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Business Pre.Fill: Basics

Pre.Fill helps financial institutions create exceptional applicant experiences by auto-populating business information based solely on an officer's name - reducing required fields for applicants and improving onboarding accuracy.

This guide covers the fundamentals of Pre.Fill, including what it does, when to use it, and how it fits into your verification workflow.

What is Pre.Fill?

Pre.Fill is a lightweight API endpoint that searches for business registrations based on an officer's name. Given an individual's name, Pre.Fill returns a list of businesses where that person is listed as an officer in Secretary of State records, along with key information like:

  • Business legal name
  • Registration state
  • Business address
  • All officers on the registration
  • Similarity score indicating name match confidence
  • Business name match indicator (if you provide a business name)

This allows you to present applicants with pre-filled business options rather than requiring manual data entry.

Why Use Pre.Fill?

Pre.Fill addresses a common friction point in business onboarding: data entry. Traditional flows require applicants to manually type business names, addresses, EINs, and other details - creating opportunities for errors and increasing abandonment rates.

Key benefits:

  • Faster onboarding: Reduce application fields by +70%
  • Fewer errors: Eliminate typos in business names and addresses
  • Better UX: Let applicants select rather than type
  • Higher conversion: Reduce drop-off from manual data entry fatigue
  • Verified data: Information comes directly from official SOS registrations

Pre.Fill is particularly valuable for:

  • SMB lending applications
  • Business banking account opening
  • Merchant onboarding for payments
  • Small business credit cards
  • Any high-volume business verification flow

How Pre.Fill Works

Pre.Fill uses a simple GET request that takes only an officer's name as a required parameter. The endpoint searches Secretary of State registrations across all 50 states and returns matching businesses where that individual is listed as an officer.

Request Parameters

Required:

  • officer_name: The individual's name (e.g., "John Smith")

Optional:

  • business_name: The business name if known (enables business name matching)
  • similarity_threshold: Minimum similarity score to return (0-1 scale)
  • limit: Maximum number of results to return (default: 50)

Response Structure

Pre.Fill returns an array of business registrations, each containing:

  • Business identification: Legal name, state, file number
  • Location: Full business address with deliverability indicators
  • Officers: Complete list of registered officers
  • Match indicators:
    • similarity_score: How closely the officer name matches (0-1 scale, where 1.0 is exact)
    • business_name_match: If business name provided, indicates match quality (EXACT, SIMILAR, NO_MATCH)
  • Alternative names: DBAs or name changes

Integration with Business Search

Pre.Fill is designed to be used BEFORE running a full Business Search.

The typical workflow is:

  1. Collect: Get the officer's name from your applicant
  2. Pre.Fill: Use Pre.Fill to retrieve potential business matches
  3. Select: Present 1-3 top matches to the applicant
  4. Verify: Use the selected business information (name, address) as input for Business Search

This ensures you're running full KYB verification on the correct entity with accurate data.

Understanding Match Indicators

Pre.Fill provides two key indicators to help you determine which registrations to show applicants:

Similarity Score

The similarity_score (0-1 scale) indicates how closely the officer name in the registration matches the search query:

  • 1.0: Exact match (e.g., "John Smith" → "John Smith")
  • 0.93: Very close match (e.g., "John Smith" → "John M Smith")
  • 0.72: Partial match (e.g., "John Smith" → "John Smith Jr.")

Best practice: Show registrations with similarity scores ≥ 0.8 to applicants.

Business Name Match

If you provide a business_name parameter, Pre.Fill will indicate how well it matches each registration:

  • SIMILAR: Close match (recommended to show)
  • EXACT: Perfect match (highest confidence)
  • NO_MATCH: Different business name

Use this to prioritize which registrations to display when you have a business name from the applicant.

Data Source and Fraud Considerations

Important: Pre.Fill uses only public information from Secretary of State business registrations. This data is already freely available to anyone, including fraudsters.

Pre.Fill does not increase fraud risk because:

  • All data returned is public record
  • The public already have access to this information
  • You're simply making legitimate data easier to access for your applicants

The key to fraud prevention is verifying the applicant's identity BEFORE using Pre.Fill (see Best Practices guide).

When Pre.Fill Works Best

Pre.Fill is most effective when:

  • SMBs and partnerships: Smaller businesses with identifiable officers
  • Standard entity types: LLCs, corporations, partnerships

Pre.Fill provides the most value for:

  • Small business lending
  • Merchant onboarding
  • Business checking accounts
  • Small business credit cards

Limitations and Edge Cases

While Pre.Fill works for most business verification scenarios, there are some limitations:

When Pre.Fill May Fail

  1. Sole proprietorships: Most states don't hold records of sole prop registrations
  2. Missing officer data: Some states (like New Jersey) don't consistently record officer information
  3. Large organizations: Low-level employees might not appear as officers
  4. Very common names: "John Smith" may return 50+ unrelated businesses

Recommendation: Always provide a manual entry option for applicants when Pre.Fill doesn't return relevant matches.

What's Next

After understanding Pre.Fill basics, continue with:

Pre.Fill: API Quickstart

Learn how to:

  • Make your first Pre.Fill request
  • Handle responses and present options to applicants
  • Integrate Pre.Fill with Business Search
  • Build a complete auto-fill workflow

Pre.Fill: Best Practices

Learn how to:

  • Implement Pre.Fill safely with proper KYC first
  • Choose which registrations to display
  • Handle edge cases and failures gracefully
  • Optimize the applicant experience
  • Request EIN for complete verification

Summary

Pre.Fill transforms business onboarding from a manual data entry exercise into a simple selection process:

  • Simple API: Single GET request with officer name
  • Fast results: Up to 50 business registrations in milliseconds
  • Public data: Uses official Secretary of State records
  • Pre-verification: Sets up accurate Business Search input
  • Better UX: Reduces friction and improves conversion

Pre.Fill is the first step in creating a seamless, low-friction business verification experience that accelerates onboarding while maintaining data accuracy.

Updated 16 days ago