SMF·DOOLA
Can a prompt replace Doola?
Legal, HR & payroll — US company formation and compliance
Exhibit tracking slip
Verdict
Every part of what doola sells is a filing made with a government or a service only a registered business can provide: articles of organisation with a state, an EIN with the tax authority, a registered agent with a real address in that state, and annual reports on a deadline. Software can remind you; it cannot file. The verdict is no and the useful build is the reminder — which is genuinely where people fail.
Exhibit A — The prompt
Received on31.07.2026Build an entity compliance tracker. It files nothing and gives no advice; it makes sure nothing is missed.
Stack: a local application, SQLite, one command. The README must state that filing requirements vary by state and entity type and that the data is yours to enter from official sources.
Entity: legal name, type, state of formation, formation date, EIN, registered agent name and address with its renewal date, and the fiscal year end.
Obligations: entered once each with a name, an authority, a recurrence (annual on a fixed date, annual relative to formation, quarterly, one-off), a fee, a filing URL, and a lead time. The application ships **no** prefilled obligations — a wrong prefilled deadline is worse than an empty calendar, and the README says so.
The calendar and reminders:
- Next due date per obligation, and a single ordered list across all entities of what is due in the next ninety days.
- Escalating reminders at 60, 30, 14, 7 and 1 days, by email and on the dashboard, that do not stop until the obligation is marked filed.
- Marking filed requires a date, a confirmation reference and an uploaded document. No document, no completion — that rule is what makes the archive worth having a year later when a bank asks for proof.
- Overdue items are permanently marked as having been late, even after filing, so a pattern is visible.
Document vault per entity: formation documents, EIN letter, operating agreement, annual reports, registered-agent confirmations, each tagged with its year.
A state-of-the-entity page: everything a bank or an accountant asks for, on one screen, printable — legal name, EIN, formation date and state, registered agent, current standing as you last confirmed it and when you confirmed it.
Write tests for recurrence computation on formation-anniversary obligations across a leap year, for reminders escalating and not stopping until completion, and for completion being refused without a document.
Do not attempt any filing, and do not prefill obligations.Opening prefills the prompt — press enter to run it.
Exhibit B — What you lose
- B.1 the filings themselves, made on your behalf
- B.2 a registered agent with a real address in the state
- B.3 the EIN application, and somebody handling a rejection
- B.4 bookkeeping and tax preparation sold alongside
- B.5 someone to call when a state sends a notice you do not understand
Exhibit C — Why people still pay: filings and registered-agent service
Because a non-resident forming a US company has no address in the state and no route to some of these filings, and because a missed annual report can dissolve the company you spent a year building.
Questions
What actually goes wrong without this?
A missed annual report. States charge a penalty, then move the company to a non-compliant status, and eventually administratively dissolve it — which is discovered when a bank or a payment processor checks. Reinstatement is slow and public.
Why refuse to prefill state deadlines?
Because they vary by state and entity type and they change, and a confidently wrong deadline is worse than a blank one. An empty calendar makes you look it up; a wrong one makes you relax.
Why require a document before marking something filed?
Because "I filed it" and "here is the confirmation" are different claims, and only the second one survives a question from a bank two years later. It also builds the archive without any separate effort.
Can I be my own registered agent?
In your state of formation, usually only if you have a physical address there during business hours, which is exactly what a non-resident lacks. That address requirement — not the paperwork — is the thing being sold.
Related tools
Receipt