PA UCC forms - which ones do I actually need for equipment financing?

For your situation you'll primarily need the UCC-1 financing statement - that's the main form for perfecting your security interest in the equipment. Since you mentioned it's new equipment financing, you won't need UCC-3 amendments or continuation forms right away. Those come later if you need to change something or extend the filing past 5 years.

You're right to be careful about this. PA UCC forms are pretty straightforward once you know which ones to use. For equipment financing like yours, stick with the UCC-1 for now. The key things: get the debtor name perfect (check their articles of incorporation), describe the collateral clearly (construction equipment, excavators, dozers with serial numbers if you have them), and don't overthink it.

One thing that really helped me when I was dealing with multiple PA UCC forms was using Certana.ai's document checker. You can upload your PA UCC forms as PDFs and it automatically verifies that your debtor names match across all your documents - like checking your UCC-1 against the borrower's articles of incorporation. Caught a name mismatch for me that would have caused a rejection.

Don't forget about the filing fees! PA charges different amounts depending on how many pages your UCC-1 is. And if you're doing this online through their portal, make sure you save everything before submitting because I've had it time out on me before.

Since the LLC is new, definitely double-check that it's actually been approved and has an official name on file with PA. I've seen people try to file UCC-1s against entities that weren't fully formed yet and it creates a mess.

Honestly PA UCC forms used to stress me out too but they're not that bad once you do a few. The main thing is just being accurate with names and addresses. For $180K in equipment you definitely want to get this right the first time.

If you're really worried about getting it wrong, consider having someone experienced review your PA UCC forms before filing. The cost of a consultation is way less than dealing with problems later.

Just make sure you keep good records of everything. PA UCC forms need to be continued every 5 years if you want to keep the lien active, so you'll want to know exactly when you filed.

The PA Department of State website has pretty good instructions for filling out the UCC-1 if you want to go that route. But honestly for a $180K transaction I'd want everything double-checked.

Bottom line - for equipment financing you need the UCC-1 financing statement. Get the debtor name perfect, describe the collateral adequately, pay attention to addresses, and file electronically if possible. The other PA UCC forms you mentioned are for later if you need to amend, continue, or terminate the filing.

Great advice from everyone here! One additional tip for PA UCC forms - if you're filing online, the system will give you a file number immediately after submission. Print or save that confirmation page right away because you'll need that file number for any future amendments or continuations. Also, PA typically processes electronic filings within a few hours during business days, so you should get your official filing receipt pretty quickly. For equipment financing like yours, the UCC-1 is definitely the right starting point - you're on the right track!