Business Dev Account

scitunes

Does anyone have a business account with apple as opposed to a personal account where you must use your full name?

I have my science games that I am working on, but I also have some games for band that I wouldn't want associated with my science games ;-P

I would like to have my band's name be the business name, but they say that business documents are needed, though they will not give me a firm answer about exactly which documents will be required. they give a list but they say they MAY be required. I don't mind establishing a sole proprietorship with the name of band as the business name, but I am not sure which documents I will need.

I would love to know what documents apple actually required and how much harder is it to do than a personal dev account.

Thanks

stanimation

Hey scitunes. All I've heard is that it takes 2-4 weeks to get approved with a business account and that it is not a fun process.

Atlanten

I enrolled as a business, it wasn't so hard.

You need to have a registered company, and they want you to fax them the registration document of that company, and the names and adresses need to match. That's it.

So the only hard bit was the faxing, I'm amazed that anybody still uses a fax, especially a tech company like Apple!

But there are fax services online, where you can just upload a pdf and they'll fax it on to the requested number.

quantumsheep

Yep - took little over a week for me here in the UK. Relatively simple process!

skulzo

About a week for us in Italy with a quite simple process (although sending a fax is not "simple" today).

criniit

I just went through it and it only took me 2 days. After you fax them the business docs and it says "Contacting Registered Agent" just call them and they will finish it right then and there. if you don;t call them it can take a while to get to your paperwork.

scitunes

what docs do they want (I'm in NY in the US)?

edh

A DBA form (doing buisness as, aka fictitious name form in some states) is the easiest thing to get. Just a notorized from that you file at your county courthouse register of deeds.

scitunes

cool. sounds easy enough

edh

PS - In my experience (I've setup 2 biz accounts now), you'll have time to get the DBA form complete before Apple asks for it. i.e., go ahead and setup the account with Apple, then start on the DBA form. In my county I can hand deliver it to the register of deeds, and walk out with an official / stamped DBA that dame day.

For me, it took ~2 weeks each time before I got a response from Apple asking to fax in proof.

criniit

DBA's are no longer accepted by apple. The following forms are acceptable (taken from the email from apple)

# Articles of incorporation
# Business license
# Certificate of Formation
# Registration of trademark
# Charter documents
# Partnership papers
# Reseller or vendor license

All depends on what type of business you have set up.

edh

I believe DBAs are still accepted, at least for US based developers. In most states this is legally all you have for a sole proprietorship. I set one up with a DBA less that 30 days ago, and I just went through the process now to see what it says - it still clearly states DBA's are accepted:

To enroll in the Standard Company Program you will need:

* The legal authority to bind your company to the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement
* Legal Company/Organization Name
* To provide us business documents including, but not limited to: Articles of Incorporation, Doing Business As Form, Business License, etc. as part of our identity verification process.

criniit

One of my friends tried to register (in the US) with a DBA right before christmas and he was told they no longer take them.