Florida SunBiz Business Data Scraper

Extract comprehensive business information from Florida's official SunBiz database (search.sunbiz.org). Fast, reliable, and accurate data extraction for business research, due diligence, compliance monitoring, and market analysis.

Why Use This Actor?

• ✅ Official Source - Scrapes directly from Florida Department of State's official SunBiz database
• ⚡ Fast & Reliable - Optimized HTTP requests with smart retry logic and premium proxy support
• 📊 Complete Data - Extracts all available business information including officers, directors, and agents
• 🔍 Flexible Search - Search by business name or document number
• 🎯 Clean Output - Structured JSON data ready for immediate use
• 🔄 Batch Processing - Process hundreds of businesses in a single run
• 💰 Cost Effective - Approximately $0.02-0.05 per 100 records

Quick Start

Simple Search by Business Name

{
  "searchMode": "entityName",
  "searchTerms": ["WALMART", "PUBLIX", "TARGET"],
  "maxResults": 10
}

Direct Lookup by Document Number

{
  "searchMode": "documentNumber",
  "documentNumbers": ["L05000090555", "L23000246268"],
  "maxResults": 10
}

Features

Feature	Description
🔎 Entity Name Search	Find businesses by registered name
🆔 Document Number Lookup	Direct retrieval using Florida document IDs
👔 Officers & Directors	Complete listings with names, titles, and addresses
📝 Registered Agents	Agent name, address, and change history
⚖️ Authorized Persons	Full authorized person details
📅 Filing Information	Status, filing dates, and document numbers
📤 Multiple Export Formats	JSON, CSV, Excel, XML
🔁 Automatic Retries	Built-in error handling and retry logic

Example Output

Registered Agent Information

{
  "documentNumber": "849374",
  "entityName": "WALMART INC.",
  "status": "ACTIVE",
  "filingDate": "06/08/1981",
  "registeredAgent": {
    "name": "C T CORPORATION SYSTEM",
    "address": "1200 SOUTH PINE ISLAND ROAD, PLANTATION, FL 33324",
    "nameChanged": "03/02/2017",
    "addressChanged": "03/02/2017"
  }
}

Officers & Directors

{
  "officers": [
    {
      "title": "Director, President",
      "name": "McMillon, C. Douglas",
      "address": "1 Customer Dr., BENTONVILLE, AR 72716"
    },
    {
      "title": "EVP/CFO",
      "name": "Rainey, John David",
      "address": "1 Customer Dr., BENTONVILLE, AR 72716"
    }
  ]
}

Authorized Persons (LLCs)

{
  "authorizedPersons": [
    {
      "title": "Manager, President, CEO",
      "name": "KAPADIA, VISHAL",
      "address": "1 Customer Dr., BENTONVILLE, AR 72716"
    }
  ]
}

Input Parameters

searchMode (required)

Type: string | Default: "entityName"

Choose your search method:

Value	Description
entityName	Search businesses by their registered name
documentNumber	Look up businesses using Florida document numbers

searchTerms (array)

Type: array of strings | Required when: searchMode = "entityName"

List of business names to search for. Partial matches are supported.

Examples:

["WALMART", "PUBLIX SUPER MARKETS", "AMAZON SERVICES LLC"]

Tips:

• Use uppercase for better matching
• Exact names return faster results
• Partial names may return multiple matches

documentNumbers (array)

Type: array of strings | Required when: searchMode = "documentNumber"

List of Florida document numbers to look up directly.

Examples:

["L05000090555", "L23000246268", "F96000005067"]

Document Number Prefixes:

• L - Limited Liability Company (LLC)
• F - Foreign (out-of-state) Corporation
• P - Domestic Profit Corporation
• N - Domestic Non-Profit Corporation
• D - Business Trust
• M - Limited Liability Partnership
• T - Trademark

maxResults (number)

Type: integer | Default: 100 | Range: 1 - 10,000

Maximum number of business records to process in a single run.

Recommendations:

• 10-50: Quick research or testing
• 100-500: Medium-scale data collection
• 1,000+: Large-scale database building

Output Structure

Complete Field Reference

Field	Type	Description	Always Present
documentNumber	string	Florida state document number	✅
entityName	string	Official registered business name	✅
status	string	Business status (ACTIVE/INACTIVE)	✅
filingDate	string	Date filed with the state	✅
registeredAgent	object	Registered agent details	✅
registeredAgent.name	string	Agent's name or 'NONE'	✅
registeredAgent.address	string	Agent's address or 'NONE'	✅
registeredAgent.nameChanged	string	Date name was changed	❌ Optional
registeredAgent.addressChanged	string	Date address was changed	❌ Optional
officers	array	Officers and directors	✅
officers[].title	string	Officer title/position	✅
officers[].name	string	Officer name	✅
officers[].address	string	Officer address	✅
authorizedPersons	array	Authorized persons (mainly LLCs)	✅
authorizedPersons[].title	string	Person's title	✅
authorizedPersons[].name	string	Person's name	✅
authorizedPersons[].address	string	Person's address	✅

Use Cases & Applications

🔍 Business Intelligence & Research

Perfect For:

• Competitive analysis and market research
• Industry trend analysis
• Investment opportunity research
• Business structure analysis

Example Use:

Track all Walmart-related entities in Florida, analyze their structure, leadership, and growth patterns.

✅ Legal Due Diligence & Compliance

Perfect For:

• Pre-acquisition due diligence
• Contract verification
• Regulatory compliance checks
• Corporate governance review

Example Use:

Verify registered agent information for all business partners before signing contracts.

📊 Sales & Lead Generation

Perfect For:

• Building prospect databases
• Contact information enrichment
• Decision-maker identification
• Territory planning

Example Use:

Identify all active LLCs in specific industries, extract leadership contacts for outreach campaigns.

🏢 Corporate Monitoring & Tracking

Perfect For:

• Competitor monitoring
• Partner/vendor monitoring
• Status change alerts
• Leadership change tracking

Example Use:

Monitor registered agent changes across portfolio companies to stay informed of corporate actions.

📈 Market Analysis & Research

Perfect For:

• Economic research
• Industry analysis
• Geographic business patterns
• Corporate structure studies

Example Use:

Analyze business formation trends by entity type and location over time.

🔐 Risk Assessment & Verification

Perfect For:

• Vendor vetting
• Background verification
• Ownership validation
• Status confirmation

Example Use:

Verify business is active and properly registered before processing high-value transactions.

Performance & Pricing

Speed

• Small Batches (1-10 records): ~30 seconds
• Medium Batches (11-100 records): 1-3 minutes
• Large Batches (101-1000 records): 10-30 minutes

Reliability

• Success Rate: 99%+ with automatic retry logic
• Retries: Up to 5 attempts per request
• Proxy: Premium proxies for consistent access

Cost Estimates

Records	Estimated Cost	Use Case
1-10	~$0.01	Quick lookup
11-100	~$0.02-0.05	Research project
101-500	~$0.10-0.25	Lead generation
501-1,000	~$0.25-0.50	Database building

Costs are approximate and depend on Apify platform pricing and compute usage.

Export Formats

JSON

{
  "documentNumber": "849374",
  "entityName": "WALMART INC.",
  "status": "ACTIVE"
}

Perfect for: API integrations, data pipelines, programming

CSV

documentNumber,entityName,status,filingDate
849374,WALMART INC.,ACTIVE,06/08/1981

Perfect for: Excel, Google Sheets, database imports

Excel (.xlsx)

Formatted spreadsheet with headers and proper data types. Perfect for: Business analysis, reporting, presentations

XML

<record>
  <documentNumber>849374</documentNumber>
  <entityName>WALMART INC.</entityName>
</record>

Perfect for: Enterprise systems, legacy integrations

Best Practices & Tips

1. Optimize Your Searches

✅ DO: Use exact business names when known ✅ DO: Use document numbers for fastest results ✅ DO: Batch multiple lookups in one run ❌ DON'T: Use overly broad search terms ❌ DON'T: Set maxResults higher than needed

2. Handle Results Effectively

• Check status field to filter active vs inactive businesses
• Validate registeredAgent is not "NONE" before using contact info
• Handle empty officers or authorizedPersons arrays appropriately
• Note that older records may have less detailed information

3. Cost Optimization

• Start with small test runs (10-50 records) to validate your use case
• Use maxResults to control costs on large searches
• Process results in batches rather than individual runs
• Cache results to avoid duplicate lookups

4. Scheduling & Automation

• Schedule daily/weekly runs for monitoring purposes
• Use webhooks to trigger downstream processes
• Store results in datasets for historical tracking
• Set up alerts for status changes or updates

Common Search Patterns

Pattern 1: Research Specific Companies

{
  "searchMode": "entityName",
  "searchTerms": ["WALMART", "TARGET CORPORATION", "COSTCO"],
  "maxResults": 50
}

Use When: Researching known companies and their Florida entities

Pattern 2: Direct Document Lookup

{
  "searchMode": "documentNumber",
  "documentNumbers": ["L05000090555", "L23000246268", "F96000005067"],
  "maxResults": 10
}

Use When: You have specific document numbers from other sources

Pattern 3: Industry Discovery

{
  "searchMode": "entityName",
  "searchTerms": ["MEDICAL", "PHARMACY", "HEALTHCARE"],
  "maxResults": 500
}

Use When: Building databases of businesses in specific industries

Pattern 4: Entity Type Analysis

{
  "searchMode": "entityName",
  "searchTerms": ["LLC", "INC", "CORP"],
  "maxResults": 1000
}

Use When: Analyzing business structures and entity types

Data Freshness & Accuracy

Source Reliability

All data is extracted in real-time from Florida's official Department of State SunBiz database at search.sunbiz.org. This is the same source used by legal professionals, government agencies, and the public.

Update Frequency

• Data is scraped on-demand during each actor run
• No caching - always get the latest available information
• Changes reflect within hours of state database updates

Data Completeness

• Modern Records (2000+): Typically complete with all fields
• Older Records (Pre-2000): May have limited detail
• Some entity types: May not have officers (e.g., certain trusts)

Technical Specifications

Infrastructure

• Runtime Environment: Node.js 20.x
• Framework: Apify SDK 3.x
• HTTP Client: got-scraping 4.x with custom headers
• HTML Parser: Cheerio 1.x
• Proxy: Premium residential/datacenter proxies

Reliability Features

• Automatic retry on failures (5 attempts)
• Exponential backoff between retries
• Non-breaking space handling
• Character encoding normalization
• Request rate optimization

Data Processing

• Real-time HTML parsing
• Field normalization and cleaning
• Change history extraction
• Duplicate prevention
• Error logging and reporting

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How current is the data? A: Data is scraped in real-time from the official database, so it's always current as of the moment you run the actor.

Q: Can I export the results? A: Yes! Export to JSON, CSV, Excel, or XML directly from the Apify platform.

Q: What if a business name returns multiple results? A: The actor will process all matches up to your maxResults limit. Use document numbers for exact matches.

Q: Do I need special permissions to use this? A: No. All data is publicly available from the State of Florida. No special licenses or permissions required.

Q: Can I schedule regular runs? A: Yes! Use Apify's scheduling feature to run the actor daily, weekly, monthly, or at any custom interval.

Q: What happens if a business isn't found? A: The actor will skip unfound businesses and continue processing your list. No errors are thrown for missing records.

Q: How do I handle large datasets (10,000+ records)? A: Break into multiple runs with maxResults set to 1000 per run, or use different search terms to segment your data collection.

Q: Are there rate limits? A: No explicit rate limits. The actor uses smart request pacing and premium proxies to avoid blocks.

Q: Can I get historical data? A: The current database state is available. For change tracking, you'd need to run the actor periodically and compare results over time.

Q: What about inactive or dissolved businesses? A: These are included in results with status: "INACTIVE". Filter by status field as needed.

Troubleshooting

No Results Returned

• Check search terms: Ensure exact spelling of business names
• Try document numbers: More reliable than name searches
• Verify entity exists: Search manually on search.sunbiz.org first

Missing Officer Data

• Older entities: Pre-2000 records may have limited information
• Certain entity types: Some trusts/partnerships may not list officers
• Check authorizedPersons: LLCs often use this field instead

Slow Performance

• Reduce maxResults: Start with smaller batches
• Use document numbers: Faster than name searches
• Check proxy status: Contact support if consistently slow

Support & Resources

Official Documentation

• Apify Documentation
• Florida SunBiz Official Site

Getting Help

For questions, issues, or feature requests, contact support through the Apify platform or visit the actor's discussion page.

Updates & Maintenance

This actor is actively maintained. Check the changelog for recent updates and improvements.

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Last Updated: November 2024 | Version: 1.0

This actor extracts publicly available information from Florida's Department of State SunBiz database. Data is provided as-is from official state records. Please use responsibly and in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.