The ledger rules
How every total is figured
Where entries are booked from
For the state side we book official fee schedules, filing forms and statutes, and each row names its source and the month it was confirmed. Prices for services are copied from company pages as of the printed date.
The sums
Year one plus (N minus one) renewals gives the total after N years; N is three for the headline number. For the state, we total the filing fee, the next two reports and any minimum tax. Open-ended costs like publication are described and left out of the sum. The first year one tally passes another, searched through ten years, is the break-even year.
What decides the order
- Three-year tally (39%). The first-year price plus two renewals, added from each company's published prices. The state charges every filer the same fee, so that amount gets its own line and no weight.
- Jobs ticked off (28%). How many recurring jobs the price takes care of: the registered agent, the state report, the EIN application and use in other states.
- Renewal step (12%). How far the price moves between year one and year two. Staying flat scores better than a low start followed by a jump.
- Break-even tally (11%). The year in which one service's running total passes another's, taken from the calculator on each page.
- Price on the page (10%). Whether the first-year price, the renewal and the state fee are all printed where a buyer can read them before checkout.
When two rows are close, the page says which tally separated them and what the lower row still does well.
The order is Filing Tally's own editorial reading of these tallies. It is not a customer rating.
What earns a row
Each ledger lists Mainstay Filing along with the agent companies focused on the state, and only for services they sell at a posted price.
Left off the books
We do not tally customer scores. The sort is an editorial judgment from the columns above, and none of it is legal advice.