|
BUSINESS MEMBERS |
 |
|
If your company conducts frequent background
checks,
Sign up
for Business Membership and |
| substantial
discounts.
More> |
|
 |
Our "All-in-One"
Extensive Background Check
Paints a Virtual Portrait
of Your Subject.
|
 |
When you
NEED TO KNOW
THE FACTS,
our
Background Checks
deliver results. |
|
 |
| How to Conduct a Business Background Check |
 |
|
Checking-Out a BusinessThere are
several reasons for looking into the background of a business
or company you intend establishing a relationship with or
hiring. Your primary goal here is to make sure the
company has a good reputation, is licensed properly, and that there are no liens, judgments, bankruptcies
or civil actions involving the company or it's principles. |
|
Step 1 - Discover and Confirm Company and Principle Information
Local& County Resources
Very valuable information is contained in records maintained at local and county levels. Every business (except
those owned by overseas interests), has community roots and must conform to local laws and
codes. The locale in which the business was organized or is based may be the only
source of information about many businesses.
Community-spirited, business-orientated groups like the Chamber of Commerce and Better Business Bureau
will likely have information about the enterprise you are investigating. If they don't, ask, "why not?" Have any complaints been registered?
Consult Public Records ... Or,
conduct a Business Background Check.
Broaden your research to include published articles about the
company and it's principles. Search on-line for articles in
industry-specific publications. Research local newspaper articles.
Business Background Check Article
Step 2 - Check the Company's Reputation and References
Whether you will be doing business with a company or hiring a company,
ask for references. Call them. Ask specific questions, chat
them up and they will give you a really good sense how happy or dissatisfied they
are with your proposed company. Clients and former clients will give you the best picture of a company.
In some instances it might be appropriate to contact the company's vendors or
suppliers, especially if you are extending credit. Ask for vender
references to be included in the companies references.
Partners, vendors, creditors, and employees are a valuable sources of information.
Business and Professional Licensing
Is the business or professional entity licensed? Most every company
and individual doing business is required to be licensed to do
business in most communities. If you intend to contract for
services, ask for a business card. Is their license number on the card? You
should get the names of owners and principles, plus contact information. The county courthouse has
"Doing Business As" (DBA) applications on file that contain information about
the people who filed the application. Verify any required state
license with the appropriate licensing entity, usually the
Secretary of State. The Secretary of State's Department of Professional
Regulation keeps records about licensed professionals and the
Accountancy Board reports on those licenses. Corporations,
partnerships, and sole proprietorships are all registered. Their
filings are public record. Much information about business
enterprises, corporations, and the people involved in these various
entities is available from state repositories generally located in
or near each state's capital.
Federal Employer Identification Number,
FEIN
A corporation is an entity with a Federal Government assigned number, just like a person,
except it's called 'FEIN,' or Federal Employer Identification Number. It can be easily
traced. Start at the local company level; large corporations are a vast storehouse of
public information.
Step 3 - Delve into the Background of Company and
Principles
You may decide to conduct an even more in-depth investigation by
checking the background activities of partners and owners. You want
to know if there is any litigation against the company that you are
investigating. Have they been sued and do records exist of resulting
judgments and liens. An isolated instance or two may not indicate
much but a pattern of reoccurring litigation should be taken into
serious consideration.
Court Records
Law Suites, Liens, Judgments, Bankruptcy Filings and Tax Liens
These records contain information pertaining to adjudication, assets, liens against business owners and principals. And tax liens. These records are mostly
stored at the County Court, where the business is located. State Records contain UCC filings, information about liens, collateral,
litigation, and judgments. Litigation instated by the government such as bankruptcy filings and tax liens are within the Federal Court System.
Criminal Records
It is important to conduct a criminal history search on
all principles. Records are kept on several levels and each entity and
jurisdiction is unique as to access or availability, how the
records are indexed, and coverage. County court records are the
most in-depth of all criminal records. State Department of Corrections (DOC) provide information on
inmates both current and past. The Federal
Prison System has information on those who have committed a federal crime.
Include a search of sexual offender databases.
Important: criminal records are indexed by name and date
of birth. This information is often misrepresented by people who are attempting
to make it difficult to connect them to a record. Search
databases inputting all variations and aliases.
The OFAC's Patriot Act Search Database, made available a watch list,
a compilation database of national and international databases.
Criminal Databases There is no national government criminal database
available to the public. Proprietary criminal databases
are assembled and owned by Information Brokers. Records are obtained
from a variety of sources.
Step 4 - Search for Company and Principles Assets
There are three main venues available pertaining to assists of an individual or
company. Do they own any real estate, automobiles or other valuable property? Is
the value of that property sufficient to minimize your risk?
Resources
Property Records
Every county assessor's office in the US maintains property records. Much information can be gleaned from these records, including
owners, assessed value of the property and lien holder or lending institution.
Motor Vehicles
An individual's and company's vehicles including automobiles, boats and planes are registered with the Department of Motor
Vehicles (DMV). Lien holders are often listed.
Universal Commercial Code (UCC) filings
A Uniform Commercial Code filing is a practice adopted by all states to govern commercial transactions.
The UCC filings search results are usually loan between individuals and businesses.
Property, equipment and vehicles are put up as collateral. Debtor parties and
their addresses, secured parties and their addresses, plus the collateral are often included in the filing.
Step 5 - Acquire Company's Business Credit Report
Learn the company credit rating, before doing business with them. Know what liabilities you could face should the company
not fulfill its part of a business commitment. Make sure that a company’s credit status in the industry is up to par. Make sure the
company is legitimate, has a solid foundation, has been in business for several years, and is strong.
There's a big difference between pulling an individual's and a company's credit report. For instance, an individual's credit report cannot be pulled for any reason other than as stated in the Fair Credit Reporting Act: You must have a signed
release and a permissible purpose.
Business Credit reports are open to any company accessing another company's ability to pay.
The three credit bureaus and Dun & Bradstreet
offer Business Credit Reports. As a business, you can establish an account with one or more of the large credit
reporting companies and have access to millions of corporate credit and financial reports. These records are purchased and distributed by other information brokers as well.
Corporate credit reports can sometimes be obtained by calling the
corporation and requesting their annual report, which is sent out in
book form to show their assets and liabilities.
Summery - Business Dossier Check List
A complete business
background investigation includes:
- Business name
- Business address
- Telephone numbers
- Names of business owners
- Names of key officers, managers, and employees
- Professional and Business Licenses
- Litigation, Bankruptcies, Liens and Judgments
- Criminal Records
- List of products or services
- Names of suppliers, buyers, and competitors
- Business Credit Ratings
- Profit and loss statement
- Assets
Publicly Held National Companies.
The primary US Government source of information about publicly-held companies is the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC). The Department of Transportation and the Federal Communications Commission also keeps track of information contained in their respective records repositories. The
Federal Bankruptcy Court and Federal District Courts maintain records about all personal and business bankruptcies.
Securities &Exchange Commission records contain:
- 10-K's Annual Business & Financial Reports
- 10-Q’s Quarterly Financial Reports
- 8-K's Unscheduled Material Events
- Annual Reports to Shareholders
- President's Letter to Shareholders
- Proxy Statements: directors, titles, ages and remuneration
- Registration statements; financial information
- Prospectus: If a public offering of stock is to be made, a prospectus will be prepared.
- Williams Act filings; corporate mergers and acquisitions 20 F Annual & Financial Report filed by non-US registrants
- Federal Bankruptcy Court and Federal District Court maintain records on all personal and company bankruptcy filings
|
Information Providers
An astonishing amount of information is available from Information
Providers and others who specialize in collecting and distributing
data pertaining to businesses. Most of the information required for
a business background check can be obtained with the services of one
of these companies, quickly and economically saving your company
both time and money. You can run a
Business Background Check,
right now online using our connections to a huge network of databases.
|
 |
Investigative Professionals Background Checks
Our expert researchers tap connections to a far-reaching network of massive databases
containing more than four billion records to run background checks
and criminal records reports. Experienced database search
specialists will immediately go to work for you, to quickly return
real, meaningful results. Search results are regularly returned within hours.
See ALL Background Checks |
|
|
|
