NASBA CPA Directory Scraper

Search the official NASBA CPAverify public directory and return normalized CPA license records. Use it for license verification workflows, accounting-firm research, compliance review, and agent pipelines that need a CPA’s public board status, license number, dates, and source URL.

The actor searches public data supplied by U.S. state Boards of Accountancy to NASBA’s Accountancy Licensee Database. It does not require a login and does not invent missing values.

What it extracts

Each dataset item represents one CPA directory result and, when enabled, its public detail page.

Field	Description
licenseeName	CPA name shown in the directory
jurisdiction	Board jurisdiction code, such as NY or TX
licenseNumber	License, permit, or certification number
licenseStatus	Status shown in the search table
licenseType	Detail-page license type, usually CPA
issueDate, expirationDate	Public license dates when displayed
disciplinaryAction	Board-reported enforcement or disciplinary text
cpeId, registrationNumber, basisForLicense	Additional public license metadata
homeAddress, businessAddress, mailingAddress	Public address summaries, when shown
recordLastUpdated	Update date displayed by NASBA
detailUrl	Direct NASBA page for verification
detailFetched, detailError	Enrichment diagnostics

Missing values are returned as null. The source directory may not participate for every U.S. jurisdiction, and the page itself notes that firm data is unavailable for some jurisdictions. This actor searches CPA license records, not firm records.

When to use it

Use this actor when you have a last name and need official public CPA license records. Narrow broad surnames with firstName, jurisdiction, licenseNumber, or middleName. Set includeDetails to false when you only need the fast search-table fields.

Do not use it for:

• CPA firm discovery or firm contact enrichment; NASBA has a separate Firm search surface.
• Private contact data, email addresses, phone numbers, or a determination that a license is legally valid beyond the board’s displayed status.
• A replacement for direct verification with the relevant State Board of Accountancy.

Input example

{
  "lastName": "Smith",
  "firstName": "Aaron",
  "jurisdiction": "NY",
  "maxResults": 10,
  "maxPages": 1,
  "includeDetails": true
}

lastName defaults to Smith so the Apify health check has a working example. For production runs, supply a narrower name or license number. The source displays up to 25 rows per page and no more than 250 results for one search; maxPages controls how many of those pages the actor reads.

Output example

{
  "licenseeName": "AARON JAMES SMITH",
  "maidenName": null,
  "jurisdiction": "NY",
  "licenseNumber": "122833",
  "licenseStatus": "Registered",
  "disciplinaryAction": "None reported to this site by the board.",
  "cpeId": "CPE-C7589",
  "licenseType": "CPA",
  "basisForLicense": null,
  "issueDate": "2016-11-14",
  "expirationDate": "2028-07-31",
  "yearsLicensed": 9,
  "recordLastUpdated": "2026-08-02",
  "mailingAddress": "BENTONVILLE, AR",
  "detailFetched": true,
  "detailError": null,
  "detailUrl": "https://ald.nasba.org/search/cpa/513608543?jurisdictionId=20",
  "sourceUrl": "https://ald.nasba.org/search/cpa/513608543?jurisdictionId=20",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-02T00:00:00.000Z"
}

The default key-value store also receives an OUTPUT object with status, records, searchUrl, includeDetails, maxResults, completion time, and warnings. A valid search with no matches is a successful warning outcome. If NASBA does not serve the search page after retries, the actor reports a failed run instead of silently returning an empty dataset.

Pricing

Event	Price
Actor start	$0.00005
CPA record returned	$0.005

The record event is charged only after the dataset item is saved. A run capped at 10 records costs at most $0.05005 in declared PPE charges, before any applicable platform usage charges. The actor never intentionally emits more than maxResults items.

API and MCP usage

JavaScript API example:

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('YOUR_USERNAME/nasba-cpa-directory-scraper').call({
  lastName: 'Smith',
  jurisdiction: 'NY',
  maxResults: 10
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

The stable title, input descriptions, and dataset schema are designed for Apify’s hosted MCP integration. Agents should use this actor for CPA license-directory lookups, not firm discovery or contact enrichment. The tool’s result preview is the dataset; paginate with the dataset ID when a run returns more records than the preview.

Reliability and legal notes

The actor uses a browser because NASBA’s current public search is a rendered web application. It keeps a single browser session per run, retries temporary page failures, deduplicates by jurisdiction/license/detail URL, and preserves search-table data if an individual detail page fails. It does not bypass CAPTCHA, authentication, paywalls, or access restrictions.

NASBA states that CPAverify is populated from official, publicly available state regulatory data. The data can be incomplete, delayed, or unavailable for non-participating jurisdictions. Always confirm important licensing decisions with the relevant state board. You are responsible for complying with NASBA terms of use, applicable privacy law, and restrictions on storing or redistributing public license information. This independent actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by NASBA or any state Board of Accountancy.

Troubleshooting

If a broad surname returns the source’s 250-result ceiling, add a jurisdiction or first name. If a record has detailFetched: false, the search result itself was preserved and detailError explains the failed detail request. If a run fails before returning records, retry later and include the run ID when reporting a possible NASBA layout or access-control change.