Company Due Diligence Services: How to Choose for a Small Business

Compare subjects, sources, analyst review and limitations—not just price—when choosing a one-off report on a supplier, investor or business partner.

Company due diligence services cover very different decisions. Checking a new supplier's public-risk record is not the same as auditing an acquisition target's accounts. Before comparing prices, describe the decision you need to make and the evidence that would change it.

This guide concerns counterparty research before a commercial relationship. It does not describe financial audit, valuation, quality-of-earnings work, factory inspection or employment screening.

Define the subject before you buy

Are you checking a legal company, an individual or the link between the two? A report on a company does not necessarily verify every person selling on its behalf. An individual's background does not establish that their proposed investment vehicle exists or that they can commit its funds.

For Scrutinex, use the Entity Report for a company, Individual for a named person, and Combined when the decision depends on the person-to-company relationship. Supply exact names, country and reliable identifiers. Ask for scope confirmation if your deal involves multiple entities or people rather than assuming one purchase covers the whole group.

Compare evidence and exclusions side by side

A provider's list of databases is not enough to assess the deliverable. Ask these questions:

Registry coverage: Which jurisdictions have a live connection? Does the report say "not verified" when an independent record was unavailable?
Screening scope: Which sanctions and export-control lists are checked, on which supplied subjects and identifiers?
Match handling: Who investigates possible matches, and does the report distinguish name similarity from corroborated identity?
Public research: Which names and languages are searched? Are source failures and limited visibility disclosed?
Ownership evidence: Which relationships were established from records, and which remain unknown?
Buyer concerns: Was a public complaints search run? Were listings, name collisions and repeated allegations assessed before inclusion?
Deliverable: Does the report include source links, dates, reasoning and unresolved questions rather than just a score?

The vendor due diligence checklist provides a practical evidence list. For restricted-party questions, compare a sanctions screening service with free government lookups.

Scrutinex prices and review depth

Scrutinex sells one-off reports without a subscription. These are current published USD prices, not industry averages:

Report	Standard	Full review
Entity	$99	$289
Individual	$119	$329
Combined	$169	$469

Standard uses automated screening with analyst review of flags; the published turnaround is two business days. Full adds end-to-end analyst review, corroboration and ambiguity resolution, plus reference verification where applicable and supplied; the published turnaround is five business days. See current pricing and payment terms for the offer you are buying.

A Full review adds analyst depth, not unlimited source access. Scrutinex currently has a live registry connection only for the UK. For non-UK entities the report states that registration could not be independently verified. Public court, ownership and local-language records depend on availability and the information supplied. Review content behind logins may remain invisible. A higher-priced tier does not erase these limitations.

The due diligence report cost guide explains why scope matters more than comparing a short screening report with an acquisition investigation.

When a report is not the right tool

A one-off due diligence report can organise visible public evidence and identify follow-up questions. It cannot guarantee that a supplier will deliver, that an investor has funds available or that a bank will accept a customer. It is a dated snapshot, not continuous monitoring or transaction-specific legal clearance.

Arrange specialist work if your decision requires audited financial information, tax advice, a factory inspection, product certification, verified bank-account ownership, or complete supply-chain traceability. Scrutinex Individual Reports are commercial due diligence products and cannot be used for employment, tenancy, credit or insurance decisions; see the permitted-use disclaimer.

For checking your own politically exposed person status, the narrower $59 PEP self-check is a separate product. It does not replace an Individual Report or require a bank to change its assessment.

What to prepare for a useful brief

Send the exact legal or documented name, Latin spelling and native-language name where available, jurisdiction, registration identifier or other relevant identifier, website and the specific claim or transaction you are assessing. Explain inconsistencies you already noticed. Keep sensitive documents within the intake process rather than putting them into public comments.

Ask the provider to state what it established, what it could not verify and what you should do next. The conclusion should make uncertainty usable—not conceal it behind "clean" or "high risk" without an explanation.

Choose your next step

Read a sample report to see the format, then compare Entity, Individual and Combined coverage. For a new supplier, start an Entity Report; where a person's relationship with the company is central, start a Combined Report.