COMPANY VERIFICATION · PRACTICAL GUIDE
How to verify a company before you rely on its data
To verify a company, identify its legal name, registration number and jurisdiction, then compare those details with the relevant official register. Check status, relevant filings and the date of the evidence. Treat registration, ownership, financial condition and authority to act as separate questions.
1. Find the exact legal entity
Start with the entity named on the contract, invoice or application. A trading name, website or group brand can refer to several companies. Ask for the legal name, registration number and place of incorporation before accepting a name match.
Use the registration number together with its jurisdiction as the lookup reference. Preserve prefixes and leading zeros. If only a name is available, compare candidate records and keep an unresolved result when several entities remain plausible.
- Record the claimed identity before replacing it with the matched record.
- Compare the contracting entity with the entity issuing the invoice.
- Treat a parent and its subsidiary as separate legal entities.
2. Check the register and filing history
For a UK company, the public Companies House service provides company details, officers, earlier names and document images. Read the current record and the relevant filing, rather than relying on a search-result snippet. For another jurisdiction, use the authority responsible for that entity type.
Record the company status exactly as returned. An active registration answers a registry-status question; it does not establish that a supplier can deliver, a website belongs to that company or the person contacting you has authority to sign.
3. Compare each claim with its evidence
Build the review around individual claims. A registration number can match while an incorporation date is wrong. A director appointment can be historical while the company itself remains active. Keep the claimed value, observed value and supporting record together.
When sources disagree, check whether they describe the same company, date and attribute. Preserve both observations and assign a review outcome. Do not silently choose the value that makes the onboarding form complete.
4. Record the decision and the next check
Save the lookup time and any source date returned. Define which changes should reopen the case, such as a status change or a change to the named contracting party. Make missing information visible to the person or system deciding whether to proceed.
For an automated workflow, search for the entity once, retrieve its profile and pass supported identity claims to verification. CompanyProof currently verifies registered name, registration number, status, incorporation date, VAT number and legal form through its deterministic API. Ownership and financial research use separate profile information where available.
What a company check can establish
| Question | Evidence to examine | Separate follow-up |
|---|---|---|
| Does this entity exist? | Registration number and legal name in the relevant register | Confirm that your counterparty is using that identity legitimately |
| What is its recorded status? | Current status plus relevant notices | Assess trading activity and ability to perform |
| Who is connected to it? | Officer and ownership records with dates | Check current signing authority and control |
| Can we rely on a financial figure? | Statement, period, currency and entity scope | Assess freshness, missing fields and comparability |