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What to set up before you build your first app

Everybody starts with the code. The parts that actually hold people up are the accounts and the paperwork, and some of them take weeks. Here is what to deal with first, and what you can safely skip.

Do you need an LLC?

Not to publish an app. You can sign up for a developer account as yourself and sell apps under your own name, and plenty of people do.

What an LLC buys you is a line between the business and your personal savings, a business name on the store instead of your own, and a cleaner set of books at tax time. The costs are a state filing fee, an annual report in most states, and some bookkeeping you did not have before.

My own line: if you are making your first app to learn, start as yourself. If you are building something you expect to make money, or you would rather not have your home address attached to a store listing, form the company first, because changing it later means moving the apps between accounts.

Talk to an accountant before you choose. This is the one part of this list where a cheap hour of advice pays for itself.

What is an EIN, and when do you need one?

An EIN is a tax number for a business, issued by the IRS. It is free and you apply online. If you form an LLC you will want one, because banks ask for it to open a business account and Apple and Google ask for your tax details before they can pay you.

If you are publishing as yourself, your social security number does the same job. The advantage of an EIN is that you hand that number to companies instead of your personal one.

The D-U-N-S number

This one surprises people. A D-U-N-S number is a business identifier from Dun and Bradstreet, and Apple requires it if you want a developer account in your company's name rather than your own. It is free, but it is a form and a wait, and the details on it have to match your business registration exactly.

So the order matters: form the company, get the EIN, request the D-U-N-S number, then sign up for the developer account. Doing it the other way around means a personal account you later have to migrate.

If you are publishing as yourself, you do not need one at all.

The Apple Developer Program

This costs $99 a year and it is the cost that cannot be avoided. Without it you cannot put an app on the App Store, and you cannot even keep a test build on your own phone for more than a week.

Sign up early. Approval is often quick, but identity checks can add days, and a company account waiting on a D-U-N-S number can take longer still. You do not want to discover that the night your app is ready.

While you are in there, two settings matter later: the contact details on the account become part of your App Store listing, and the agreements have to be accepted before anything can go on sale, including the paid applications agreement if you ever want to charge for anything.

The Google Play Developer account

Google charges a one-time fee rather than a yearly one, and at the time of writing it is $25.

There is a catch that catches first-timers. A personal Play account opened in the last couple of years has to run a closed test before Google will let the app go to production: a minimum number of real testers, opted in and staying opted in for a continuous period, currently around a dozen people for two weeks. If testers drop out and you fall below the number, the clock restarts.

Company accounts registered with a D-U-N-S number are not subject to it. Google changes these rules, so check their current testing requirements page rather than taking my word for the exact numbers.

The practical consequence: if Android matters to you, start recruiting testers and open the account early, because that waiting period runs in parallel with building, or it does not run at all.

A bank account and a way to get paid

Both stores pay into a bank account, and both want tax forms filled in before any money moves. If you formed a company, open a business bank account rather than using your personal one, because mixing the two undoes much of the point of having the company.

The two web pages you will need

Every app needs a privacy policy at a public address, and you will need it before you submit, not after. If your app has accounts or subscriptions you will want terms as well, and a support page with an email address you actually read.

You do not need a fancy website. One page per document on a cheap domain is enough.

What you can skip for now

• A trademark. Worth it when the app earns enough to defend. Do search first that nobody else owns the name you picked.
• A company logo and brand. The app icon matters. The company logo does not, yet.
• Business insurance, an accountant on retainer, a lawyer. Later, if the thing works.
• A second developer account. One account holds all your apps.

The order I would do it in

1. Decide: yourself or a company. Ask an accountant if you are unsure.
2. If a company: register it, then get the EIN, then the D-U-N-S number.
3. Open the Apple Developer account and accept the agreements.
4. Open the Play account if you want Android, and start the test group early.
5. Sort the bank account and the tax forms.
6. Put a privacy policy and a support page online.
7. Then start building.

Steps one to six are mostly waiting, so start them the week you decide you are doing this. The building fills the wait.

I am not a lawyer or an accountant, and fees and rules change. Check the current numbers with Apple, Google and your own advisor before you rely on them.