Operating agreement and bank account (step 5 of 6)

This is step 5 of six. Step 4 got you an EIN; if you do not have one yet, do that first, because the bank will ask for it. This lesson covers the things that make an LLC real in daily life even though none of them is filed with the state: the operating agreement, a separate bank account, any local business registration where you practice, and the current status of federal beneficial ownership reporting. It is for new Oregon clinicians who have just formed a single-member LLC.

The operating agreement

An operating agreement is the document that says how the LLC is run. It does not go to the Secretary of State. The state's overview of business structures says the internal affairs of an LLC are governed by oral or written operating agreements, and compares them to a corporation's bylaws. Two things follow from that sentence. The agreement is yours to keep, not the state's to file. And Oregon's own description allows it to be oral, which means the statute does not force you to write one down.

I would write one anyway, and I would keep it short. A bank may ask to see it when you open the account. And a written agreement is the only record, other than your memory, of what you intended if the practice is later sold, if a colleague joins as a second member, or if something happens to you and someone else has to wind the company down.

For a single-member practice, the agreement usually covers a small set of questions. I am listing the questions, not the answers; the answers are legal terms, and drafting them is a lawyer's job, or at minimum a template a lawyer has looked at.

• Who owns the LLC, and in what share (for a solo practice, you, entirely).
• Who manages it and can sign for it.
• How money goes in and comes out, including what counts as an owner's draw.
• What happens if a member is added, leaves, or dies.
• How the LLC is dissolved and who handles it.

Sign it, date it, and keep it with the formation confirmation from Step 3. Nobody will ask for it until the day someone does.

The separate bank account

The reason to form an LLC, from Step 1, was to keep the practice's money and obligations separate from your own. That separation exists on paper the moment the Articles are filed. It exists in fact only if the practice has its own account and every dollar of practice income and expense goes through it.

Open the business account as soon as the EIN arrives. Bring the EIN confirmation, the filed Articles or your registry listing from Find a Business, and the operating agreement if you have one. Then hold one rule without exception: client payments and payer deposits land in the business account, practice expenses leave from it, and you pay yourself by moving money from the business account to your personal one. Paying a personal bill from the practice account, or depositing a client check into your personal account because it was convenient, is how the separation erodes. Do it enough and the separation may not be there when you need it.

Local registration where you practice

Forming an LLC with the state does not register you with the city or county where you see clients. Whether a local registration applies depends on where the practice operates, and it is a pointer rather than a universal rule. The example I can document is Portland: the city's Revenue Division says businesses subject to the Portland Business License Tax, the Multnomah County Business Income Tax, or the Metro Supportive Housing Services business income tax are required to register for a Revenue Division tax account, and estimates the registration takes about 15 minutes.

I did not find a registration fee stated on that page, and I am not going to repeat a number from a third-party site. If you practice in Portland or Multnomah County, read the registration page and the form it links, and ask your CPA whether the taxes apply at your expected income. If you practice elsewhere in Oregon, check your city and county sites for a business license or tax registration requirement of their own.

Federal beneficial ownership reporting

For a while, newly formed LLCs were expected to report their owners to the U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network under the Corporate Transparency Act. As of September 2026 that is not the case for a domestic company: FinCEN's own page states that U.S. companies are exempt from the Beneficial Ownership Information reporting requirements and are no longer required to file, under a final rule the page describes as issued August 11, 2026 and effective August 14, 2026, which made permanent an exemption FinCEN first introduced in March 2025. Foreign entities registered to do business in a U.S. state remain subject to it.

I am putting a warning on this one in bold, because it has changed more than once: check fincen.gov/boi yourself before relying on the exemption. Court rulings and rule changes have moved this requirement back and forth since it first took effect, and a lesson written in September 2026 cannot promise what the page will say when you read it.

In order

1. Write and sign a short operating agreement, using a template a lawyer has reviewed or a lawyer's own draft.
2. Open the business bank account with the EIN, the registry listing, and the agreement.
3. Check your city and county for a business registration or tax account; in Portland, the Revenue Division page above.
4. Read the current fincen.gov/boi page and note the date you checked it.

This is not legal, tax, or accounting advice. I have written down the steps and linked where I checked them; an attorney gets the final word on the operating agreement, and a CPA on the local taxes and how you pay yourself.

Real example from my own filing

The document attached below is my 2024 beneficial ownership report, rebuilt and redacted. It reflects the rule as it stood in December 2024. FinCEN's interim final rule of March 26, 2025 removed the requirement for U.S. companies, and its final rule of August 11, 2026, effective August 14, 2026, made that exemption permanent, so treat the example as history and check fincen.gov/boi before relying on either version. Notice the two questions that turned on the formation date, shown in the example with the rule beside them: a company formed before January 1, 2024 was an existing reporting company, and for such a company the company applicant part stays empty. Read the formation date off the registry record before answering either one.

Further reading

• Oregon SOS: Select Your Business Name and Structure. The state's one-paragraph description of operating agreements, oral or written.
• FinCEN: Beneficial Ownership Information. The primary page for the reporting rule; reread it on the day you form the LLC.
• City of Portland: Register for a Revenue Division tax account. The local registration page for Portland and Multnomah County practices.
• Oregon SBDC Network: How to Set Up an LLC. Practical coverage of the post-filing steps, from the state's small business centers.