Trade Name Registration – Register Your Alberta Business Name Online

ACS is a private company. Our CORES-trained agents prepare your filing and submit it through a licensed Alberta registry agent. We are not a government office or a registry agent. CORES is Alberta's Corporate Registry System, and business owners cannot file in it themselves.

Trade name, DBA or operating name: what is the difference?

They are the same thing. In Alberta the registration is called a trade name. DBA (doing business as) and operating name are terms used elsewhere and by banks; all three mean a business name that is not the legal name of the person or corporation behind it.

The registration records who is behind the name under Alberta's Partnership Act. It does not create a separate legal entity and it does not protect the name. Your business is still you, or your corporation, with the same responsibility for its debts. If you want a separate entity that limits your personal liability, that is incorporation, not a trade name.

Alberta trade name registration requirements

• When it is required: an individual does business under a name other than their own personal name, or a corporation does business under a name other than its legal name.
• Name search: a NUANS or Business Name Report is optional, recommended but not mandatory. Registration does not protect the name; a search reduces the risk of conflict.
• ID: valid ID for the registrant, filed through a registry agent.
• Renewal: none. Changes and cancellation are filed through a registry agent.
• Government fee: paid on your behalf and included in the price.
• What it does not do: it does not create a corporation, protect the name, or set up your CRA accounts. A business number and GST account are registered with CRA, not Corporate Registry; our sole proprietorship page lays out that order of steps.

Who this is for

• The self-employed founder who wants to invoice as Bow Valley Bookkeeping instead of under their own name. If you are still deciding whether to go self-employed at all, start with our sole proprietorship page.
• A side business — an online shop, a food truck, weekend tutoring — that needs a bank account in the business's name.
• A corporation launching a brand. A numbered company operating under a brand is the most common example; a corporation opening a second line of business under a different name is another.
• Anyone whose bank has said "bring us the registration" before an account can be opened.

How it works

1. Order online (about 10 minutes). Answer plain-language questions; the total price is shown before you pay.
2. We review within about an hour. A trained agent checks the name, the owner details and the ID. If you added a NUANS report, we read it and call you if the name is identical or confusingly similar to an existing one.
3. We prepare and file. We complete the declaration and submit it through our licensed registry agent partner, [Partner registry agent name]. Complete orders received before 3:00 pm MT are filed the same business day.
4. You receive your certificate by email, ready for the bank.

Common mistakes we catch before filing

• A trade name identical to an existing Alberta corporation's name or an existing registered trade name.
• Ltd., Inc. or Corp. added to a trade name, which implies a corporation that does not exist.
• The wrong owner: a corporation's brand registered in the director's personal name, so the bank refuses to open the account for the corporation.
• A registration ordered in the belief that it protects the name or creates a company. We explain the difference before you pay, and point you to incorporation when that is what you actually need.
• No name search on a common name. When the name is generic, we suggest the NUANS report so you are not rebranding in six months.

What you need before you start

1. The name, exactly as you want it to appear. Leave off Ltd., Inc. or Corp.; those legal elements belong to corporations.
2. Who owns the name. Your full legal name and home address, or, for a corporation, its exact legal name as registered.
3. The business address in Alberta.
4. Valid ID for the person signing the declaration.
5. Optional: an Alberta NUANS report. We can order the report with your registration and read it before we file.

• A name check before filing. A trained agent reads the name for problems that get declarations bounced, and, if you add an Alberta NUANS report (a name search that lists similar existing names), reads that too and tells you about conflicts before anything is filed.
• Your declaration of trade name, prepared from your answers and reviewed before it goes to the registry.
• Your trade name certificate as a PDF by email, the document banks, landlords and suppliers ask to see before they open an account or sign a lease.
• The right owner on record: you personally for a sole proprietorship, or your corporation if it will trade under the name.
• Nothing to renew. Alberta trade names have no periodic renewal. If your address or the name changes, or you close the business, we file the change or cancellation through a registry agent.

Orders received after 3:00 pm MT, or with missing information, are filed the next business day once complete.