will require as your business grows and evolves.
Harbor Compliance is a terrific choice for its licensing and compliance tasks, which are suitable for many companies. Not only do they provide an extensive array of services, but they pride themselves on exceptional customer service that they personalize to your company with a dedicated account manager.
For many, this element alone is a deciding factor in choosing a third-party company.
Suppose you need to start up a new company or nonprofit organization. In that case, Harbor Compliance does provide exceptional customer service and covers many of the primary and extended services you may require. These elements can give you a terrific way to complete all the necessary tasks to stay compliant when starting your business and operating in the future.
