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Check your business partner. How to check potential business partners for integrity

AT business relations It's always good to know who you're dealing with. Here is planned cooperation with a new counterparty. Naturally, he will try to present himself in the most favorable light, but the truth may not be so rosy.

Our legislation is designed in such a way that it seems that it is not necessary to check the integrity of the counterparty, but when tax audits come and companies with signs of one-night stands are found among your partners, you will start having problems. You will have to prove that you have done your due diligence and are not, in fact, a hard-core tax evader.

Instead of tense communication with the tax authorities, you can secure yourself and your business in advance and reliably with the help of a specialized service.

It is a search analytics engine containing up-to-date and comprehensive data on 20 million Russian companies and entrepreneurs. For greater clarity and ease of analysis, information about each counterparty is collected in a single structured card.

The screenshots quite clearly show the completeness of the information provided by the service, but some things still need to be told.

Firstly, this is reliability - an assessment of the company's reliability on a scale from 0 to 100. Approximately 25 are used to determine the reliability index. key indicators financial, economic and legal activity companies. A higher rating means less chance that the company is a one-day business or was created to carry out financial fraud.

The developers themselves offer the following index rating scale:

  • 75–100 - high reliability. Additional verification is not required.
  • 50–74 - average reliability. In this case, it is necessary to conduct an additional check, collect as much information about the company as possible and be sure to order a tax extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. In the event of force majeure in court, the extract will be proof that you have exercised due diligence. Please note that the information in the statement must be current at the time of the transaction, and not after it.
  • 0–49 - low reliability. Doing business with this company is not recommended.

It is likely that you will want to get to know not only the counterparty itself, but also its connections with other companies. For these purposes, Seldon.Basis implements the Link Tree tool, which allows you to track the affiliation of various companies and entrepreneurs.

The tree reflects the relationship of the counterparty with other persons according to various parameters: subsidiaries, management companies, founders, managers, as well as arbitration cases, government contracts, addresses and phones.

It has a large number of tools for checking and searching for counterparties, but the two listed above are enough to find out everything you need about the company you are interested in in just a minute. Remember: a reasonable and prudent choice of partners is the key to the security and stability of the business.

For smartphones and tablets

Seldon.Basis is available as apps for iOS and Android. Despite the abundance of displayed information, the mobile interface does not lose to the full-format web version in terms of convenience and data completeness. In addition, an information feed is available in the applications, informing the user in real time about events and changes in the companies of interest to him.

One of the most relevant scenarios for using a mobile application is off-site meetings, conferences, exhibitions and negotiations, that is, any places where you can meet potential business partners. All of them will tell you about their exceptional reliability. Climbing into the laptop, thereby interrupting the conversation, is rather tactless. But periodic glances at the smartphone no longer bother anyone. And while your new friend is talking about what a cool business he has, you can literally check the veracity of his words in just a few seconds. mobile application Seldon Basis.

Who else needs Seldon.Basis

  • If you are a business leader, then first of all, of course, you. With the help of this service you will be able to find and check potential suppliers and contractors.
  • When integrated with the purchasing department, the service will cover all the basic needs of employees. The search for concluded government contracts, checking counterparties and the financial situation of suppliers - all these operations will begin to be performed faster.
  • It will help the financial department to reduce tax risks, identify affiliated organizations, and also provide an opportunity to check the creditworthiness and financial condition of a partner.
  • For a marketer and sales manager, the service will become an indispensable assistant in the search for potential clients, evaluating them financial condition, market segmentation, as well as access to the right people who make decisions about cooperation.
  • Accounting will significantly reduce the time spent on checking details, searching for related organizations and identifying bad debts.
  • For the security team, Seldon.Basis is an excellent business intelligence and counterparty verification tool that helps to identify fly-by-night firms and related organizations.

Rates

It is noteworthy that the developers do not force you to buy a pig in a poke and immediately pay for access to the service for a long time. For full-scale testing, the tariff "For a day" is provided, which gives unlimited access to all the features of the system for 24 hours for only 990 rubles. After the test, if everything suits you, it is possible to extend the subscription for a day, a week, a month or a year.

Checking business partners is an important step before making new business contacts. Without it, sometimes it is impossible to ascertain the reliability of future allies. Every entrepreneur who is looking for new contacts is at risk in the form of concluding a contract with unreliable partners or, in general, may become a victim of professional scammers. That is why checking business partners is necessary for those who do not want to risk their finances and reputation.

Checking potential business partners is a pledge successful development business.

What risks can be avoided by checking a business partner?

Solvency, integrity and the availability of legal documentation confirming the right to engage in the activity you need - this is what should interest you in the first place. Checking business partners according to the above criteria will help predict, with an accuracy of up to a percentage, how smoothly the planned transaction will go.

Otherwise, the risks of financial losses and the possibility of getting a bad reputation from other partners with whom you work increase significantly.

Some possible risks:

An audit can save your business from shocks and risks such as:

Conclusion of an agreement with a fictitious company.

This may be a company that is registered as a nominee or registered specifically for this transaction. The founding documents may contain non-existent addresses and contacts of the company, or the name is illegally used with the help of falsification well-known company;

Making a deal with a company officials or whose founders are wanted.

Checking business partners can reveal such risks; as well as the fact that the organization is a frequent participant in litigation;

Conclusion of a transaction with an unauthorized person who deliberately exceeds his authority.

Checking a potential partner for good faith helps to avoid this unpleasant situation even at the stage of consideration and preparation of the contract. For example, you can detect forged letters and guarantees that were supposed to confirm the reliability of a partner, or identifying a negative credit history and defaulting on your obligations or reusing collateral;

Use of details of third parties when making a transaction

A slightly more thorough check, done professionally, will easily reveal such “details” that your future partner would prefer to keep silent about.

Besides the world Russian business is in constant motion. And, as a result, from time to time new schemes of fraudulent financial transactions and ways of deceiving conscientious businessmen appear here. Professionally engaged in tracking and identifying threats to economic security for our clients, we are aware of such information and are ready to provide you with all the necessary data and conduct an audit of your business partners, as they say, at the highest level.

When should you think about checking a business partner?

Solvency, integrity and the availability of legal documentation confirming the right to engage in the activity you need - this is what should interest you in the first place. Checking business partners according to the above criteria will help predict, with an accuracy of up to a percentage, how smoothly the planned transaction will go. Otherwise, the risks of financial losses and the possibility of getting a bad reputation from other partners with whom you work increase significantly.

Checking business partners as a goal-setting criterion for their reliability?

The dishonesty and unreliability of partners can significantly undermine your business. Checking their reputation and legal validity reduces the possible risks of disrupting a business transaction due to the insolvency of a partner or his deliberate fraudulent intent. The desire becomes quite logical and understandable business people check your partners. This is especially true when:

  • a financial transaction for a large amount is planned;
  • it is necessary to draw up a contract for the acquisition or alienation of property belonging to a partner, or there is an intention on his part to acquire something from you;
  • a new person comes to the organization, who, according to official duties, will have access to commercial information, and its release may shake your plans or business;
  • you plan to transfer part of your authority to a colleague or partner. The person whose decisions will determine the success of your business needs a qualitative check for connections with competitors, as well as the integrity of his own ambitions for your business;
  • you are ready to make a business proposal related to the opening of a joint business;
  • there is a prospect of marriage / marriage: often scammers act in this way or try to manipulate the feelings of the future spouse for their own benefit.

Verification of business partners is the key to commercial success and stability of your business.

What information can be obtained from INFOCON LLC?

  1. Obtaining standard and extended business information about the future partner company. This includes authentication registration documents legal entity, as well as information about the founders, statutory fund and verification of bank details. You can also get the query result from tax office about this subject;
  2. Checking the reputation and solvency of banks, insurance organizations and other financial institutions;
  3. Search for information about the financial and property condition of the company, trade and other transactions, reputation in the market;
  4. Collection of information about a person, verification of personnel, confirmation of data on the place of residence and work individual, verification of address data;
  5. Carrying out marketing research and evaluating the work of competitors, assistance in finding partners taking into account the given data, as well as providing information on the results of foreign economic transactions with a certain type of product.

All these services are provided by experienced specialists who carry out search work of this kind with due professionalism.

Whoever owns the information owns the situation. And in Russian business realities, if I may say so, a professional and unbiased check of your business

partners can become prerequisite to run a successful business.

You can check a business partner before buying a share or the entire enterprise, merger or acquisition procedures, as well as before opening a joint direction, according to the rules of the due diligence procedure. The literal translation of this term from English is due diligence. Checking business partners at the preliminary stage of concluding a deal helps to avoid unnecessary disputes and discord among the founders in the future.

due diligence

First of all, with the help of due diligence, it is the partner's business that is checked. This is especially true before buying a company or taking it over. All documents available for verification are used.

  • Statutory documents and financial statements.
  • Internal documents of the company and technical reports on the activities of the company.
  • Market and marketing research and information about tangible assets.
  • Intangible assets and contracts of the enterprise are considered.
  • Insurance policies and litigation.

In the classical interpretation, the procedure is carried out in three stages. On the first of which auditors work, on the second appraisers, on the third, final, lawyers. The purpose of the first financial expertise. The latter assess how adequate the price named by the seller of the business is. Still others evaluate the legal prospects of the transaction, its purity. Upon completion of the due diligence, you can make an informed decision on the conclusion of the transaction, the adjustment of its conditions, and the cancellation.

This procedure is expensive. However, a certain analogue of it can be carried out using more accessible tools. Such as aggregated reports of reference and information systems (such as, for example, which contains almost all necessary information) and credit history of the counterparty. As an additional precaution, you can also check the business partner personally.

Checking business partners

You can start with basic checks. A search by last name, first name and patronymic in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and the EGRIP will allow you to determine whether the business partner is a mass director or founder of an LLC. If a partner has several businesses, using such a verification tool, how can you establish and, establish the presence of affiliated legal entities.

A security check will provide information about the presence of a negative on a partner through the Ministry of Internal Affairs. If you contact the former partners of the person being checked and ask them to evaluate how the partner fulfilled the agreements reached in their relationship, you can draw up his portrait for yourself. A partner's credit history will help establish financial discipline.

Check your partner's credit history

The director of the company you want to buy, or a new business partner, will indicate:

  • Is he now heavily in debt?
  • How is he now servicing his debt obligations.
  • Like he did before.

This information is extremely important. For example, you are asked to create joint business, providing for a phased co-investment in the future. How will your future partner be able to fulfill his obligations to you if he cannot accurately service banking? Or has a high credit burden and is burdened with significant monthly payments?

A business partner as an individual and his company as a legal entity has been possible in Russia since July 2014. Thanks to amendments to law 218 "On Credit Histories", you can obtain this information with the written consent of the person being checked. Including in our information and reference system.

Or a business partner is not so difficult. It is important to use the information received wisely, minimize the risks of interacting with unscrupulous persons and not take high risks, even if the benefit seems significant.

If you do not check the IP and the companies with which you make deals, you can run into trouble. Suppliers deceive customers by selling obviously defective goods, and customers ask to defer payment for the work performed - and disappear. Other entrepreneurs demand an advance payment, but do not provide services (and also disappear). If the state catches a dishonest company, it will bring anger not only on itself: the tax authorities will come with checks to the offender's partners. Communication with officials is not a holiday, moreover, according to the results of such an audit, they can charge additional VAT written off as a tax deduction - yes, a deceived company: for not checking partners well. So let's see how to do it well.

(Besides, it’s not difficult: fast, online and free. There are also paid services, for example, Contour. Focus and Express check: they collect disparate data together - this is convenient for big company, which has many counterparties)

You will:

  • understand why it is important to check the counterparty before starting cooperation,
  • learn how to do it yourself and for free.

    Why check counterparties

    The counterparty may not be a real company. There is a website, a beautiful name, even a seal, but there is no registration of an individual entrepreneur or LLC with the tax office. Cooperation with such a partner is illegal, it may be considered fraud (and this is a criminal offense).

    The counterparty may go through bankruptcy proceedings. In this case, any transactions that the company enters into with such a counterparty may be challenged in court by its creditors. Then the money will be frozen: in order to have a chance to return at least a part, an honest entrepreneur needs to be included in the register of creditors and wait for the end of the bankruptcy procedure (usually from six months). At the same time, it is hardly possible to return the money in full - the negligent company most likely does not have them.

    The counterparty may turn out to be a one-day company. A partner of a one-day company will be required to justify the benefit received when refunding VAT (for those who work on the main taxation system) or when accounting for expenses (using the simplified “Income minus expenses”).

    The contractor may be a scammer. For example, commits financial crimes. There are no guarantees that such a company will act honestly with a new partner.

    The counterparty will not pay the bills. This is not necessarily a scammer: the counterparty may simply not have the money. If a company is broke and does not even pay taxes on time, there is a risk of being left with nothing.

    How to check a counterparty

    1. Request documents from the counterparty

      This is standard procedure. Usually they ask for copies of the charter, certificates of state registration or certificate of registration with the tax authority.

      For safety net, it is better to do this, although you can check the counterparty yourself. Courts (suddenly it comes to them) often indicate that requesting documents from a counterparty for verification is the responsibility of organizations and entrepreneurs. Relatively speaking, you request documents for tax audits and courts (just in case), and do all the other steps for yourself.

    2. Get data from tax databases

      You can do almost everything there:

      • you will find in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (EGRLE) and the Unified State Register individual entrepreneurs(EGRIP) necessary minimum information, such as whether the company is closed and what its main activities are;
      • check if the counterparty is going to register changes in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, for example, change the location to another region;
      • make sure it's in the executive bodies counterparty does not include disqualified persons - those who cannot be borrowed leadership positions due to business disruption;
      • find out if the counterparty is registered at the mass registration address and whether it is possible to contact him at the address specified in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities;
      • check whether there is a founder or head of the counterparty in the register of persons who, in judicial order it is forbidden to be a member or head of an organization;
      • if the counterparty is a legal entity (not an individual entrepreneur), you will find out what the State Registration Bulletin reports about him (and whether he reports).
    3. Find out about litigation in which the company is involved

      Look for a potential counterparty in the file of arbitration cases. It reflects the proceedings in which the counterparty is involved (if involved). Information from the card file will help assess the integrity of the company - whether it fulfills its obligations to the state and partners (and if not, what is the reason).

    4. Find out if a potential partner is going bankrupt (or maybe he is already bankrupt)

      If the counterparty is bankrupt and bankruptcy proceedings have been initiated against him, it is impossible to deal with him: his activities have been suspended by the court. If the counterparty is under observation, wait six months. During this time, the court will decide whether the company can continue business activities.

    5. Find out if enforcement proceedings have been initiated against the company

      After the trial, the recoverer receives a writ of execution and gives it to the bailiffs - so that they take the money from the debtor and give it to the one to whom he owes. You can check if your partner owes someone in the enforcement proceedings data bank.

    6. Make sure the company has a license (if needed)

      Each type of activity is licensed by a separate government agency - you need to look for information on their websites. For example, the Federal Service for the Regulation of the Alcohol Market is responsible for licenses for the production and sale of alcohol.

    7. Review the company's financial statements

      These papers will help you understand financial position potential partner. Request reporting (enough for Last year) you can go to Rosstat through the State Services service or from the company itself, whose work you are studying.

If everything is in order, you can sign. Good luck with business!

Supported by law firm"Shekhovtsov and partners"

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This is a problem, the extreme importance of which can not even be discussed.

However, there is a fairly convenient algorithm for solving it, which I successfully use.

The main thing is that the data are obtained in real time, are official and can be confirmed by relevant documents. After all, the documents that are submitted to confirm the status of a partner before concluding a deal already have certain period date of issue, and changes may have occurred. To simplify the perception of the material, I prepared a video (please do not judge it too harshly - this is my first attempt to work with the Kamtasia video studio, it was recorded right away - from the first take, I could not fix the terrible accent!).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj0c7o0O9j8 Therefore, I submit the text version as well.

1. Checking the status of the partner in the Unified State Register.

We go to the website of the State Enterprise "Information and Resource Center" (officially maintains the USR), in the section "SEARCH IN THE USR", agree with the search conditions, select the type of entity that we need to check (individual entrepreneur or legal entity), in the search field we make a request registration number taxpayer's registration card (full name of an individual) or EDRPOU code (name or part of it for a legal entity). I recommend entering exactly digital data - the search for them gives only one result, unlike text data, when the search can give tens and hundreds of answers, we enter the security code, “OK”, and we get on the screen information about the information that is in the USR on the moment of our verification (the data is updated immediately after the completion of the registration action by the state registrar - personally tested). There is not much information, but they are extremely important:

— Head — find out who has the right to sign documents on behalf of a legal entity (plus location and telephone numbers);

- Data on the presence of a legal entity in the process of termination - it is also important to know whether the counterparty is in the termination procedure (especially if by court decision);

– The date and name of the last registration action is the most important point of information, because if a record is made of the absence of a legal entity beyond its location, I recommend thinking ten times before entering into an agreement and being absolutely prepared for a tax audit, which will try very hard to find grounds for recognition agreement void and charge additional tax liabilities. It is also possible to record that there is no confirmation of information about the legal entity - this is a rather unpleasant fact, which may indicate insufficient qualifications of the management of the legal entity (but not as terrible as the first option).

2. Checking tax information.

Carried out on the website of the State tax service Ukraine in two directions - as a VAT payer and as a taxpayer.

We check the VAT payer on the "Register of VAT payers" service (the data is updated every ten days). Everything is simple and very similar to searching in the Unified State Register - we enter the EDRPOU code, the security code, and we get information regarding the VAT payer - the number of the Certificate and the date of its issue. The information may also be in the database "Cancelled certificates of VAT payers" - then you need to check the basis for the cancellation - at the initiative of the payer or the tax.

As a taxpayer, we check on the “Learn more about your business partner” service. The verification procedure is the same (there is only one difference - if the EDRPOU code starts with 0, they do not need to be entered in the request, for example - not “00123456”, but “123456”. We get information whether the payer is registered with the tax office, and has a tax debt at the beginning of the month.

Already after writing the material on the website of the State Tax Service of Ukraine, another rather necessary service was launched - “VERIFICATION OF THE CERTIFICATE OF A SINGLE TAX PAYER”, on which you can check the authenticity of the Certificate (but only by its series and number). The data is updated once a month. The procedure is the same as described above.

3. Verification of court cases.

Held on the website of the United state register judgments." In the "Search by context" field, enter the EDRPOU code (registration number of the taxpayer's registration card - an individual), click "SEARCH", and see if our potential business partner is involved in court cases, as which party and on what issues. You can also search by name, but the registry can return thousands of responses. It is very important to make sure that there are no cases of recognition of the nullity of contracts. If there are many such cases, it means that after the conclusion of the agreement, you cannot avoid them. But the decision, of course, is yours.