Business verification
Verify any business against its state's own records.
Check a business against the official registry of the state it was formed in. In seconds you get a Pass, Review or Fail verdict, the reasons behind it, and the state's record: legal name, status, formation date, officers and registered agent.
- Entity id
- 0148596
- Status
- Active
- Formed
- 1980-07-30
- Owner
- Listed as President
What a business check tells you
Four questions every credit file starts with, answered from the state's own registry, with the source and the date of the data on every result.
Is it registered?
The legal name exactly as the state records it, the entity id, the entity type (LLC, corporation, partnership) and the principal and service addresses.
Is it still active?
Active, inactive or unconfirmed, with the state's own status wording kept for your file, such as "Admin dissolved" or "Forfeited".
How long has it existed?
The formation or registration date and the months in business, checked against your minimum. The default minimum is 6 months.
Who runs it?
The officers, members or managers the state lists, the registered agent, and whether your applicant is among them.
Pass, Review or Fail, with the reason
A verdict is only as useful as its reasons. Each check returns flags that say exactly what was found, so an underwriter can act on a Review in seconds.
Fund with confidence
An exact name match, an active status, old enough, and the owner listed if you gave one.
A person should look
Something needs a human decision: a close name, several matches, an unknown status, a young business or an owner the records can't confirm.
Stop and ask
No match in the registry, an inactive business, or an applicant missing from a complete officer list.
| Flag | Effect | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| NOT_FOUND | Fail | No registry entry comes close to the name. It may be registered under another name or in another state. |
| INACTIVE | Fail | The state lists the business as inactive, dissolved or revoked. Its own wording is kept in the result. |
| OWNER_NOT_LISTED | Fail | The state publishes a full officer list and the applicant isn't on it. |
| NAME_VARIANT | Review | The registry name is very close but not identical. |
| NAME_MISMATCH | Review | The closest registry name is only a possible match. |
| AMBIGUOUS | Review | Several registered businesses share this name. Confirm the entity number or address. |
| STATUS_UNCONFIRMED | Review | The state doesn't publish a status for this business. |
| YOUNG_BUSINESS | Review | Formed fewer months ago than your minimum (6 months unless you set another). |
| OWNER_UNVERIFIED | Review | The applicant isn't among the officers the state publishes, and that state doesn't list every owner. |
| OWNER_CONFIRMED | Info | The applicant is listed, with their title. |
| FORMATION_DATE_MISSING | Info | The state doesn't publish a formation date. |
How name matching works
Applicants rarely type a name the way the state records it. Clerkfield ignores capitals, punctuation and entity endings such as LLC, Inc, Corp, Co and Ltd, and reads "&" as "and", so "Joe's Pizza, L.L.C." and "JOES PIZZA LLC" are the same name.
Only an exact match can pass on its own. A very close name is a Review, because "Joe's Pizza #1 Corp" can be a different company from "Joe's Pizza". When several registered businesses share the name, the check says so and lists the closest alternatives with their entity ids, so you can pick the right one.
Example
- You search
- Joe's Pizza, L.L.C.
- State record
- JOES PIZZA LLC
- Match
- Exact
- State record
- JOES PIZZA #1 CORP
- Match
- Close: Review
Owner verification
Add the applicant's name and Clerkfield checks it against the officers, members and managers the state lists.
A name matches when the first and last names both appear in the listed officer's name, in any order, so "Jane Doe" matches "DOE, JANE M". The result says which officer matched and their title, such as President or Managing Member.
Some states don't publish officers in their free records (Colorado, New Jersey and Texas). There the check returns Review with the flag OWNER_UNVERIFIED instead of a Fail, because a missing name proves nothing when the state never lists owners.
- Confirms the applicant is listed, with their title
- Never fails an applicant just because a state doesn't publish officers
- Returns the full officer list for your file
Covered in 15 states
Business checks work today in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Texas. Here's how Clerkfield reads each state and what its free records leave out. For other states, see business search by state.
| State | How we read it | What the free records leave out |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | State's own online search, one request at a time | Nothing we know of |
| Arkansas | State's own online search, one request at a time | Nothing we know of |
| Colorado | State open-data portal | No officers published |
| Connecticut | State open-data portal | Nothing we know of |
| Florida | State bulk data file | At most six people listed per company, the limit of the state's data file |
| Idaho | State's own online search, one request at a time | Nothing we know of |
| Kentucky | State's own online search, one request at a time | Nothing we know of |
| Minnesota | State's own online search, one request at a time | Nothing we know of |
| New Jersey | State's own online search, one request at a time | No status, registered agent or officers (the state sells status reports) |
| New Mexico | State's own online search, one request at a time | Nothing we know of |
| New York | State open-data portal | Active companies only |
| North Dakota | State's own online search, one request at a time | Nothing we know of |
| Oregon | State open-data portal | Active companies only |
| Pennsylvania | State open-data portal | Status not published |
| Texas | State open-data portal | No officers published |
Run it by API or in the dashboard
Underwriters use the dashboard. Your systems call the same check through the API. See the API documentation.
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $CLERKFIELD_KEY" \ "https://clerkfield.com/v1/business-check?name=Pizza%20and%20Company&state=KY&owner=Jane%20Doe&min_months=6"
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Business verification confirms that a company is real and in good standing: that it's registered with a state, under the name it gave you, that it's still active, how long it has existed and who runs it. Clerkfield checks this against the state's own business registry (usually the Secretary of State) instead of a resold database.
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It's the registry part of KYB (know your business). Clerkfield confirms the legal entity, its status and its officers from official records. It doesn't screen sanctions lists or check bank accounts, so pair it with those checks if your compliance program needs them.
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A person should look before you decide. Review comes from a close but not identical name, several businesses with the same name, a state that doesn't publish status, a business younger than your minimum, or an owner the state's records can't confirm. Every Review lists the exact reason.
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15 states today: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Texas. The coverage page lists what each state's records include, and more states are added regularly.
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Clerkfield reads the state's records when you run the check, or the state's latest published data file for states that publish one, and every result shows the source and the date of the data. It never fills a gap with old or guessed data.
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No. Clerkfield reports on businesses only. It is not a consumer reporting agency, and it doesn't pull personal credit. The owner check only confirms whether a name appears among the officers the state lists.