How to Complete Form 424: Texas Amendment or Federal SF-424

Two unrelated government documents share the number 424, and how to complete Form 424 depends on which one you actually need. In Texas, Form 424 is the Certificate of Amendment filed with the Secretary of State to change what is on record about a business entity. At the federal level, Standard Form 424 (SF-424) is the cover sheet for nearly every federal grant application. The fields, filing systems, and agencies are entirely different, so work through whichever half applies to you.

The Texas Certificate of Amendment

The Texas Certificate of Amendment updates the information on file with the Secretary of State about your business — its name, registered agent, purpose, share structure, or any other provision in the original certificate of formation. The PDF is on the Secretary of State’s business forms page, and you can also file through SOSDirect.¹

Before you open the form, pull three pieces of information: your entity’s current legal name exactly as it appears in state records, your 10-digit file number, and your date of formation.²

Which Sections You Complete

You only fill in the sections that match the change you are making.

Amended name. Enter the new entity name with the correct organizational designation for your entity type (Inc., LLC, Corp., and so on). In the entity name field at the top of the form, you still list the old name — the name currently on file.³
Amended registered agent or office. Provide the new agent’s name and street address. P.O. boxes are not accepted, and you must affirm that the new agent has agreed to serve.
Other provisions. For any change beyond the name or registered agent, such as adding or removing a business purpose, restructuring authorized shares, or changing management structure, identify the provision being changed and write out the full text of the addition, alteration, or deletion.

Below the amendment sections is a statement of approval confirming that the changes were adopted in accordance with the Texas Business Organizations Code and your entity’s governing documents. You do not attach minutes or resolutions, but the person signing certifies under penalty of perjury that the amendment was properly authorized.³

You also choose when the amendment takes effect. The default is the moment the Secretary of State files it. You can instead pick a delayed effective date up to 90 days after signing, or tie effectiveness to a future event within the same 90-day window.

Fees and How to File the Amendment

Most entity types — for-profit corporations, LLCs, professional associations, and limited partnerships — pay $150. Nonprofit corporations and cooperative associations pay $25.⁴ Credit card payments through SOSDirect add a 2.7 percent convenience fee.

As of September 2025, the Secretary of State accepts filings only through the following channels:⁵

SOSDirect, the online filing portal. Create an account, fund it with a credit card, and file through the system. Your SOSDirect user ID is emailed within an hour of signup. Do not attach the PDF form when filing through SOSDirect; the system generates its own fields.⁶
SOSUpload, a separate portal for uploading completed PDF forms.
In person, by mail, or by courier to the Secretary of State’s office in Austin.

Fax submissions are no longer accepted. SOSDirect orders for certified copies and certificates of fact come back within two hours; paper submissions take longer because they go through mail processing first.⁷

When a Correction Fits Instead

If the problem is a typo or clerical error in a previously filed document rather than a substantive change, you may not need an amendment at all. Texas has a separate Certificate of Correction (Form 403), which costs $15 and takes effect retroactively as of the date the original document was filed.⁸ A correction can fix misspelled names, wrong addresses, or defective signatures, but it cannot add or remove provisions that would have caused the Secretary of State to reject the original filing. If the mistake goes beyond a clerical error, Form 424 is the right vehicle.

After the Amendment Is Filed

Once the Secretary of State files the amendment, you receive a file-stamped copy that serves as the official record of the change. Keep it. Banks, lenders, licensing agencies, and business partners will ask for it when you update accounts or contracts tied to the old information.

If your amendment changes the entity’s legal name, update your records with the IRS as well. Corporations and partnerships can check the “Name Change” box on their next annual return (Form 1120 or 1065). If you have already filed that year’s return, send a written letter to the IRS service center where you filed, including the old name, new name, EIN, effective date of the change, and a signature from an authorized officer. Regulated businesses should also check whether state or local licenses and permits need to be reissued.

Before You Start the SF-424

Every organization applying for a federal grant through the SF-424 must first register in the System for Award Management (SAM.gov). Registration is free and assigns your organization a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI), a 12-character alphanumeric code that replaced the old nine-digit DUNS number.⁹ You can request a UEI on its own by providing your legal business name and physical address, but a UEI alone does not make you eligible to receive federal awards. You need a full entity registration for that.

Plan ahead. A new SAM.gov registration can take up to 10 business days to become active, and the system requires renewal every 365 days.⁹ An expired registration disqualifies your application before anyone reads it.

You also need a Grants.gov account. Within that account, your organization designates an Authorized Organization Representative (AOR), the person who can legally submit applications on the entity’s behalf. An Expanded AOR, typically the E-Business Point of Contact, assigns the role to registered users through the Grants.gov workspace.¹⁰ Without an AOR, you can fill out forms but you cannot submit them.

Completing the SF-424

The SF-424 collects identifying information about you, your project, and the funding you are requesting. It is usually embedded in a larger application package that you access through a specific funding opportunity on Grants.gov, and some fields may be pre-populated. The fields that most often trip applicants up:

UEI (Field 8c). Enter the 12-character UEI from your SAM.gov registration. It must match the active registration exactly.¹¹
EIN/TIN (Field 8b). Your Employer Identification Number as assigned by the IRS.
Assistance Listing Number (Field 11). The number and title of the federal program you are applying to, previously called the CFDA number. It is listed in the funding opportunity announcement and is often pre-filled on Grants.gov.¹¹
Congressional Districts (Fields 16a–16b). Enter your organization’s district and the primary district affected by the project in “XX-000” format (for example, CA-005). For a nationwide project, enter “US-all.”
Estimated Funding (Field 18). Break down the total project cost into federal dollars requested, applicant match, state and local contributions, and any other sources. The figures must add up; mismatched totals are a common reason applications stall in review.
State Review / Executive Order 12372 (Field 16/19). Some federal programs require state-level review before awards are made. If your program is covered, give the designated state Single Point of Contact the opportunity to comment on your proposal and mark the appropriate box. If the program is not covered, or your state does not participate, select the corresponding option.¹²
Authorized Representative (Field 21). The AOR signs and dates the application. Applications submitted through Grants.gov get a digital signature and date automatically at submission. A copy of the governing body’s authorization for this person to sign must be on file at your organization.¹¹

Every data point on the SF-424 must match your SAM.gov registration: legal name, address, UEI, and EIN. Discrepancies between the form and the database can disqualify an application before a program officer ever sees it.

Picking the Right SF-424 Variant

Federal agencies use several variants of the SF-424 depending on the type of funding, and the full family lives in the Grants.gov forms repository.¹³ The versions you are most likely to encounter:

SF-424A and SF-424B for budget information and assurances on non-construction programs, typically filed alongside the base SF-424.
SF-424C and SF-424D for budget information and assurances on construction programs.
SF-424 (R&R), the Research and Related version, required for research grants at agencies including NIH, CDC, FDA, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. NIH uses this version for research (R), career development (K), training (T), fellowship (F), multi-project (P), and SBIR/STTR activity codes.¹⁴
SF-424 Mandatory for formula and block grant programs where the agency specifies a mandatory application format.

Your funding opportunity announcement tells you which version to use. The wrong variant is an easy way to have an application rejected without review.

Submitting and Tracking Through Grants.gov

Grants.gov Workspace is the standard submission method.¹⁵ Find the funding opportunity, click Apply, and create a workspace for that specific application. Inside the workspace, complete the SF-424 and any supplemental forms, upload attachments, and route the package to your AOR for final submission.¹⁶

After submission, Grants.gov assigns a tracking number in the format GRANT99999999. You can enter up to five tracking numbers at a time on the Track My Application page.¹⁷ One limit worth knowing: Grants.gov tracking only confirms that the awarding agency successfully retrieved your application. After retrieval, the agency reviews and processes independently and does not send status updates back to Grants.gov. For anything past that point, contact the program officer listed in the funding opportunity.

Common Submission Errors

Grants.gov runs automated validation checks on every submission, and technical errors can bounce your application before a human reads it. The most frequent problems:¹⁸

Adobe compatibility errors. Opening or editing form PDFs in an incompatible version of Adobe Reader can trigger a schema validation error or a report that the file is damaged. Use the Adobe version specified in the Grants.gov system requirements.
File naming problems. Attachment names with special characters (ampersands, percent signs, pound signs) or spaces can trigger a VIRUSDETECT error even when the file is clean. Keep names under 50 characters and use underscores instead of spaces.
Transmission interruptions. Slow or unstable connections can cause a Broken Pipe error that prevents the confirmation page from loading. Your application may still have gone through; check your tracking number before resubmitting.
Missing workspace privileges. A Bad Request error usually means your Grants.gov account lacks the Create Workspace role. An Expanded AOR needs to assign the correct role to your user profile.

The legal stakes on the federal side are real. Providing false information on an SF-424 can result in debarment from future federal funding, recovery of awarded funds, civil lawsuits, and criminal prosecution.¹⁹ Verify every figure and representation before the AOR clicks submit.

1
Office of the Texas Secretary of State. Business and Nonprofit Forms
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Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Ownership Types – TexPayment Resource
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Office of the Texas Secretary of State. Form 424 – Certificate of Amendment
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Office of the Texas Secretary of State. Form 424 — Instructions for Certificate of Amendment
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Office of the Texas Secretary of State. Business Services
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Office of the Texas Secretary of State. SOSDirect – Online Searching and Filing
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Office of the Texas Secretary of State. Filing and Other General FAQs
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Office of the Texas Secretary of State. Form 403 — Instructions for Certificate of Correction
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SAM.gov. Entity Registration
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Grants.gov. Workspace Roles
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Grants.gov. Application for Federal Assistance SF-424 V4.0 Instructions
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Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. Intergovernmental Review of Federal Programs
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Grants.gov. SF-424 Family
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National Institutes of Health. How to Apply – Application Guide
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Grants.gov. Workspace Overview
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Grants.gov. How to Apply for Grants
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Grants.gov. Track My Application
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Grants.gov. Encountering Error Messages
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Grants.gov. Grant Fraud