Company Registration Numbers - User reported issue

What is a registration number for a Company?

In the UK, organisations with limited liability or those formed under specific UK legislation (such as the Companies Act 2006 or the LLPs Act) are generally registered with Companies House. Each registered entity is assigned a Company Registration Number (CRN), which appears on its Companies House record.

A company registration number is a company identifier used by the Company Watch system to locate and match company records within the Company Watch database.

Which Company Watch features require an 8-digit registration number?

An 8-digit registration number is required when using the following tools in the Company Watch platform. If the registration number entered is shorter or missing leading zeros, results will not be generated. 

• Monitor

  The Monitor tool allows users to import a  file of registration number to create a portfolio (and set up email alerts where required)  . 

• Data Builder

  The Data Builder tool allows users to import a file of registration numbers in xlsx, csv, txt formats to use in their search criteria.

How to resolve user reported issues when preparing a import of a xlsx file 

Excel automatically removes leading zeros when it treats registration numbers as numeric values. For example: 09763575 can become 9763575

To ensure registration numbers remain eight digits, force Excel to display the column as an 8-digit field:

1. Highlight the column containing the registration numbers in Excel.

2. Right-click and select Format Cells.

3. Go to the Number tab and select Custom from the list on the left.

4. In the "Type" box, delete whatever is there and type exactly eight zeros: 00000000

5. Click OK.

6. Your file is now ready to import