Checking a company for reliability: simple and effective verification methods, opportunities, tips

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Proposals for partnerships, interaction in business - the right thing to do. Of course, any entrepreneur wants to expand the boundaries of their business and answer any profitable deal with a firm “yes”. By no means always such a decision will be correct, sometimes instead of income and development, you can suffer financial losses and drop the credibility of your company. In order to prevent such incidents from taking place, the company needs to be checked for reliability.

Why is this needed?

Laws do not oblige to check their partners, however, in the event of problems with a company cooperating with your organization, regulators will have a lot of questions for you. But that's just one of the problems.

There is a risk of "running into" an unscrupulous counterparty with a one-day firm, and the terms of the contract concluded with yousimply will not be met or there will be significant delays.

And of course, the most important thing is financial losses. It is necessary to know about the solvency of a partner before making deals with him, otherwise no one will be able to return the lost money.

In the event of litigation, a firm unaware of its partner's dubiousness will suffer equally with an organization that deliberately entered into such a relationship. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. On the other hand, an attempt to check the opponent will be counted as proof of the innocence of the company, which through negligence entered into contractual obligations with fraudsters.

Consequently, based on the above, the procedure for checking a business partner is necessary and mandatory, it rests entirely with the organization interested in cooperation. This will help protect the company from a lot of unnecessary problems, so you should never neglect it.

When should I check?

Checking the company for reliability by name and other criteria is required in the following cases:

• You are dealing with a company of interest for the first time and have never heard of it until now.
• Organization recently signed up, possibly just before they made you an offer.
• There are bad reviews about the firm. Of course, they may no longer be relevant, but it is worth reading them.
• The opponent works only on prepaid basis, without any exceptions.

How to check?

Checking the company for reliability is a mandatory procedure for any self-respecting businessman. Where to start it? First, look at the documents of the organization you want to check.

The first document is an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. If it is submitted by the counterparty himself, it would be useful to check it manually by comparing the data shown with the general database of the Federal Tax Service of Russia on the corresponding website. It is also better to ask the company for a certificate of no debts from the tax office.

The next step will be to find out the potential possibility of fulfilling the terms of the contract by the partner: does the company have sufficient capacity, qualified personnel, and so on. If the organization does not have the required minimum, it is worth considering how it is going to fulfill its obligations and whether it has the opportunity to do so.

It would be useful to check the company for reliability on the file of arbitration cases. You need to know the partner's TIN and go to the official website of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation. Here you can get information about all the court proceedings that have been held in the past, about litigations ongoing at the present time.

The unified federal register of information on the facts of the activities of legal entities will help you find out if the company is bankrupt and what balance is at its disposal.

Undoubtedly, one of the main points will be checking the credentials of the person making the deal. Is the term of the power of attorney valid at the moment, is it not limitedthe charter of the circle of actions of the person interacting with you, is this transaction too big for him? All these questions are worth getting answered.

Of course, in the case when the activity is subject to licensing, you need to check the relevant documents with the company and find out if they are expired.

The first deal can be made a trial, that is, not to involve large amounts of money in the first contract with the counterparty. If the opponent still puts pressure on the conclusion of a major deal, this will be a “call”, giving reason for reflection.

Checking by special services

Of course, checking a company whose TIN is known for reliability can also be done through a special service. Such Internet platforms will allow you to look at the company's financial statements, its loans, debts, asset value, participation in government orders, information about liquidation or reorganization, and much more.

Usually, this only requires the partner's TIN. The company can be checked for reliability by "Spark" or "Contour Focus", for example. On such platforms, registration is usually required. The services are paid, but they will save your time and make a deep check, which will make it possible to get a complete picture of the company's activities.

Foreign partner verification

It happens that there is an opportunity to work with a foreign partner. Of course, such counterparties also need to be checked. You can request information from a foreign registry (similar to the Russian Unified State Register of Legal Entities) throughspecial service. The service will be paid.

The official website of the Federal Tax Service of Russia also offers to do this through the "International Cooperation" section. In addition, it is possible to request information in writing with certification from a notary. A decent company would never refuse such a request.

Signs of unreliability

Regulatory authorities, thanks to their practice, have identified signs that indicate a possible unreliability of the counterparty. These include the following:

• The company is registered at an address where many other organizations operate with it.
• High budget debt, multiple fines.
• The chief accountant and the director are the same person (perhaps he is also registered in other positions).
• The organization was registered shortly before the offer of cooperation.

There is a document that can help in the issue of checking the company for reliability - Resolution of the Plenum of the Russian Federation No. 53.

Documents required for verification

Checking the firm for reliability by TIN is possible, but it would be useful to familiarize yourself with other documents of the organization. The main ones include constituent documents, including an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, a certificate of the PSRN, the right to sign documents by a person through which interaction with the company takes place, a license, if the type of activity implies it. This is an incomplete list. In the case when an organization is going to conclude a particularly large transaction, it makes sense to make moredeep analysis.

Conclusion

Cooperation with new partners is a great joy for any organization. Thanks to them, the company develops, receives financial profit, and expands its influence in the market. But all this on one condition - the partner must not be a fraudster, otherwise we will get a completely opposite result.

For this, there is a check of the company by TIN for reliability. It makes sense to check it yourself or through a special service. After all, inaction in this case can destroy the business altogether.