Information guides
Everything you need to know about starting, running and closing a business entity in the State of Ridgeway — structures, fees, filing obligations, Special Operating Licenses and more.
About ACRA
The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) is the registrar and regulator of business entities in the State of Ridgeway. ACRA is a division of the Department of State and administers the Ridgeway Business Entities Act. Our mission is to make Ridgeway the best place for business — by keeping registration simple, the register trustworthy, and the regulatory playing field fair.
ACRA administers the public register of business entities and the Special Operating License (SOL) framework in partnership with the offices of the State Bar, the State Police, the County Sheriff and the County Fire Chief. Applications for a licence are lodged through RidgeFile, but each licence class is decided — and enforced — by its designated approving authority (see the licences guide).
The register is maintained by the Registrar of Companies, an officer appointed by the Secretary of State. The Registrar decides applications for entity names and registrations, receives statutory filings, and may — where the law requires — refuse, suspend or remove entries from the register. Decisions of the Registrar are recorded and may be reviewed on application to the Department of State.
For every registered entity the register records its name and Ridgeway Entity Number (REN), entity type and status, registered office address, principal activity (RSIC), position holders, equity where applicable, filing history, and any Special Operating Licenses held — including suspensions and revocations. Basic particulars can be searched free of charge; certified extracts and profiles are available as information products, also free of charge.
RidgeFile is ACRA's digital service portal. Nearly every transaction with the registry — from reserving a name to filing an Annual Report — can be completed here, and most are approved immediately.
Business structures
Ridgeway law provides six vehicles for carrying on business or organised activity. The right structure depends on how many people are involved, how much liability protection you need, and how you intend to hold ownership. The table below compares the structures registrable on RidgeFile.
| Structure | Legal personality | Liability of owners | Minimum position holders | Equity | Annual obligation | Registration |
|---|
Which structure should I choose?
Testing an idea on your own? A sole proprietorship is the simplest and fastest to set up, but you remain personally liable for the debts of the business. Going into business with others informally? A general partnership works the same way for two or more partners; a limited partnership lets passive investors cap their exposure at the amount they contribute.
Want liability protection and room to grow? The limited liability company (LLC) is the most common choice in Ridgeway — it is a separate legal person, survives changes in membership, and its members hold membership units without being personally liable for the company's debts. Choose a corporation when you want a classic share structure: a board of directors, a company secretary, and shares that can be issued to investors and transferred freely.
Pursuing a charitable, educational or community purpose? A non-profit organization (NPO) has no equity holders at all — it records a stated purpose instead, and is run by its directors and secretary. Note that every NPO registration is verified manually by the Registrar before it goes live, so allow a few extra working days.
Ready to begin? Every registration starts with an application for a business entity name — once the name is approved and reserved, you can register the entity using the same transaction number. Full fees are set out in the fee schedule below.
Fees
Every RidgeFile eService is free of charge. There is no fee for a name application, an entity registration or renewal, an Annual Report, a Special Operating License application, a cessation, or any information product. No payment or card details are collected anywhere on the site — the schedule below is retained for reference.
Name application and registration
Renewal, filing and licence fees
| Item | Fee |
|---|
Information products
| Product | What it contains | Fee |
|---|
Information products are generated immediately after checkout and remain available under My information orders. Searching the register itself is free of charge.
Annual filing
Every registered entity has a recurring obligation to confirm its particulars with the registry. What you must file — and when — depends on your entity type.
| Entity type | What to file | When | Fee |
|---|
Limited liability companies, corporations and non-profit organizations must file an Annual Report within 7 months after the end of their financial year. The Annual Report confirms the entity's registered particulars, position holders and equity (membership units for LLCs, shares for corporations, the stated purpose for NPOs), and includes a summary of the financial statements together with a declaration of solvency. You can file an Annual Report online in about ten minutes — most fields are pre-filled from the register.
Late lodgement
Filing is free, so no monetary penalty applies to a late Annual Report. Non-compliance is nonetheless treated seriously: persistent default may lead the Registrar to prosecute position holders and to strike an entity off the register after prolonged non-filing. Check what is currently due for your entities on your dashboard or via Manage.
Special Operating Licenses
Registration makes your entity legal; a Special Operating License (SOL) makes a regulated trade lawful. Businesses in four regulated trades — legal practice, firearms dealing, security guarding, and medical or health services — must hold a valid SOL in addition to their business registration before commencing the regulated activity. A licence names the entity that holds it, carries an expiry date, and may be made subject to conditions (for example, inspection regimes or reporting obligations).
Each licence class is approved — and suspended or revoked — only by its designated authority. ACRA administers the applications, but the decision belongs to the authority responsible for the trade:
| Licence class | Approved by | Who needs it |
|---|
How to apply
Apply online through RidgeFile: the entity must be Live on the register, and the application must be made by its owner. Your application is routed automatically to the approving authority for the class you select — for example, an application for a Guard Service licence is subject to approval by the County Sheriff. The authority decides the application within approximately 10 working days; if approved, the licence is issued with its expiry date and any conditions, and appears immediately on your entity's public record. There is no application fee — applying for a Special Operating License is free of charge.
Ready to apply? Use the Apply for a Special Operating License eService — it walks you through choosing the entity, the licence class and the approving authority, the declaration and submission.
An authority may suspend or revoke a licence of its class where the licence conditions are breached, where the licensee is convicted of a relevant offence, or where continued licensing would be contrary to the public interest. Licensees are notified in writing and may make representations before a decision takes effect.
Suspensions and revocations are published on the entity's public record, alongside the licence's class, approving authority, issue date, expiry and conditions. Before dealing with a regulated business, you can verify its licence standing free of charge via the registry search.
State property register and leasing
Alongside the register of businesses, the Department of State keeps the state property register — one record for every commercial address in Ridgeway, whoever is in it. Each record carries a property reference (a PRN, for example PRN-1042), the district the address sits in, the tenure on which it is held, and the occupant: a business that owns the building, a body holding it for the State, or a tenant leasing it from the Department. Premises recorded as vacant are the ones the Department lets, and it lets them only to registered businesses, under a written lease.
The register is public and free to read. Browse every address, filter it by district or tenure, and open any property's own profile — with its tenure, its occupant, the term of the lease in force, the applications open over it and the property's event history — through the state property register. Each business's public profile lists the premises it holds in the same way, so you can ask the question from either end and get the same answer.
Districts
The register is organised by district, and every property belongs to exactly one. Districts are the headings the register is read under rather than free text, so this is the complete list:
| District | On the register |
|---|
Tenure
Every property carries one tenure at a time — the answer to "on what basis is this address held?". It is the first thing the register tells you about an address, and it decides whether the premises can be let at all.
| Tenure | What it means |
|---|
How a lease is granted and accepted
A lease is a contract, so it is offered and accepted rather than imposed. The Department of State offers a lease over vacant premises to a business that is live on the register, and the offer holds those premises from the moment it is made — the register never shows a shop as free when it has already been spoken for.
The business answers from its own management console, under Premises and leases, and the offer also appears as a task on the dashboard of everyone who can act on it. Only a recorded owner or position holder of the tenant business may accept, decline or surrender a lease. The Department cannot accept on the tenant's behalf and neither can the Registrar: an acceptance nobody made is not an agreement.
A business does not have to wait to be offered premises. The Department of State still grants leases on its own initiative, but a live registered business may also ask for a set of vacant premises itself. How that works is set out under Applying for premises immediately below.
Applying for premises
The Department of State lets the premises the register records as vacant, and it lets them only to registered businesses. A lease can begin at either end. The Department may pick a business and offer it the premises, as above — or a business may apply for a particular set of premises itself, naming the address it wants, the term it wants it on and what it would do there, and the Department weighs the applications it holds when it comes to let the shop.
An application is a proposal, not a hold. Premises with an application over them stay on the market: the register still shows them as vacant, other businesses may apply for them, and the Department may let them to somebody else — including a business that never applied at all — before it reaches yours. Only an offer holds premises off the market. Apply for the address you want, but do not make plans that depend on getting it.
Who may apply. An application is made by a business, for itself, by a recorded owner or position holder of it — the same people who may accept, decline or surrender a lease — and that business must be live on the register. Officials get no way round this. The Department cannot apply on a business's behalf, and neither can the Registrar, because an application nobody made is not a proposal; staff who want a business in a shop offer it the lease instead.
The Department sets the money and the conditions. An applicant does not propose a rent, a deposit or the conditions of the lease, and does not see them before applying — those are the Department's to set, on premises it owns. That is why an application the Department approves does not simply become a lease: it comes back as an offer of a lease, which the business then accepts or declines on its management console in the ordinary way. Applying tells the Department what you want; it does not agree terms, and no business is bound to a lease it has not read.
What is published, and what is not. Which business asked for which premises, on what term and from when, and how the Department decided it — all of that is public, on the property's own record and on the business's, so anyone can see the queue for a shop and how it was settled. A property's record also says how many applications are still open over it. The applicant's statement of what it proposes to do with the premises, and the name of the person who filed it, are not published: the register holds both and shows them to the applicant's own people and to officials of the State, exactly as it holds the rent of a lease without publishing it.
An application carries one status at a time, and the register writes it in its own words — the first below means it is still waiting, and the rest are the ways one is settled:
| An application reads | What that means |
|---|
Ready to apply? Read the state property register to see what the Department has vacant, open the premises that would suit your business, and use Apply for these premises on the property's own record — or start from the application for a lease of state premises and choose the address there.
Term and renewal
Rent, deposit and conditions
Every lease records a rent and how often it falls due:
| How often the rent falls due | On a lease this reads |
|---|
How a lease ends
A lease comes to an end in one of six ways. It runs its term and expires; the Department of State terminates it; the tenant surrenders it; the business declines an offer made to it; the Department withdraws an offer the tenant has not yet answered; or an offer lapses because nobody answered it in time. Every one of those is recorded against the premises with the reason given, and where a lease was in force the property goes back on the register as vacant straight away — the register never leaves a building showing as let by nobody.
Leases end on their own date, without waiting for a clerk. An offer whose window has closed and a term that has run out are settled by the register itself the next time anybody reads or writes the record, so the tenure and the lease status you are shown are always today's.
A business leaving the register takes its premises with it. Cessation, striking off and revocation of a registration end that business's leases and return the premises to the register as vacant, for the same reason those actions lapse its licences — an enforcement action that leaves the business still holding a state shop would have no teeth. A suspension deliberately does not: it is temporary, and the tenant keeps the lease while matters are put right.
Developer APIs
ACRA offers developer APIs that deliver registry data directly to your systems — ideal for onboarding checks, compliance monitoring and market research. Data is served in JSON over HTTPS, drawn from the live register, and each developer is issued a personal API key. Access is free of charge.
Entity Information Query
Retrieve the registered particulars and current status of any entity by its REN.
GET /registry/v1/entities/202009834S
{
"ren": "202009834S",
"name": "AURORA SOFTWORKS LLC",
"type": "LLC",
"status": "Live",
"rsic": "62",
"regDate": "2020-05-11"
}
Licence Register Query
Check the Special Operating Licenses held by an entity, including class, approving authority, status and expiry.
GET /registry/v1/licences?ren=201811902X
{
"ren": "201811902X",
"licences": [{
"id": "LIC-2210",
"class": "gun",
"className": "Gun Dealing",
"authorityTitle":
"Colonel of the State Police",
"status": "Active",
"expiry": "2027-07-20"
}]
}
Financial Information Query
Access the financial summary lodged with an entity's most recent Annual Report.
GET /registry/v1/financials/202009834S
{
"ren": "202009834S",
"year": 2025,
"revenue": 1840000.00,
"profit": 232000.00,
"solvent": true
}
API access is governed by the registry's terms of use. Bulk redistribution of registry data without a licence is prohibited.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to register a business?
Most name applications and entity registrations are approved immediately. Two kinds of application are referred to the Registrar for manual review: applications whose name contains a restricted word, and every non-profit organization registration (non-profits are verified manually before going live). Reviewed applications are typically decided within 14 working days. You can track the status of any application from your dashboard.
Can foreigners register a business in Ridgeway?
Yes. There is no citizenship requirement to own a Ridgeway entity. However, every entity must have at least one position holder who is ordinarily resident in Ridgeway — a director for corporations and non-profits, a member or manager for limited liability companies, or an authorised representative for sole proprietors living overseas. Applicants without a verified account typically engage a professional filing agent to transact on their behalf.
What is a REN?
The Ridgeway Entity Number (REN) is the unique identifier issued to every entity on registration — for example 202009834S. The first four digits indicate the year of registration. Quote your REN in all filings, invoices and correspondence with government agencies. You can look up any entity's REN free of charge using the registry search.
Which SOL class do I need?
There are four classes of Special Operating License, one per regulated trade: Law Firm for legal practice; Gun Dealing for dealing in firearms and ammunition; Guard Service for security guarding and patrol services; and Medical and/or Health Service for clinical, medical or health-related services. Choose the class that matches your regulated activity — if your entity carries on more than one regulated trade, it needs a licence for each. See the licences guide for the full table, or start an SOL application.
Who approves my SOL application?
Each class has its own approving authority: Law Firm licences are approved by the State Bar Director; Gun Dealing by the Colonel of the State Police; Guard Service by the County Sheriff; and Medical and/or Health Service by the County Fire Chief. You apply once on RidgeFile and ACRA routes the application to the correct authority automatically — a decision usually issues within about 10 working days.
What must a security company provide to get a Guard Service licence?
What happens if my licence is revoked?
A revocation takes effect from the date of the authority's decision: your entity must cease the regulated activity immediately, although its business registration itself remains intact. The revocation — together with the authority's stated reason — is published on your entity's public record and appears in registry extracts. Carrying on a regulated trade without a valid licence is an offence. If you consider the decision wrong, you may make representations to the approving authority; once the underlying issue is resolved you may submit a fresh SOL application.
How do I lease premises from the Department of State?
A lease can begin at either end. The Department of State may offer a lease over vacant premises to a business that is live on the register, for the business to accept or decline; or the business may apply for premises it has found on the state property register, through the application for a lease of state premises. An application is a proposal and does not hold the premises — they stay on the market while the Department considers it, and may be let to somebody else — and because the Department sets the rent, an application it approves comes back as an offer the business must still accept. Offers and decisions reach your dashboard and the Premises and leases section of that entity's management console, where a recorded owner or position holder answers them — nobody else can, not even the Department that made the offer. An offer that goes unanswered lapses and the premises return to the market. The state property guide sets out applying, the tenures, the terms, the rent periods and the renewal window in full.
How do I object to a business name?
If a name that has been reserved or registered is identical or confusingly similar to yours, or is otherwise misleading, you may lodge a written objection with the Registrar within 12 months of the name's registration. Email [email protected] with your entity's REN, the name objected to, and the grounds of objection. Where an objection is upheld, the Registrar may direct the entity to change its name within 6 weeks.
I have lost access to the Roblox account I log in with. What should I do?
RidgeFile verifies identity with Roblox — your login credentials are managed by Roblox, not by ACRA, and we are unable to reset them for you. Recover your account through Roblox account support. Once your Roblox account is restored, your RidgeFile dashboard, entities and applications will be exactly as you left them. If the account is permanently lost, contact Registry House with proof of identity to have your appointments transferred.
How can I verify that an extract is genuine?
Every extract and certificate issued by the registry carries a document ID and date of issue, and can be verified at acra.ridgeway.gov/verify by quoting that ID. If you have been presented with an extract by a third party, you can also compare its contents against the live register or contact the registry with the document ID — we will confirm whether the document was issued and whether its contents matched the register on the date of issue. Purchasers can additionally cross-check a document against the matching order under My information orders.
Are there any fees to use RidgeFile?
There is nothing to refund — every RidgeFile eService is free of charge. No fees are collected for name applications, registrations, renewals, Annual Reports, Special Operating License applications, cessations or information products, and no payment or card details are requested anywhere on the site.
The register shows incorrect information about my entity. How do I correct it?
If your entity's particulars have changed, file the update yourself through the Manage console — changes of address, position holders and financial year end take effect immediately on lodgement. If the register itself is wrong (for example, a typographical error in a processed filing), apply to the Registrar for rectification with supporting evidence. The Registrar may correct the register where satisfied the entry is erroneous, and the correction is noted in the entity's filing history.
Contact us
We aim to answer written enquiries within 3 working days. For questions about a specific application, have the transaction number (TXN) or REN ready.
- Address
- Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority
Registry House, 1 Registry Place, Ridgeway 048001 - [email protected]
- Service counter
- Level 1, Registry House — Monday to Friday, 9:00 am to 4:30 pm. Most transactions can be completed online without an appointment; counter service is recommended only for identity verification and document legalisation.
- Report vulnerability
- If you believe you have found a security vulnerability in RidgeFile or any registry system, please email [email protected]. Do not disclose the issue publicly until we have confirmed a fix.
Privacy statement
ACRA collects, uses and discloses personal data in accordance with the Ridgeway Data Protection Act and the statutes it administers. Personal data submitted through RidgeFile — such as the names, identification numbers and residential addresses of position holders — is collected for the purposes of maintaining the register of business entities, processing applications and filings, administering Special Operating Licenses, and enforcing the law. Personal data in licence applications is shared with the approving authority for the licence class concerned. We do not use registry data for marketing, and we do not sell personal data.
Please note that some personal data forms part of the public register by operation of law. The names and appointment details of position holders, for example, are disclosed on business profiles and extracts because the legislature has determined that the public is entitled to know who stands behind a registered entity. Residential addresses are not shown on public products where an alternate contact address has been provided.
Personal data is retained for as long as the entity remains on the register and for the statutory retention period thereafter, after which it is archived under the State Records Act. Data may be disclosed to other Ridgeway government agencies where authorised by law, and to law enforcement in connection with an investigation. You may request access to, or correction of, personal data we hold about you by writing to [email protected].
This portal uses only the cookies necessary to operate the service — your signed-in session and your cart. No third-party advertising or analytics trackers are used. Registry data is held by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority under the Ridgeway Business Entities Act.
The statement above is part of the roleplay. For the real-world policy that governs this website, see the Privacy Policy.
Terms of use
By using RidgeFile you agree to use the portal only for lawful purposes. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to any system or account, interfere with the operation of the service, harvest data by automated means except through the developer APIs, or submit information that you know to be false or misleading. Making a false declaration to the Registrar is an offence punishable by a fine, imprisonment, or both, and may result in the removal of the affected entries from the register.
Registry information is compiled from statutory filings made by entities and their agents. While ACRA takes reasonable care in maintaining the register, an extract or profile reflects the register only as at its date and time of issue. ACRA does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of filed information and accepts no liability for any loss arising from reliance on the register, on any information product, or on the availability of this portal. You remain responsible for conducting your own due diligence.
The contents of this portal, including information products generated from the register, are protected by copyright owned by or licensed to the State of Ridgeway. You may reproduce extracts for personal use, internal business use and legal proceedings. Systematic redistribution, republication or resale of registry data requires a data licence from ACRA.
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Ridgeway, and any dispute is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Ridgeway courts. ACRA may amend these terms at any time by publishing the amended terms on this page; continued use of the portal constitutes acceptance of the amended terms.
The terms above are part of the roleplay. For the real-world terms that govern this website, see the Terms of Service.