Depending on your business, you may have licenses, permits, subscriptions, and services to cancel when closing. This checklist will help you work through some of the cancelations you'll need to take on.
Completion date |
What to cancel |
Who to contact |
| Business licenses | The federal, state, or local licensing authority that issued them | |
| State, county, and local permits (including seller permits) | The state, county, or local zoning or commerce board that issued them | |
| Business registrations | Each state’s Secretary of State office in which you’ve registered your business and your county clerk or city hall (if applicable) | |
| Business names | Each state’s Secretary of State office in which you’ve registered your business | |
| Building leases | ||
| Equipment leases | ||
| Insurance policies | ||
| Company health insurance | ||
| Retirement plans | ||
| Benefits plans | ||
| Mobile phone service | ||
| Landline phone service | ||
| Internet service | ||
| Cable and streaming services | ||
| Electric service | ||
| Gas service | ||
| Water service | ||
| Sewer service | ||
| Cleaning services | ||
| Maintenance services | ||
| Landscaping services | ||
| Reserved parking services | ||
| Subscription services (which may include Amazon Prime, food delivery, or other services) | ||
| Web services | ||
| Payment processing services | ||
| Payroll services | ||
| Bookkeeping and professional services (which may include outsourced IT, accounting, HR, or other pro services) | ||
| Tech subscriptions (which may include Microsoft, QuickBooks, Zoho, Adobe, and others) | ||
| Web hosting services | ||
| Business email accounts | ||
| Social media accounts | ||
| Business bank accounts | ||
| Business credit cards |
This list may not cover everything. With this in mind, you can take two important steps to make sure you cancel every license, permit, subscription, or service you’ve signed up for:
- Review all of your payables over the last 24 months and find the recurring outlays of cash.
- Work with your attorney to build the list of the accounts, registrations, permits, and licenses to close that are relevant to your business.
For more articles and advice on closing your business, log into your owner’s portal.
