I am doing some research in how to keep our client base up-to-date regarding company names and related addresses. I was looking around in the developer’s API suite and I saw I am able to retrieve companies house public data API reference but what is the companyNumber that I need for each company and how do I get this number best? Is it similar to a chamber of commerce code? Next to that, which of the Companies House Public Data API reference requests is best to do to retrieve for example for each client of us the company name and addresses? I would like some advice on this :). Do you also provide checks where I can sent a list of clients which can be checked on a set of parameters to see how good our data quality is instead of using the API? Thanks in advance!
How do you identify a company? By name? If so, you can:
a) Use the Public Data API Company Search endpoint (or the Advanced Search) to search for the company by name. (BTW this is a fuzzy search, like most text searches - so you will almost always find lots of matches, it’s then up to you how you find the “right” one…)
b) Download the Bulk Data for all companies - you can then search that (offline).
Depending on your needs you might be able to keep things up to date by occasionally polling the companies you’re interested in (or downloading the bulk data). However if you have a lot of companies to check or need things to be up-to-date whenever a company files a change, the Streaming API might be better for you.
Hello, thanks for the response. Currently we do not have a unique identifier for all our UK customers but by name is possibl. But like you said, a fuzzy matching won’t really help with improving our customer information I think. I believe I’ve read that all companies also have a company number? Is there any way I can get these easily? Because is it possible with the stream API to keep our customer information up-to-date based on changes in company numbers in our system? based on what parameter will the stream API be triggered?
Companies House assigns a number to each company registered with them. But you will still need some kind of human search / fuzzy lookup / your customers to give you the numbers. Otherwise … here are a few: 00445790, 14334303, 16331833 … now what?
But yes - once you have something in your system that you’ve got a company number for (which someone can search for on Companies House APIs e.g. by name, type of company etc.), that Company Number identifies an entity within the UK Companies House Registry, and you can then easily look up information when you want using the Companies House Public Data API. (The Companies Number one of the “key” fields in the API).
The Streaming API is essentially a pipe which you connect to (“subscribe” to). You’ll find that changes are simply broadcast there whenever any company posts an update. You just have to listen and throw away any updates you aren’t interested in.
to arrange a free, no obligation discussion with StatBooks® - the established Companies House data specialists about your needs, the resources you have available and suitable options.
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