> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.baselayer.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Account Settings

> Tailor how Baselayer screens and matches for your organization

Account Settings let your admins tailor how Baselayer works for your organization: which watchlists your searches screen against, how strict a name match must be before it is reported as a hit, and how broadly lien searches match debtor names.

Settings take effect on new searches as soon as they are saved. Searches that already ran keep the settings they ran with.

<Info>
  We're adding more options to Account Settings over time. This page will grow as new settings become available.
</Info>

***

### Where to Find Them

Click your name at the bottom of the left sidebar and choose **Settings**. Only users with permission to update the organization (typically admins) can change settings; everyone else sees them read-only.

<img src="https://mintcdn.com/baselayer-81245324/FMB4mUF698XrumT8/images/account-settings-watchlist-screening.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=FMB4mUF698XrumT8&q=85&s=b45090b2b79d4c10a39fc9d5e539d9ee" alt="Watchlist Screening in the Baselayer console Settings tab, with a switch and a match sensitivity slider for each list" width="1400" height="968" data-path="images/account-settings-watchlist-screening.png" />

***

### Watchlist Screening

Choose which screening lists your business searches and international business searches run against, and how close a name has to match before it is reported as a hit.

| List | Full name |
| :- | :- |
| OFAC | Department of Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control |
| PEP | Politically Exposed Persons |
| CSL | Department of Commerce, Consolidated Screening List |
| FBI | FBI Wanted List |
| CNS | Consolidated Canadian Autonomous Sanctions List |
| OIG | HHS OIG List of Excluded Individuals/Entities |

For each list you can:

* **Turn screening on or off.**
* **Set the match sensitivity** (similarity threshold) — the minimum name similarity, as a percentage, for a match to be reported. A higher percentage returns fewer, more exact matches; a lower one catches more spelling variations but returns more potential false positives to review.

By default every list is on, with a 95% similarity threshold.

<img src="https://mintcdn.com/baselayer-81245324/FMB4mUF698XrumT8/images/account-settings-lists-off.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=FMB4mUF698XrumT8&q=85&s=848d06274d94c2204aeb4382e74178e3" alt="Watchlist Screening settings with the FBI Wanted and Canadian National Security lists switched off" width="1400" height="841" data-path="images/account-settings-lists-off.png" />

A few things to know:

* The threshold applies to the names you submit in a search. Hits on the shared business profile (`business.watchlist_hits`) are always screened at the 95% default, although lists you turn off are hidden there too.
* A list you turn off is absent from `watchlist_hits`, rather than shown with a `count` of 0.
* [Standalone watchlist checks](/docs/watchlists-sanctions-standalone-checks) don't use these settings — you set the threshold on each request instead.

<Warning>
  Turning a list off means your searches will not report hits from it. Confirm any change with your compliance team before saving.
</Warning>

***

### Lien Matching

By default, lien searches return liens whose debtor name exactly matches the business. You can opt in to looser matches, each of which surfaces more liens — including some that may belong to a different business:

| Option | What it adds |
| :- | :- |
| Alternative names | Liens filed under the business's alternative names, such as DBAs |
| Suffix mismatches | Names that are identical except for the legal suffix (e.g. "Acme Holdings Inc" and "Acme Holdings LLC") |
| Fuzzy matches | Names with typos or small spelling variations (e.g. "Acme Holdngs LLC" and "Acme Holdings LLC") |
| Collapsed initialisms | Initialisms written with or without spaces (e.g. "F B I Headquarters" and "FBI Headquarters") |

Every option is off by default, so your results don't change unless you turn one on.

***

### Going Back to the Defaults

To undo your changes, select **Reset to default settings** at the bottom of the Settings tab. Your organization returns to Baselayer's defaults for every setting on the page.

***

### Related

* [Watchlists & Sanctions: Basics](/docs/watchlists-sanctions-basics)
* [Lien Search: Basics](/docs/lien-search-basics)


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