The Arizona Corporation Commission said its enhanced system makes it faster for corporations to file annual reports online and without fees for expedited service.

The service launched Dec. 6 and nearly 1,200 reports have been processed already. Before the enhancements, online filings still required manual review and processing, which took nearly a month, with expedited service taking two to six days plus an added charge. Under the new system, reports are processed the same day.

“This is just the latest effort from the commission to make Arizona more business friendly,” ACC Chairman Doug Little said. "Eliminating fees and providing faster service will save Arizona corporations an estimated $700,000 per year.”

The service is one of many efforts to help corporations avoid late fees.

The commission receives more than 400,000 business filings annually, with more than 25 percent of those being corporate annual reports.

“This essentially makes all corporation annual report filings ‘expedited’ but with no fees,” ACCd Executive Director Jodi Jerich said. “We expect to have some 9,500 backlogged reports completed in the next month. Staff, who used to work on examining annual reports, will then shift to processing other business filings which will reduce times in those areas as well.”

At the end of next year, the commission will unveil a new electronic filing system for all documents filed by corporations.