Baselayer Knowledge Base

KYB Rating & Risk Rating

The KYB rating and Risk Rating: how each grade is determined, where ratings appear in the API, how they update, customization, and how customers use them for automated decisioning

Business Search & Matching

Running a business search and reading the result: input formats and flexibility, how matching works, match and score fields, address and deliverability data, failed searches and no_match

Ordering and interpreting UCC, tax, and judgment lien searches: console ordering, API filters, documents, coverage and recency, troubleshooting missing liens

Litigation & Bankruptcy

Court docket, litigation, and bankruptcy searches: data sources, coverage, and edge cases such as ABCs

Registrations, SoS Filings, Standing & Geographic Coverage

State registrations and SoS filings: state and territory coverage and refresh cadence, how filings are matched and linked into one business, home state and incorporation date, and the status, standing, structure, and registration_type fields

TIN / IRS / EIN Verification

IRS TIN / EIN verification: how the IRS matches EINs to names, legal name vs. DBA, reading TIN results and errors, the effect on the KYB rating, sandbox behavior, and IRS outages

Filing UCC-1s and UCC-3s through Baselayer: lifecycle, preferences, fees, amendments

Sanctions, OFAC & Watchlists

Sanctions, OFAC, PEP, and watchlist screening: which lists are screened and how often they update, name matching and thresholds, batch screening, reading hit results, handling false positives, and criminal background checks

Officers, Owners & UBO

Officer and ownership data: what Baselayer provides, where it comes from, how officer matching works, beneficial owners (UBOs), and why officers can be missing or out of date

Military & Deceased Data (DMF / MLA / SCRA)

Military and deceased checks: what DMF, SCRA, and MLA return, how to order them, the DMDC certificate, data recency, monitoring, and FCRA permissibility

Industry Classification (NAICS / MCC / SIC)

Industry Prediction: what it returns, how to order it, how accurate it is, the NAICS / MCC / SIC code lists, and why we predict rather than use the code on the state filing

Web Presence & Website Analysis

Web presence and website analysis: what a request returns and how it is organized, found_website and match fields, social profiles, review and directory sources, open/closed status, screenshots, coverage rates, and verifying sole proprietors

Portfolio Monitoring & Notifications

Portfolio Monitoring: what is monitored and when alerts fire, adding businesses and officers, setting scope and frequency, controlling who gets notified, and where results appear

API, Webhooks & Integrations

Working with the Baselayer API and webhooks: event types and finality, signature verification, sandbox vs production separation, polling, IP allowlisting, reference IDs and object IDs, and partner integrations

Account, Console & Access

Getting into and managing the Baselayer console: user invitations and roles, API keys, session length and SSO, and sign-in problems

Testing & Sandbox

Testing Baselayer before you go live: sandbox example businesses for auto-approve, auto-deny, and review outcomes, sample profiles with liens and litigation, benchmarking against your current provider, and what to do when sandbox misbehaves

Fraud Consortium

The Baselayer Fraud Consortium: what it is, how to join, and how to submit data and check applications against it

International Products

KYB outside the US: Lite vs. Enhanced profiles, country-by-country data coverage, search by name or filing number, ownership and UBO data, Tax ID / VAT verification, pricing, and sandbox testing

Popular Articles

How is the KYB rating determined, and what does each grade mean?

Does Baselayer provide scoring, and how does it support automated decisioning?

Why might a business in NJ or DE be rated an "F"?

What does the "verified" field mean?

Can we customize the rating criteria or create our own flags?