Company formation

The formation flow, the statuses a company moves through, and where to read progress.

A formation is created in one request, then progresses asynchronously. You submit everything up front; doola validates it, files with the state, and obtains the EIN. You follow along with webhooks and by reading the company.

The flow

Entity types

Set entityType on the create-company request to choose what to form. It defaults to LLC when omitted.

Entity type	Provide	Omit
LLC (default)	members (ownership must total 100)	executiveMembers, ccorpValuation
CCorp	executiveMembers, ccorpValuation	members

For a CCorp, the executive team must include at least one President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Director — President, Secretary, and Treasurer may each appear only once, while Director may repeat. Each name option’s suffix must also match the entity type: an LLC ending (LLC, Limited Liability Company, …) for an LLC, or a corporate ending (Inc., Corporation, …) for a CCorp.

See Domain objects for the full field list of executive members and share structure.

Status lifecycle

The formationSubmissionStatus field on a company moves through these states:

Status	Meaning
PENDING	Formation submitted, awaiting processing
SUBMITTED	Filed with the state by doola
COMPLETED	Formation complete. EIN and documents are available
FAILED	Formation failed. Check the company’s admin notes, then contact doola

If a company sits in PENDING for an extended period, read its adminNotes (returned on the get-company endpoint) or contact [e-mail].

Reading progress

The get-company endpoint returns the live state of a formation, including:

• formationSubmissionStatus — the lifecycle status above.
• ein — the Employer Identification Number, populated once issued by the IRS. null until then.
• formationFilingDate — the date the formation was filed with the state. null until filed.
• adminNotes — notes from the doola operations team flagging anything on the company, such as a filing delay or IRS correspondence.

Prefer webhooks over polling: subscribe to the formation and document events to react the moment something changes.

Documents

When formation completes, documents become available and a document_* webhook fires for each. Call the document endpoints after receiving the event to list documents and fetch a short lived download URL. Document types are ArticlesOfOrganization, EinLetter, and Mail.