Verify companies with confidence.

1. 01
   Select the company country

   Jurisdiction controls registry selection, identifier interpretation and VAT routing.

2. 02
   Enter VAT when you have it

   Use the complete number, including its country prefix for EU VAT.

3. 03
   Add the official registry identifier

   A deterministic Corporation Number, BN9, company number, state entity ID, ABN, NIP, KRS, IČO, Business ID or SIREN usually gives the strongest official lookup.

4. 04
   Add the legal name if known

   The name improves readability and conservative identity comparison, but it can be optional when an exact identifier is supplied.

5. 05
   Select Verify company

   SENTINEL routes only to sources that apply to the selected country and supplied identifiers.

6. 06
   Review sources separately

   Read the overall result, then inspect legal-registry, VAT and reference cards on their own terms.

SENTINEL Company Intelligence sends the supplied details only to applicable configured public or official sources, normalizes the returned evidence and explains how the overall result was reached.

1. 01Know the country?

   If not, identify the jurisdiction first. A country cannot be inferred safely from a company name.

2. 02Have VAT?

   Enter it with its prefix. This activates the applicable VAT workflow.

3. 03Have an official registry identifier?

   Add it for the strongest deterministic legal-registry lookup.

4. 04Only have a name?

   Use the registered legal name and expect possible ambiguity or limited coverage.

1. 01Inputs

   Jurisdiction, legal name, VAT or tax number, official registry identifier and optional UK postcode.

2. 02Country router

   Selects only provider integrations applicable to the query.

3. 03Official providers

   Each source returns its own status, identity details and source metadata.

4. 04Normalized evidence

   Different response formats become one consistent evidence model.

5. 05Decision engine

   Applies deterministic rules to legal, VAT, match and failure states.

Company name is optional when a deterministic identifier is available. When supplied, SENTINEL compares it conservatively with the official returned name; it does not use aggressive fuzzy matching to force a match.

Country tells SENTINEL how to interpret the identifier, which national providers apply and whether the VAT prefix is compatible. A supported VAT prefix can infer country, but an explicit selection is clearer and safer.

For EU VAT, enter the country prefix and national part, for example PL5831014898, FR10632012100 or FI01120389. Standard GB VAT numbers are checked by HMRC, not VIES. Australia uses GST; select Australia and enter the ABN in the official identifier field instead of the VAT field.

1. 01VAT: PL5831014898

   VIES validates the EU VAT number.

2. 02NIP: 5831014898

   KAS returns national VAT and taxpayer identity evidence.

3. 03KRS number returned

   When KAS supplies KRS, SENTINEL can deterministically continue to KRS.

4. 04KRS current extract

   The legal entity and available legal status are checked separately.

5. 05BRIS

   Shown as coverage reference only and never counted as a fourth evidence source.

VIES, KAS and KRS describe different facts. EU VAT may remain valid while the legal registry reports liquidation or another status change. SENTINEL keeps those facts separate and can return CONFLICTING DATA.

Florida guidance prioritizes Legal Company Name or Document Number and also notes FEI/EIN and Officer or Registered Agent search. Maryland guidance includes Legal Company Name, Department ID and EIN. Texas guidance covers entity name, Texas SOS File Number, Federal EIN and Comptroller Taxpayer Number while clearly identifying the enabled destination as a tax-account source rather than a complete Secretary of State legal registry.

Name-search flow: legal name → official Government of Canada Open Data index → one or more federal candidates → user selection → live Corporations Canada Federal Corporation API verification.

Federal name search includes active and inactive records from four English datasets: active business corporations, other active corporations, inactive business corporations and other inactive corporations. Search data is normally refreshed on a daily cadence; the live API remains authoritative when a candidate is selected.

Multiple matches are never resolved automatically. Compare legal name, federal Corporation Number, BN9, status, province, governing legislation and registry anniversary where available, then choose the appropriate candidate.

Current Corporations Canada availability: configured for live official API requests.

Federal Open Data name search: enabled; the local index refreshes without blocking exact verification.

Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada. The dataset provides current name forms rather than a complete former-name history, so SENTINEL does not claim historical-name search.

Current ABN Lookup availability: configured for live official requests.

IČO identifies a Czech economic subject. It is not a VAT number by definition. ARES exact verification requires a valid IČO or a compatible legal-person CZ VAT number that resolves to the same identifier.

PRH/YTJ can use a valid Business ID or an exact legal name. SENTINEL may convert a compatible FI VAT national part to Business ID format only when validation succeeds.

The French government company search can resolve a valid SIREN, accept a SIRET by using its SIREN component, derive a compatible SIREN from VAT or search an exact legal name. These identifiers are not interchangeable without validation.

RPO resolves an organisation deterministically by IČO or can use an exact legal name. SENTINEL does not assume that the national part of a Slovak VAT number is the IČO.

Select the country and enter the complete VAT number. For a country without an integrated national registry, the result may be VAT-only. That is valid product behavior and must not be interpreted as an invalid company.

BRIS can indicate European registry coverage, but SENTINEL does not query BRIS as independent company evidence. The evidence count therefore reflects only completed integrated providers.

In the current configuration, the national Latvian dataset verification is not an active production capability. VIES can still validate an LV VAT number and BRIS can be shown as reference coverage.

The decision engine does not silently choose the most convenient answer. It preserves the legal status, VAT status and source timestamps independently and asks the user to review the discrepancy.

VALID means the VAT number was validated for EU VAT purposes at the recorded check time. INVALID does not prove that the company does not exist. Some member states return no legal name or address; the VAT result remains valid and the missing field is reported clearly.

SENTINEL makes one exact GET request to the federal API and authenticates server-side. It stores normalized evidence, not the API credential. The current automated workflow does not make a second directors request.

The search index is rebuilt from fixed, HTTPS, allowlisted Government of Canada resources. A validated replacement is swapped atomically; a failed refresh keeps the previous working index and never blocks Flask startup or exact identifier checks.

SENTINEL makes one official ABR request and records one evidence source. ABN and GST are two facts from that one source and never inflate Sources confirmed.

KRS can confirm the legal name, KRS number, current legal status, registration date, registered address and selected official identifiers when returned by the extract.

SENTINEL normalizes only explicit current-status signals. Recognized outcomes include active, liquidation, inactive and unknown; it does not infer liquidation from unrelated historical free text.

KAS can return national VAT status, NIP, legal name, REGON, KRS, address, registration dates and an official request reference. It is different from both VIES and KRS.

1. 01NIP

   KAS taxpayer lookup

2. 02KRS returned

   Deterministic KRS dependency becomes available

3. 03KRS current extract

   Separate legal-status evidence

ARES can confirm the IČO, legal name, active/inactive state, formation date and address when returned. SENTINEL uses the official IČO route and does not treat ARES as a loose company-name search.

PRH/YTJ can resolve a valid Business ID or an exact current legal name and can return business identity, registration, legal form, address and activity dates. It does not replace VIES VAT validation.

The source can confirm a public legal unit's SIREN, legal name, operating status, creation date and available registered address. It can use SIREN, SIRET, compatible VAT-derived SIREN or an exact legal name according to public diffusion rules.

RPO can resolve a valid IČO or exact legal name and return the current name, identifier, registration details, address and available activity dates. Exact identifiers remain the preferred route.

In SENTINEL, BRIS indicates that the jurisdiction participates in the European e-Justice business-register network. SENTINEL does not scrape or query it and does not treat it as an independent entity verification provider.

Each record includes verification ID, submitted query, checked time, overall status, confidence, normalized entity and source results. Upstream raw provider responses are not stored as a separate raw archive.

Use the History tab to open a record. The rolling retention limit is 50 records; older entries are removed as new verifications are saved.

The generated PDF is not stored as a permanent file by the application. It is recreated from the retained verification record when requested.

1. 01
   Collect official details

   Ask for the legal name, jurisdiction, VAT number and national registration identifier.

2. 02
   Verify in SENTINEL

   Use deterministic identifiers and run a new current check.

3. 03
   Review legal entity

   Confirm the official name, identifier and legal status.

4. 04
   Review VAT

   Read national and EU VAT evidence separately from legal status.

5. 05
   Check consistency

   Investigate conflicts, missing identifiers and technical source failures.

6. 06
   Export the PDF

   Attach the timestamped evidence summary to the internal onboarding record.

7. 07
   Escalate exceptions

   Apply your organization's manual due-diligence and approval policy.

VAT

A tax-registration identifier. It is not automatically the company's legal registration number.

ABN

Australian Business Number: an 11-digit identifier validated with the official ABR checksum.

ACN

Australian Company Number: a related nine-digit company identifier that ABR may return; it is distinct from ABN.

GST

Australia's Goods and Services Tax registration fact. It is not an EU/UK VAT number.

Corporation Number

The identifier assigned to a federal corporation record in Corporations Canada.

BN9

The 9-digit Business Number that a Corporations Canada record may expose. It is distinct from a full 15-character CRA program account.

Corporations Canada

The federal corporate registry administered by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada; it does not cover provincial or territorial corporations.

State entity ID

An identifier assigned by a US state filing office. Its format and meaning vary by state and it is not the same as an EIN.

Limited state dataset

An official filing or active-business snapshot whose absence or missing status cannot support a complete negative legal-status conclusion.

DUL

Dubai Unified License identifier used in the official Invest in Dubai license search; it is not currently an automated SENTINEL source.

CR

Commercial Registration identifier used in several Middle East jurisdictions. Formats and legal meanings are country-specific.

VIES

European Commission VAT Information Exchange System for EU VAT validation.

NIP

Ten-digit Polish tax identifier used by KAS and in Polish VAT workflows.

KRS

Polish National Court Register and its ten-digit legal-entity identifier.

REGON

Polish statistical identifier that KAS or KRS may return.

IČO

Organisation identifier used in Czechia and Slovakia; it is not VAT by definition.

SIREN

Nine-digit identifier of a French legal unit.

SIRET

Fourteen-digit identifier of a French establishment; it includes the SIREN.

Business ID / Y-tunnus

Finnish national business identifier used by PRH/YTJ.

Companies House

The official UK company register.

HMRC

HM Revenue & Customs, used for supported UK VAT checks.

KAS

Polish National Revenue Administration VAT Register.

ARES

Czech Ministry of Finance economic-subject register interface.

PRH / YTJ

Finnish business information sources used for company identity and registration evidence.

RPO

Slovak Register of Legal Persons.

BRIS

European Business Registers Interconnection System; a reference layer in SENTINEL.

Legal entity

The organization recognized by the applicable company register.

National registry

An official country-level source for company identity and legal status.

Evidence

A normalized fact returned by a source, with attribution and timestamp.

Confidence

The quality and consistency of evidence under SENTINEL's decision rules.

Source reference

An authority-provided request or record identifier supporting auditability.

Data mode

How evidence was obtained: live, cached, sandbox, demo or dataset.

Reference

Coverage information that is visible but is not counted as verification evidence.

SENTINEL provides an evidence-based company verification summary using available public and official sources. Results should be combined with your organization's risk, compliance and procurement controls.