Public record research is good at one thing: showing what was declared, published or posted by someone, at a given date. It is poor at showing what is happening now, what is hidden by design or what people think. This page lists the limits that apply to any desk review so that the limits section of a report never comes as a surprise.
A register entry records a declaration at a moment in time. It may be out of date, may be minimal by design, or may describe a company that has since changed. A website is the same: a description chosen by its owner. Reading these carefully narrows doubt without removing it, and a report that does not say so is overstating its case.
The practical consequence is to treat a finding as a dated reading of a source, never as a standing description of the company.
Records lag events. A change of owner, address or activity may not be visible yet, which is why each finding is a reading at the date the source was read.
What a company states it does in a record may differ from its actual trade. A difference between the two is a question to put to the company, not something to resolve by assumption.
Similar names, translated names and group companies create confusion. Where identity cannot be settled from the sources, that is an open point and not a guess.
Some sources publish little by design. A thin record is a thin record; size or standing is not read into it.
Records in other languages or scanned formats are easy to misread. A line that cannot be read with confidence is unavailable.
Some records are open to everyone, some to registered users, some only to certain parties. Where one cannot be read, the report records that as unavailable.
Accounts that were never published, bank relationships and payment behaviour are not visible.
Whether goods meet a specification, or a service performs, is established by samples, audits or references, not by a desk review.
No record predicts how a counterparty will behave in a dispute or under pressure.
What the market says in conversation, which price is actually accepted and who is about to leave a market are not found in public records.
Each line says what supports it and what the source cannot say.
A method and limitations note comes with the report and names the gaps for your question.
Anything that would need a different method, such as a visit or a reference call, stays an open point instead of being guessed at.
Research reports what can be established from public and provided sources. It is not a guarantee about a counterparty's future conduct and not legal advice.
It means no obvious discrepancy was found in reviewed sources. That is narrower than a clearance and the report words it that way.
No. A gap that needs another method, such as an on-site check, stays an open point. Those methods are not part of desk research.
As current as the dates beside its sources. It is a reading at those dates and does not update itself.
No. They make it usable, because you know what it stands on.
No obligation. We read your request and reply with a straight answer.
Tell us what you need to find out and by when. We confirm scope before any work starts.
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