Many times when we have a business come in to open a new account they do not have their Articles, LLC papers, Partnership papers, etc with them. Is there a problem with identifying the existence of that business with the state agency (say thur a good standing certificate).....OR do we need to collect copies of the Articles, LLC, etc?

Although we might do an intial 'existence' test using the state agencies web-site, we still require, within 30 days, the articles of incorporation, LLC papers and partnership papers as they may contain more information about the acutal ownership of the business and may, if not in separate documents, contain language as to who can do what financially.

What Doug said.

You need something from the customer (& by customer I mean the LLC, Inc, etc ... not the human being walking in the door), who has the authority to do what and how many people need to be on an account.

We've had more than one case where someone comes in & states they are to be the only one on an account, yet when we review their documentation, it states otherwise.