Verify a Supplier's Legal Identity: The Record to Keep Before You Commit

Verifying a potential supplier's legal identity means producing one thing: a written record that states the supplier's legal entity name exactly as it appears on an official registration source, names that source, shows whether the entity that will receive your payment is the same entity, and lists every detail that still does not line up. Everything else you do at this stage feeds that record. A finished record does not certify a supplier — no screening result, register extract or directory listing certifies anybody — but it does turn a vague sense of confidence into something you can review, hand to a colleague and revisit later.

Below is the worksheet Sourcing Desk uses for that record, along with why each field matters. It is a buyer's working method written as editorial suggestions, not as legal requirements, and it does not touch legal, customs or regulatory questions. If your situation needs those, speak to a qualified adviser in the relevant jurisdiction.

Start with the registered name, not the friendly one

The name a supplier uses in email signatures, on a marketplace storefront or in a product catalogue is often a brand rather than a legal entity. English trading names sit on top of names registered in another language and script, and translations of the same entity can legitimately differ.

So begin by asking one direct question in writing: which legal entity will contract with you, and in which country or jurisdiction is it registered? The answer is the value that belongs at the top of your worksheet. Anything softer — a brand name, a website, a factory name mentioned in passing — belongs in its own column, labelled as something still to be matched.

A domain is not a legal entity name either. Sourcing Desk publishes on supplier.ltd, and that domain identifies a publication, not a registered company. Treat any supplier domain the same way: a useful clue, never proof of who you are dealing with.

Name the source of every fact

A claim in your record is only as useful as the source behind it. For each field, write down where the value came from — a specific register, a government screening tool, a commercial guide, or the supplier's own statement.

The U.S. International Trade Administration's Perform Due Diligence resource is a reasonable starting point when you are researching an overseas company or partner. It covers country research and company or partner risk research, and it links onward to official screening resources and commercial guides. Use it as a routing point into those official and commercial sources rather than as a verdict in itself.

Where the legal name itself is concerned, the authority that issues registration records in the supplier's stated jurisdiction is the reference to name. If your contact cannot tell you which register holds the entity, that answer is itself worth recording.

Why the payment entity gets its own line

The registered entity and the entity that gets paid are frequently not the same thing, and sometimes there is a perfectly ordinary reason: a group treasury company, a licensed export agent, a local branch under a parent. Sometimes there is not.

Ask your contact to state, in writing, which entity will issue the invoice and which bank beneficiary will receive funds. Then compare those values against the registered legal name in your worksheet. If they differ, you do not need to assume bad faith — you do need the difference explained and captured before money moves.

Note also that Incoterms describe how delivery responsibilities and costs are allocated. They tell you nothing about who is legally behind the shipment, how goods will be paid for, or how they will be made. Do not read a quoted term as evidence of payment arrangements or product quality.

The worksheet

Copy this into your own document and leave the value column empty until you can fill it from a named source.

Field	What to record	Source of the value	Checked by / when	Matches?	Discrepancy note
Legal entity name (as registered)	Exact name in the registering jurisdiction, including any suffix denoting entity type
Registering authority and jurisdiction	Which authority issued the record
Registration or company identifier	The identifier shown on that record
Registered address	As shown on the record
Trading, brand or English names	Each name the supplier uses to present itself
Website domain(s)	Domain(s) used by the contact
Person communicating	Name, role and stated authority to contract
Entity issuing the invoice	Stated in writing by the supplier
Payment beneficiary name	Beneficiary that will receive funds
Payment account country	Country of the receiving account
Screening and research performed	Resources consulted and what they were used for
Unresolved discrepancies	Anything still open, with who is chasing it

How to read what comes back

Three outcomes are common, and they mean different things.

A match means the value you recorded agrees with the named source. Record it as matched, along with who checked and when, so a later reviewer can retrace the step.

A discrepancy means two sources disagree, or a stated value has no source yet. This is the outcome that carries the most information. Write the discrepancy down even if you expect a mundane explanation, because an explanation you never wrote down is invisible to whoever reviews next.

An absence of information is not the same as reassurance. "Nothing adverse was found" describes what a resource did or did not return; it is not a clearance, a grading or a certificate. Asking for one more independent source, or simply waiting until a field can be filled honestly, is always available to you.

Discrepancies worth pausing on include a legal name that differs from the name on the quotation, a jurisdiction other than the one implied by the supplier's presentation, a payment beneficiary in a different country from the registered entity, and a registered address that turns out to be an agent or mail-handling service. Each of these may have a benign answer. Each should be answered before it is archived.

Turning the worksheet into a handoff record

Once the worksheet is filled as far as you can take it, promote it to a handoff record: the single file someone else can read without asking you questions. Keep the completed worksheet, the written exchanges in which the supplier stated its legal and payment entities, and a short closing note listing what was verified, from which source, and what remains open.

Add the closing note last. Reviewers habitually read summaries first and assume everything behind them is settled, so a discrepancy list sitting at the end of the file is easy to miss unless it is quoted up front.

Re-run the worksheet whenever anything structural changes: a new entity enters the deal, invoicing moves to a different company, or ownership changes hands. Identity is not a one-time check when the counterparty changes shape.

Where Sourcing Desk fits

Mark each identity field as independently evidenced, stated by the candidate, or still blank. Keep the record with your draft buyer brief. The on-site Sourcing Desk worksheet does not verify the company or submit the brief, and the record is not a certification, supplier guarantee or match.

Suppliers respond to these requests routinely, and a serious one will not be troubled by being asked to name its registered entity or to confirm who gets paid.

Your next action on this topic

Take the worksheet above and open it for the one supplier you are currently considering. Fill the legal entity name, the registering jurisdiction and the payment beneficiary fields from named sources before you request a quotation. If those three fields are still blank when the quote arrives, send them back as a written question and record the reply in the same file — including any mismatch the reply introduces.