— Restricted research system
Tracer. It gathers. You judge.
Tracer runs a name against the structured file and returns what exists, what is contested and what is missing — each item tied to the entry behind it. It shortens the search. It never reaches a verdict, and it was not built to.
Query
Specimen Holdings Ltd
- Matched
- 1 company · 3 set aside
- Entries
- 2 published · grades A, C
- Courts
- 1 civil claim · open
- Gaps
- owner above tier 2 unknown
Illustration only. The company is invented.
- System
- Tracer
- Built on
- The published file
- Access
- Approved members only
- Output
- Cited, exportable
No. 01What it does
Six checks on every name, without losing the afternoon.
Anyone can read the file by hand. Tracer exists because analysts run the same checks on every name — and doing that manually across Companies House, the courts, regulators’ notices and overseas registers is where the hours go.
Name matching
Matches a name to the entities that genuinely fit — and lists the near-misses it set aside (spelling variants, common names, dissolved predecessors, “trading as” names) so you can check the exclusion rather than take it on trust.
Connection trails
Follows directors, persons with significant control, registered addresses and counterparties across the file, and shows the links that keep coming back. Every step points to the filing behind it.
Graded indicators
Returns the indicators attached to a subject with their evidence grade and date. An indicator points to a document. It is never a judgement on a person.
Watchlists
Designed to let members follow a set of entities and see changes as they land: new filings, case movement, regulator warnings, corrections to entries they rely on.
Change alerts
Designed to respond to movement in the underlying record — not to gossip or mentions. A hostile newspaper story and a register being updated are different events, and are kept apart.
Exports with citations
Results export with every citation in place, so the output can go straight into a due-diligence pack and still be checked by whoever reads it next.
No. 02How a check runs
Five stages, always in this order.
Nothing is assumed at a later stage that was not established at an earlier one.
IStage 1
Match
The query is matched against entities in the file. Anything that does not match cleanly comes back marked uncertain — never merged.
IIStage 2
Retrieve
Published entries, indicators and connected entities are gathered with their source references and the dates they were obtained.
IIIStage 3
Grade
Each item keeps its own evidence grade — adjudicated, proceeding, documented allegation, documented indicator — rather than one blended score.
IVStage 4
Report gaps
The check says what it could not find and which registers are closed, so a blank is never read as a clean bill of health.
VStage 5
Export
Output is timestamped with citations intact, so anyone can reproduce the result later.
No. 03What it doesn’t do
Read this before you apply.
An oversold tool gets misused — and in due-diligence work, the cost lands on a real person, not on us.
It doesn’t make the decision.
Tracer makes no onboard, decline, exit or report recommendation, and takes no view on whether a counterparty is acceptable. That duty is yours in law, and we will not pretend to take it on.
It doesn’t rank people by suspicion.
Indicators are ordered by how well evidenced and how recent they are, so you know what to read first. Near the top of a list means a file deserves an hour of human attention — not that anyone did anything.
It can’t see into closed registers.
Where a jurisdiction publishes no ownership data, court information or accounts, Tracer reports the gap. It will not fill it with guesswork, or treat a subject as clean because a register said nothing.
It doesn’t replace due diligence.
It is the part of due diligence that can honestly be automated. Reading the filing, calling the registry and asking the awkward question are still someone’s job.
No. 04Access
Who can use it
Reading the file is free and will stay free. Tracer is the research layer above it, open to approved Research Members.
Public
Anyone
Full reading access to every dossier, report, investigation and source list. No account needed.
Free, permanentlyMember
Individual analysts, journalists and researchers
Tracer checks, cited exports and search across the whole file, within the permissions granted on approval.
MembershipInstitutional
Compliance teams, law firms, newsrooms, universities and public bodies
Several user seats, bulk access, integration support and named credit in the annual report.
By arrangementWho we refuse
Check a name against the record in minutes, not days.
Every result links back to the document behind it. Membership keeps Tracer running — and keeps the file free of money from the people it covers.