# UK & Australia Company Check (KYB): ABN, ASIC, Companies House (`poised_beardlichen/company-registry-check`) Actor

Use this when you need to check that a UK or Australian company is real and in good standing. $0.003/company, $0.005 full report, +$0.002 UK officers/owners; no match free. Input: {"query":"Atlassian"} or an ABN, ACN or UK company number. Output: status, dates, type, red flags.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/poised_beardlichen/company-registry-check.md
- **Developed by:** [Isaac](https://apify.com/poised_beardlichen) (community)
- **Categories:** Business, Lead generation, AI
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 0.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## UK & Australia Company Registry Check API (KYB): ABN, ACN, ASIC, Companies House

**Use this when you or your AI agent need to check that a UK or Australian company is real, active and in good standing**, before you pay an invoice, onboard a supplier, sign a lease or add a lead. Give it a company name or a registration number. You get one clean JSON record per company, straight from the official registers, with plain-English **red flags**:

- 🇦🇺 **Australia:** ASIC company register (name, ACN, ABN, status such as registered, deregistered, *external administration* or *strike-off in progress*, company type and class, registration date, former names), plus with ABN Lookup: **ABN status, GST registration date, entity type, state, postcode and trading names**. Full reports add **registered business names** and **ACNC charity status**. Registered charities are found by ABN from the ACNC register even when they are not ASIC companies. Sole traders, trusts and partnerships are covered through ABN Lookup.
- 🇬🇧 **United Kingdom:** Companies House profile (status, incorporation date, SIC codes, registered office, **overdue accounts or confirmation statement**, insolvency history, previous names). Optionally **current directors and persons with significant control** (beneficial owners). Full reports add a **disqualified-director check**, **charges** (secured lending), **recent filings** and **insolvency notices from The Gazette**.
- 🚩 **Red flags** such as "status is liquidation", "accounts overdue", "ASIC status is external administration", "not registered for GST", "a current director matches the disqualified directors register" or "incorporated less than a year ago"
- 💸 **From $0.003 per company. Queries with no match are free.** No start fee

> **Official sources only.** Companies House API (Crown copyright, free reuse), The Gazette (Open Government Licence v3), ASIC company and business-name registers and the ACNC charity register via data.gov.au (CC BY 3.0 AU), and the ABR's ABN Lookup web services. No scraping, no resold data.

### What can I use it for?

- **Invoice-fraud and supplier checks:** is this ABN active and GST-registered before you pay a tax invoice?
- **KYB / onboarding:** confirm a customer's legal name, number, status and directors
- **AI agents:** "is Acme Pty Ltd still trading?", "who owns this UK company?"
- **Lead qualification:** company age, industry (SIC), size of business-name portfolio
- **Pairing with our [Website Legitimacy Check](https://apify.com/poised_beardlichen/website-legitimacy-check)** for the website side (domain age, SSL, look-alike domains, EU VAT)

### Input

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `query` | string | | One company name, UK company number, ABN or ACN |
| `queries` | array | | Up to 2,000 names or numbers per run |
| `country` | `auto` / `AU` / `GB` | `auto` | ABN/ACN → Australia, 8-character numbers → UK, names → both |
| `mode` | `profile` / `full` | `profile` | Full adds officers, owners, disqualification, charges, filings and insolvency notices (UK), or business names and charity status (AU) |
| `includeOfficers` | boolean | false | UK directors and owners in profile mode (+$0.002) |
| `maxResultsPerQuery` | integer | 1 | For name searches, how many matches to return |

```json
{"queries": ["Atlassian", "53 102 443 916", "Tesco PLC"], "mode": "full"}
```

### Output

Australian company (profile mode, ASIC open data only):

```json
{
  "query": "Atlassian",
  "found": true,
  "country": "AU",
  "registry": "ASIC",
  "acn": "102443916",
  "abn": "53102443916",
  "name": "ATLASSIAN PTY LTD",
  "status": "registered",
  "statusCode": "REGD",
  "type": "Australian proprietary company",
  "class": "limited by shares",
  "registeredOn": "2002-10-08",
  "deregisteredOn": null,
  "ageYears": 24,
  "previousNames": ["ATLASSIAN SOFTWARE SYSTEMS PROPRIETARY LIMITED"],
  "abnDetails": null,
  "registryUrl": "https://abr.business.gov.au/ABN/View?abn=53102443916",
  "flags": [],
  "sources": ["ASIC company register via data.gov.au (CC BY 3.0 AU)"]
}
```

When ABN Lookup is enabled, `abnDetails` holds `abnStatus`, `abnStatusFrom`, `entityType`, `gstRegisteredFrom`, `state`, `postcode` and `businessNames`.

UK company (full mode, shortened; values are illustrative):

```json
{
  "query": "00445790", "found": true, "country": "GB", "registry": "Companies House",
  "companyNumber": "00445790", "name": "TESCO PLC", "status": "active", "type": "plc",
  "incorporatedOn": "1947-11-27", "sicCodes": ["47110"],
  "registeredAddress": "Tesco House, Welwyn Garden City, AL7 1GA, United Kingdom",
  "accounts": {"lastMadeUpTo": "2026-02-28", "nextDue": "2027-08-31", "overdue": false},
  "confirmationStatement": {"nextDue": "2027-01-01", "overdue": false},
  "officers": [{"name": "MURPHY, Ken", "role": "director", "appointedOn": "2020-10-01", "nationality": "Irish"}],
  "significantControl": [],
  "disqualifiedDirectorMatches": [],
  "charges": {"total": 3, "outstanding": 1},
  "recentFilings": [{"date": "2026-06-01", "category": "accounts", "type": "AA"}],
  "gazetteInsolvencyNotices": [],
  "flags": []
}
```

No match: `{"query": "Not A Real Co", "found": false, "error": "No Australian company found for \"Not A Real Co\". Not charged."}`

Officer and owner records contain only what the register publishes for that purpose (name, role, appointment date, nationality, country of residence). Dates of birth are not returned.

### Pricing

| Event | Price | When |
|---|---|---|
| Company profile | **$0.003** | One company record returned (profile mode) |
| UK officers and owners | **$0.002** | Extra, in profile mode with `includeOfficers` |
| Due-diligence report | **$0.005** | One company in full mode (instead of the profile event) |

Queries with no match, invalid ABNs and failed lookups are free. Set **Maximum cost per run** and the Actor stops cleanly at your limit.

### Use it from an AI agent

Call it through the [Apify MCP server](https://mcp.apify.com) with `https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=poised_beardlichen/company-registry-check`. A single check takes 2–6 seconds. For long lists, start a run with `POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/poised_beardlichen~company-registry-check/runs`, poll `GET /v2/actor-runs/<runId>?waitForFinish=60`, then read `GET /v2/datasets/<defaultDatasetId>/items?clean=true`.

### FAQ

**How fresh is the data?** Companies House and ABN Lookup are queried live. The ASIC company, business-name and ACNC datasets on data.gov.au are refreshed by ASIC and the ACNC weekly, so a change in the last few days may not show yet; `registryUrl` links to the live register.

**Does it cover sole traders and trusts in Australia?** Yes, by ABN, through ABN Lookup. They are not in the ASIC company register.

**Why didn't the disqualified-director check fire?** It matches the director's full name and month and year of birth against the register, to avoid false alarms from common names. Treat a match as a lead to verify, not a verdict.

**Is it a credit check?** No. It reports what the public registers show. It does not include credit scores, court judgments or payment history.

### Other tools by us

- [Audio & Video Transcriber (Whisper)](https://apify.com/poised_beardlichen/audio-video-transcriber): MP3, WAV, M4A and MP4 to text, timed segments and SRT subtitles at $0.006 per audio minute.
- [Bulk Email Verifier](https://apify.com/poised_beardlichen/email-verifier-bulk): syntax, MX, disposable and role-address checks at $0.30 per 1,000 emails.
- [Website Screenshot & PDF API](https://apify.com/poised_beardlichen/website-screenshot-pdf): bulk screenshots and PDFs of any page with cookie banners and pop-ups removed.
- [Website Screenshot & PDF for AI Agents](https://apify.com/poised_beardlichen/website-screenshot-pdf-agent): fast single-page screenshots and PDFs for agents, from $0.0015 per screenshot.
- [PDF to Text & Markdown with OCR](https://apify.com/poised_beardlichen/pdf-to-text-markdown-ocr): turn PDFs, DOCX and scans into clean, LLM-ready Markdown.
- [Image to Text OCR API](https://apify.com/poised_beardlichen/image-to-text-ocr): extract text from PNG, JPEG, TIFF and WebP images in 27 languages.
- [Bulk PageSpeed & Lighthouse Checker](https://apify.com/poised_beardlichen/pagespeed-lighthouse-checker): Lighthouse scores, Core Web Vitals and top fixes for many URLs.
- [Website Tech Stack Detector](https://apify.com/poised_beardlichen/tech-stack-detector): CMS, ecommerce, analytics, CDN and 7,600+ other technologies behind any website.
- [Research Paper Search](https://apify.com/poised_beardlichen/research-paper-search): arXiv, PubMed and Crossref papers plus legal open-access full text from $0.0015 per paper.
- [SEC EDGAR Financials & Filings](https://apify.com/poised_beardlichen/sec-edgar-financials): US company financials, filings and 10-K sections as compact JSON.
- [Website Legitimacy & Scam Check](https://apify.com/poised_beardlichen/website-legitimacy-check): domain age, SSL, look-alike brands, VAT and LEI signals at $0.008 per site.
- [Bulk Phone Number Validator](https://apify.com/poised_beardlichen/phone-number-validator): validity, E.164 format, line type and region for any number at $0.70 per 1,000.
- [Company Contact & Profile Extractor](https://apify.com/poised_beardlichen/company-contact-extractor): generic emails, phones, socials and profile from any company website at $0.004 per site.
- [Company Careers & Open Jobs Lookup](https://apify.com/poised_beardlichen/careers-jobs-lookup): open jobs from Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby and more at $0.0015 per job.

### Support

A company that is missing or shown wrongly? Open an issue on the **Issues** tab with the name or number.

# Actor input Schema

## `query` (type: `string`):

One company name, UK company number (e.g. 00445790, SC123456), ABN (11 digits) or ACN (9 digits). Combined with the list below; provide at least one of the two.

## `queries` (type: `array`):

Company names or registration numbers, one per line. Up to 2,000 per run.

## `country` (type: `string`):

Where to look. With Auto, ABNs and ACNs go to Australia, 8-character company numbers to the UK, and names are searched in both.

## `mode` (type: `string`):

Profile: status, dates, type, address and red flags. Full adds UK officers, owners, disqualified-director check, charges, filings and Gazette insolvency notices, or Australian business names and ACNC charity status.

## `includeOfficers` (type: `boolean`):

In profile mode, also return current UK directors and persons with significant control for $0.002 more per company. Already included in the full report.

## `maxResultsPerQuery` (type: `integer`):

For name searches, how many matching companies to return (each one is charged). Number lookups always return one.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "queries": [
    "Atlassian",
    "53 102 443 916",
    "004 028 077"
  ],
  "country": "auto",
  "mode": "profile",
  "includeOfficers": false,
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 1
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "queries": [
        "Atlassian",
        "53 102 443 916",
        "004 028 077"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("poised_beardlichen/company-registry-check").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "queries": [
        "Atlassian",
        "53 102 443 916",
        "004 028 077",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("poised_beardlichen/company-registry-check").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "queries": [
    "Atlassian",
    "53 102 443 916",
    "004 028 077"
  ]
}' |
apify call poised_beardlichen/company-registry-check --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,poised_beardlichen/company-registry-check"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/SwoZZEP50vEn4z8ey/builds/YIyMVQ39gBJzh6xIW/openapi.json