Transparency
Methodology
How we collect, link, and present Florida contractor evidence. We publish this so anyone can challenge our rules — and so we stay accountable to high-confidence standards.
1. License evidence
We ingest official Florida DBPR Construction Industry public bulk extracts (licensees and discipline). Stable keys prefer the published full license id (e.g. CBC015082). Qualifying Business (QB) rows without license numbers are never given invented IDs. Thin shells without a full consumer-facing license record are excluded from search (is_thin_profile).
Source: Florida DBPR — Construction Industry Licensing Board
2. Entity evidence
Sunbiz (Division of Corporations) corporate bulk files provide entity status, document numbers, formation dates, and officers. We store these as fl_sunbiz entities.
3. Linking standard (high confidence only)
Contractor ↔ Sunbiz links use exact matching only. We surface a Sunbiz status on search results and Trust Reports only when:
- Link role is
sunbiz_entity - Confidence is at least 0.90
Match methods and confidence:
- Exact normalized name + address + ZIP — 0.98
- Exact normalized name + ZIP — 0.95
- Exact normalized name + city — 0.92
Ambiguous ties (two different document numbers at the same top confidence) produce no link. We prefer no profile over a wrong one. Name search for consumers is more forgiving (e.g. ignoring “LLC”); entity linking is not.
4. Discipline
Board discipline extracts are linked when they attach to the contractor or license in our load. “None linked in extract” means none in our current files — not a legal warranty of a clean history.
5. Freshness (“last verified”)
Each loaded record carries source provenance and a last-verified timestamp from our ingest batch. That timestamp means “present in our successful load at this time,” not “checked live at page view.” Board systems remain the authority for real-time status.
6. What we do not do
- Fuzzy name matching or “close enough” entity merges
- Paid rankings, featured placements, or lead generation forms
- Invented licenses, fabricated IDs, or thin filler profiles for SEO
- Trust Scores that pretend to be a single “hire / don’t hire” number
7. Corrections
If our presentation or linking is wrong, use Request a correction. We review against official sources.