Home DUNS numbers How to Check a D-U-N-S Number for Any Business

How to Check a D-U-N-S Number for Any Business

A short walk through D&B's lookup tool, what to do when your record is stale, and when a business needs more than one number.

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Business owners check D-U-N-S Numbers to find their own or to look up another company's. D&B's page says you can look up your own D-U-N-S Number or another company's with the D-U-N-S Lookup tool. Here is the path, step by step.

What the number is

A D-U-N-S Number is a nine-digit ID. Only businesses get one. No two are alike. Dun & Bradstreet gives it out. It puts your company in the D&B database. Then others can see your firm is open for business. Organizations may use it to evaluate a business credit profile. It never expires or changes, even if the business closes or is purchased. More on what the number does is in our guide to the duns number free.

Check your own number

You may already have one and not know it. D&B has a lookup tool for exactly this. D&B's page says you can check whether your business already has a D-U-N-S Number using its lookup tool. If your business is in the database, the tool returns its number.

If nothing comes back, your business may not have a number yet. Getting one is free, and D&B says a D-U-N-S Number is issued just once and can be obtained at no cost. You never have to buy anything from D&B to get, use, or keep a number. Our page on the duns number for business covers how a business owner uses it.

Look up another company

The same tool works for other companies. The number shows the company is in the D&B database and open for business.

Fix outdated information

Say you find your number, but the business information behind it is wrong. Old address. Wrong industry code. A phone number from three offices ago.

U.S. companies that are not public can use D-U-N-S Manager. It is free. They can view their business record and ask for changes to it. D-U-N-S Manager lets a business send in changes. D&B checks them first. It may then accept them. This is free.

When a business needs more than one

A business with more than one location should get its own D-U-N-S Number for each one. Two shops in two towns means two numbers. One location needs only one number.

A D-U-N-S Number is not required for U.S. federal government contracts. D&B also says no company has to have one at all.

The number is only the starting point. See what goes into a business credit report experian file. Or learn how a business credit report equifax works.

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