By International Credit Reports
Separate the buyer, recipient, and payer
An international sale may involve a purchasing office, a local subsidiary, a warehouse, and a central payment team. Before reviewing the customer, establish which entity your commercial documents name as buyer and which entity is to be invoiced. A delivery address or email signature may identify a different participant.
This is an evidence-gathering process, not a determination of legal liability. If the contract and invoice disagree about the responsible company, refer the documents to the appropriate reviewer. Do not use a report on a familiar group name to paper over uncertainty about the transaction itself.
Create a transaction identity map
Use the map before the first shipment and whenever the arrangement changes. For each company, record the full legal name, jurisdiction, identifier, role, and document that supports that role.
| Role | Document to compare | Question |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer | Agreement and purchase order | Which legal entity is purchasing? |
| Invoice addressee | Billing instructions and account setup | Does this match the agreed customer? |
| Delivery recipient | Delivery instructions | Is this the buyer, its site, or a separate logistics provider? |
| Payer | Established payment arrangement | Is a different entity paying, and how is that documented? |
| Parent or group | Relationship evidence | Is this background context or part of the actual arrangement? |
Example: one group, three companies
In a hypothetical sale, a group’s central purchasing team negotiates the order, a regional subsidiary is named as buyer, and a logistics company receives the goods. The subsidiary is the identified customer for the initial company review. The purchasing team’s location and warehouse address are useful context, but neither should silently replace the subsidiary’s registration jurisdiction.
If the group later asks you to invoice another subsidiary, update the map and resolve the commercial documentation before relying on the earlier review. Financial information about the original customer may not describe the newly named company.
Make the research brief follow the documents
Provide the report team with the intended customer’s legal identity and explain any separate participants. If you also need to understand a parent or another company, identify that additional question explicitly. One report should not be assumed to cover every business involved in an international shipment.
Retain a short reconciliation note in the account file: which documents were compared, which differences were explained, and which entity the final review concerns. That note helps sales, finance, and operations work from the same customer identity when later orders arrive.
- Preserve local-language names and any English trading names.
- Keep company identifiers labeled by jurisdiction and authority.
- Recheck the map when the billed entity, beneficiary, or contract party changes.
Research the identified export customer
Once the buyer is clear, compare company information options for the overseas business behind the proposed invoice.