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US Business Coder

Overview

The Business Coder Cloud API provides in-depth firmographic information for over 25 million U.S. enterprises. This data encompasses standardized company names, job titles, contact details (including names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses), SIC/NAICS codes, workforce sizes, stock ticker symbols, revenue figures, and more. This API offers a wealth of valuable insights into businesses, serving a wide range of purposes such as market analysis, lead generation, and customer profiling.

You can use Business Coder to:

  • Search for businesses using the phone number, stock ticker, and web address.
  • Discover business SIC codes, sales volumes, employee sizes, phone numbers, etc.

Documentation

Useful Resources

Product Page

Support Center

Languages
Servers
US Business Coder Server
https://businesscoder.melissadata.net/WEB/BusinessCoder/

Business Validation

Use this endpoint to search and standardize Business Demographics data (USA).

Operations

Validate and retrieve business information

Request

Uses HTTPS GET to accept one input record and returns the response in JSON format. This is useful for browser level or quick single queries.

Note: A request to the Business Coder Cloud Service must consist of the License Key and Either Address, MAK and Company, Stock Ticker, Web Address, or Phone to verify.

Query
tstring

Transmission Reference - Serves as a unique identifier for this set of records. This allows you to match a response to a request.

Example: t=Business Coder Test
idstringrequired

The License Key issued by Melissa.

Example: id={REPLACE-WITH-YOUR-LICENSE-KEY}
colsstring

Columns - The column names or groups to be output.

Entering the column name will return the column. Specifying a group name will return all columns in the group.

Delimit multiple columns with a ,.

For example: ColumnName,ColumnName.

  • [DEFAULT] These columns are returned by default.
    • AddressLine1
    • City
    • CompanyName
    • CurrentCompanyName
    • MelissaEnterpriseKey
    • PostalCode
    • RecordID
    • Records
    • State
    • Suite
    • TotalContacts
    • TransmissionReference
    • TransmissionResults
  • [NO GROUP] These columns must be requested individually.
    • Contacts
    • EmployeesEstimate
    • LocationType
    • Phone
    • SalesEstimate
    • StockTicker
    • WebAddress
  • GrpAddressDetails
    • CountryCode
    • CountryName
    • DeliveryIndicator
    • MelissaAddressKey
    • MelissaAddressKeyBase
    • Plus4
  • GrpBusinessCodes
    • EIN
    • NAICSCode1
    • NAICSCode2
    • NAICSCode3
    • SICCode1
    • SICCode2
    • SICCode3
  • GrpBusinessDescription
    • NAICSDescription1
    • NAICSDescription2
    • NAICSDescription3
    • SICDescription1
    • SICDescription2
    • SICDescription3
  • GrpGeoCode
    • Latitude
    • Longitude
  • GrpCensus
    • CensusBlock
    • CensusTract
    • CountyFIPS
    • CountyName
    • PlaceCode
    • PlaceName
optstring

Options - Pass in options you want to set for the request.

List options in the format OptionName:Parameter, with multiple options delimited with a ,. For example: OptionName:Parameter,OptionName:Parameter

  • CentricHint:< company | address | phone > - This option allows you to choose what the service will center the search around.
  • MaxContacts:< 1 | 5 | 10 > - This option changes the upper limit on the number of contacts returned. Default is 5.
  • ReturnDominantBusiness:< yes | no > - This option handles the returning of the dominant business name and demographics for a particular site when the company information is missing or does not match. Default is yes.
  • SICNAICSConfidence:< strict | loose > - This option handles how SIC Codes are returned, depending on our SIC Code confidence level. Default is loose.
Example: opt=CentrictHint:company,MaxContacts:5
recstring

Record ID - Unique identifier for current record

Example: rec=1
compstringrequired

Company Name - Business namespace

Example: comp=Melissa Data
phonestringrequired

Phone Number - Business phone number

Example: phone=8006354772
a1stringrequired

Address1 - First address line

Example: a1=22382 Avenida Empresa
a2string

Address2 - Second address line (suite)

suitestring

Suite - Suite number

citystringrequired

City - City name

Example: city=Rancho Santa Margarita
statestringrequired

State - State name

Example: state=California
postalstringrequired

Postal - Postal code

Example: postal=92688
ctrystring

Country - Country name

Example: ctry=US
makstring

Melissa Address Key (MAK) - Proprietary unique key identifier

stockstring

Stock Ticker - Unique stock exchange symbol/abbreviation

webstring

Web Address - Web address/domain

mekstring

Melissa Enterprise Key (MEK) - Proprietary unique key identifier

ffstring

Free Form

curl -i -X GET \
  'https://businesscoder.melissadata.net/WEB/BusinessCoder/doBusinessCoderUS?id={REPLACE-WITH-YOUR-LICENSE-KEY}&comp=Melissa+Data&phone=8006354772&a1=22382+Avenida+Empresa&city=Rancho+Santa+Margarita&state=California&postal=92688'

Responses

A response is the result of a request. This consists of returned results codes and parsed, corrected, and/or appended request elements, depending on the options selected.

Bodyapplication/json
TransmissionResultsstringrequired

Returns the generic service level result/error codes. For more information, see Business Coder Result Codes.

TransmissionReferencestringrequired

A pass-through of the input Transmission Reference.

Versionstringrequired

The current service version number.

TotalRecordsstringrequired

Total number of records returned in the records array.

RecordsArray of objects(ResponseRecord)required

The returned array of records.

Records[].​AddressLine1string

Address Line 1 of the business.

Records[].​CensusBlockstring

The census block number for the address.

Records[].​CensusTractstring

The census tract number for the address.

Records[].​Citystring

City of the business.

Records[].​CompanyNamestring

Name of the business.

Records[].​CountryCodestring

2-Character Country Code

Records[].​CountryNamestring

Name of Country based on address

Records[].​CountyFIPSstring

The FIPS code of the county.

Records[].​CountyNamestring

The name of the county.

Records[].​CurrentCompanyNamestring

The company name in our reference data. You can use this to easily compare your input company name against Melissa records for that address.

Records[].​DeliveryIndicatorstring

The RBDI Indicator based on the address.

Records[].​EINstring

Employer Identification Number

Records[].​EmployeesEstimatestring

The number of employees who work at this business location.

Records[].​Latitudestring

The latitude geo coordinate.

Records[].​LocationTypestring

Code denoting the business location type. 0 - Headquarters, 1 - Branches, 2 - Subsidiary Headquarters, 3 - Single Location.

Records[].​Longitudestring

The longitude geo coordinate.

Records[].​MelissaEnterpriseKeystring

Unique Key assigned to a business for that location.

Records[].​MelissaAddressKeystring

(MAK) A unique key assigned to an address record.

Records[].​MelissaAddressKeyBasestring

A unique key assigned to the base address of a complex with apartments or suites.

Records[].​NAICSCode1string

North American Industry Classification System code. This is related to SICCode1.

Records[].​NAICSCode2string

Second NAICS code. This is related to SICCode2.

Records[].​NAICSCode3string

Third NAICS code. This is related to SICCode3.

Records[].​NAICSDescription1string

First NAICS code description. Related to NAICSCode1.

Records[].​NAICSDescription2string

Second NAICS code description. Related to NAICSCode2.

Records[].​NAICSDescription3string

Third NAICS code description. Related to NAICSCode3.

Records[].​Phonestring

10-digit phone number.

Records[].​PlaceCodestring

The Census Bureau place code.

Records[].​PlaceNamestring

The Census Bureau place name.

Records[].​Plus4string

The Plus4 of the address.

Records[].​PostalCodestring

Zip/Postal Code of the business.

Records[].​RecordIDstring

This is a string value containing a unique identifier for the current record. Use this to match the record submitted with the record returned. It will return what is inputted.

Records[].​Resultsstring

Returns record specific result codes. For more information, see Business Coder Result Codes.

Records[].​SICCode1string

A 6-digit SIC code for the business's primary line of business.

Records[].​SICCode2string

The second SIC code.

Records[].​SICCode3string

The third SIC code.

Records[].​SICDescription1string

First SIC code description. Related to SICCode1.

Records[].​SICDescription2string

Second SIC code description. Related to SICCode2.

Records[].​SICDescription3string

Third SIC code description. Related to SICCode3.

Records[].​SalesEstimatestring

The sales volume and/or assets of the business in thousands.

Records[].​Statestring

State of the business.

Records[].​StockTickerstring

The assigned stock exchange abbreviation/symbol for the business.

Records[].​Suitestring

The suite of the business.

Records[].​TotalContactsstring

Returns the number of employee contacts we have in our databases.

Records[].​WebAddressstring

The web address/domain for the business.

Records[].​ContactsArray of objects(Contacts)
Response
application/json
{ "TransmissionResults": " ", "TransmissionReference": "Business Coder Test", "Version": "9.0.1.1091", "TotalRecords": "1", "Records": [ {} ] }

Validate and retrieve businesses information

Request

An HTTPS POST is issued with the "ContentType" header specifying the format of the request and the "Accept" header specifying the format of the response.

Note: A request to the Business Coder Cloud Service must consist of the License Key and either Address, MAK and Company, Stock Ticker, Web Address, or Phone to verify.

Bodyapplication/jsonrequired
colsstring

Columns - The column names or groups to be output.

Entering the column name will return the column. Specifying a group name will return all columns in the group.

Delimit multiple columns with a ,.

For example: ColumnName,ColumnName.

  • [DEFAULT] These columns are returned by default.
    • AddressLine1
    • City
    • CompanyName
    • CurrentCompanyName
    • MelissaEnterpriseKey
    • PostalCode
    • RecordID
    • Records
    • State
    • Suite
    • TotalContacts
    • TransmissionReference
    • TransmissionResults
  • [NO GROUP] These columns must be requested individually.
    • Contacts
    • EmployeesEstimate
    • LocationType
    • Phone
    • SalesEstimate
    • StockTicker
    • WebAddress
  • GrpAddressDetails
    • CountryCode
    • CountryName
    • DeliveryIndicator
    • MelissaAddressKey
    • MelissaAddressKeyBase
    • Plus4
  • GrpBusinessCodes
    • EIN
    • NAICSCode1
    • NAICSCode2
    • NAICSCode3
    • SICCode1
    • SICCode2
    • SICCode3
  • GrpBusinessDescription
    • NAICSDescription1
    • NAICSDescription2
    • NAICSDescription3
    • SICDescription1
    • SICDescription2
    • SICDescription3
  • GrpGeoCode
    • Latitude
    • Longitude
  • GrpCensus
    • CensusBlock
    • CensusTract
    • CountyFIPS
    • CountyName
    • PlaceCode
    • PlaceName
Example: "GrpAddressDetails,GrpBusinessCodes"
idstringrequired

The License Key issued by Melissa.

optstring

Options - Pass in options you want to set for the request.

List options in the format OptionName:Parameter, with multiple options delimited with a ,. For example: OptionName:Parameter,OptionName:Parameter

  • CentricHint:< company | address | phone > - This option allows you to choose what the service will center the search around.
  • MaxContacts:< 1 | 5 | 10 > - This option changes the upper limit on the number of contacts returned. Default is 5.
  • ReturnDominantBusiness:< yes | no > - This option handles the returning of the dominant business name and demographics for a particular site when the company information is missing or does not match. Default is yes.
  • SICNAICSConfidence:< strict | loose > - This option handles how SIC Codes are returned, depending on our SIC Code confidence level. Default is loose.
Example: "CentrictHint:company,MaxContacts:5"
RecordsArray of objects(RequestRecord)[ 1 .. 100 ] items
tstring

Serves as a unique identifier for this set of records. This allows you to match a response to a request.

Example: "Business Coder Test"
curl -i -X POST \
  https://businesscoder.melissadata.net/WEB/BusinessCoder/doBusinessCoderUS \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "cols": "",
    "id": "{REPLACE-WITH-YOUR-LICENSE-KEY}",
    "opt": "",
    "Records": [
      {
        "a1": "22382 Avenida Empresa",
        "a2": " ",
        "city": "Rancho Santa Margarita",
        "comp": " ",
        "ctry": "US",
        "freeform": " ",
        "mak": " ",
        "mek": " ",
        "phone": "8006354772",
        "postal": "92688",
        "rec": "1",
        "state": "California",
        "stock": " ",
        "suite": " ",
        "web": " "
      }
    ],
    "t": "Business Coder Test"
  }'

Responses

A response is the result of a request. This consists of returned results codes and parsed, corrected, and/or appended request elements, depending on the options selected.

Bodyapplication/json
TransmissionResultsstringrequired

Returns the generic service level result/error codes. For more information, see Business Coder Result Codes.

TransmissionReferencestringrequired

A pass-through of the input Transmission Reference.

Versionstringrequired

The current service version number.

TotalRecordsstringrequired

Total number of records returned in the records array.

RecordsArray of objects(ResponseRecord)required

The returned array of records.

Records[].​AddressLine1string

Address Line 1 of the business.

Records[].​CensusBlockstring

The census block number for the address.

Records[].​CensusTractstring

The census tract number for the address.

Records[].​Citystring

City of the business.

Records[].​CompanyNamestring

Name of the business.

Records[].​CountryCodestring

2-Character Country Code

Records[].​CountryNamestring

Name of Country based on address

Records[].​CountyFIPSstring

The FIPS code of the county.

Records[].​CountyNamestring

The name of the county.

Records[].​CurrentCompanyNamestring

The company name in our reference data. You can use this to easily compare your input company name against Melissa records for that address.

Records[].​DeliveryIndicatorstring

The RBDI Indicator based on the address.

Records[].​EINstring

Employer Identification Number

Records[].​EmployeesEstimatestring

The number of employees who work at this business location.

Records[].​Latitudestring

The latitude geo coordinate.

Records[].​LocationTypestring

Code denoting the business location type. 0 - Headquarters, 1 - Branches, 2 - Subsidiary Headquarters, 3 - Single Location.

Records[].​Longitudestring

The longitude geo coordinate.

Records[].​MelissaEnterpriseKeystring

Unique Key assigned to a business for that location.

Records[].​MelissaAddressKeystring

(MAK) A unique key assigned to an address record.

Records[].​MelissaAddressKeyBasestring

A unique key assigned to the base address of a complex with apartments or suites.

Records[].​NAICSCode1string

North American Industry Classification System code. This is related to SICCode1.

Records[].​NAICSCode2string

Second NAICS code. This is related to SICCode2.

Records[].​NAICSCode3string

Third NAICS code. This is related to SICCode3.

Records[].​NAICSDescription1string

First NAICS code description. Related to NAICSCode1.

Records[].​NAICSDescription2string

Second NAICS code description. Related to NAICSCode2.

Records[].​NAICSDescription3string

Third NAICS code description. Related to NAICSCode3.

Records[].​Phonestring

10-digit phone number.

Records[].​PlaceCodestring

The Census Bureau place code.

Records[].​PlaceNamestring

The Census Bureau place name.

Records[].​Plus4string

The Plus4 of the address.

Records[].​PostalCodestring

Zip/Postal Code of the business.

Records[].​RecordIDstring

This is a string value containing a unique identifier for the current record. Use this to match the record submitted with the record returned. It will return what is inputted.

Records[].​Resultsstring

Returns record specific result codes. For more information, see Business Coder Result Codes.

Records[].​SICCode1string

A 6-digit SIC code for the business's primary line of business.

Records[].​SICCode2string

The second SIC code.

Records[].​SICCode3string

The third SIC code.

Records[].​SICDescription1string

First SIC code description. Related to SICCode1.

Records[].​SICDescription2string

Second SIC code description. Related to SICCode2.

Records[].​SICDescription3string

Third SIC code description. Related to SICCode3.

Records[].​SalesEstimatestring

The sales volume and/or assets of the business in thousands.

Records[].​Statestring

State of the business.

Records[].​StockTickerstring

The assigned stock exchange abbreviation/symbol for the business.

Records[].​Suitestring

The suite of the business.

Records[].​TotalContactsstring

Returns the number of employee contacts we have in our databases.

Records[].​WebAddressstring

The web address/domain for the business.

Records[].​ContactsArray of objects(Contacts)
Response
application/json
{ "TransmissionResults": " ", "TransmissionReference": "Business Coder Test", "Version": "9.0.1.1091", "TotalRecords": "1", "Records": [ {} ] }