VerifySOS is a 50-state business-verification tool for credit and underwriting in trucking and commercial finance. One search merges Secretary of State registration, FMCSA/USDOT authority, OFAC sanctions, UCC liens, ownership, and county DBA filings into a single PDF packet.

How do I look up a business across all 50 states?

Enter the company name and its 2-letter state code (or a USDOT number) on verifysos.com. It searches the Secretary of State and FMCSA SAFER side by side, screens OFAC, and generates a verification packet PDF.

How much does VerifySOS cost?

There is a free tier, a Starter plan at $14.99/month (about 250 searches), and a Pro plan at $25/month with unlimited searches plus API access, UCC, and DBA.

Does VerifySOS show business ownership and officers?

Yes. Where a state publishes officers, members, or managers in its free public records, VerifySOS pulls them into the packet, separate from the registered agent, which is not the owner.

← All posts June 28, 2026

Yuma County DBA search — how to look up a fictitious business name (AZ)

A DBA (doing business as) or fictitious business name is not a registered business entity. It is a filing that lets a person or existing company operate under a trade name. If you are underwriting a credit request from someone in Yuma County, Arizona, and they hand you a business card with a DBA name on it, you need to look up that filing to see who actually owns it and what its status is. A DBA search alone does not tell you the legal structure, liability, or ownership the way a Secretary of State record does. But it is a required step to connect the trade name to the person or entity behind it.

What a Yuma County DBA filing shows

A fictitious business name (FBN) filing in Yuma County is a public record kept by the county recorder’s office. When filed, it lists the business name, the owner or owners, their addresses, and the date the name was registered. The filing is also stamped with an expiration date, usually three years out.

The critical fields for underwriting are: the owner’s full legal name, the type of owner (individual, partnership, corporation, LLC), and the filing and expiration dates. If the DBA has expired, the person has no legal right to operate under that name. An expired DBA is a red flag for compliance and also a signal that the business may have been inactive or the owner may not be current on filings.

Most Yuma County DBAs name a single owner or a partnership. The recorder’s form requires you to list everyone who has a financial interest in the business. If only one name appears and you are told there are partners, the DBA filing is incomplete or out of date, and you should press for the truth.

How to search the Yuma County recorder’s database

The Yuma County recorder’s office maintains a searchable index of DBA filings. You can search by business name, owner name, or filing number.

Start with the business name. Type the DBA exactly as the applicant gave it to you. If the search returns nothing, try variations: remove “LLC” or “Inc.” at the end, search without articles like “the,” try common abbreviations. A DBA search is only as good as what you type in.

If you find a match, pull the full document. The recorder’s office provides a certified copy or an image of the original filing. Check the owner name against the person who applied for the credit. Check the filing date (is it recent enough to be current?) and the expiration date (has it lapsed?). If the expiration date has passed, the filing is stale and the person has no legal authority to use that name.

Some owners file the same DBA multiple times, or file a new one before the old one expires. If you see duplicate filings for the same business name, look at the dates. The most recent one is the active one. Older filings with passed expiration dates are historical and should be disregarded.

A DBA is not the same as an LLC, corporation, or partnership

This is the most common mistake in credit underwriting. A person files a DBA to use a trade name. That person may be a sole proprietor, or they may be the owner of an LLC or corporation that is registered with the Arizona Secretary of State. The DBA filing itself does not tell you the legal structure.

If the DBA lists “John Smith” as the owner, you do not know whether John Smith is a sole proprietor (owns the business personally and has unlimited liability) or whether John Smith is the sole member of an LLC called “JS Capital LLC” which then operates under the DBA. You have to search the Secretary of State records to find that out.

This matters for underwriting because a sole proprietor and an LLC have different liability shields, different asset positions, and different compliance requirements. A DBA filing is a necessary record, but it is the beginning of due diligence, not the end.

Cross-reference the DBA with the Secretary of State

After you find the Yuma County DBA, search the Arizona Secretary of State for any entity registered in the owner’s name. If the DBA owner is a person, search for an LLC or corporation registered to that person. If the DBA owner is already listed as an LLC or corporation, search for that entity on the state level and pull the full record.

A clean underwriting file includes both the DBA filing and the Secretary of State record. The DBA tells you the trade name is registered and who claimed it. The Secretary of State record tells you the legal entity, the principal address, the registered agent, the owners (called members for an LLC), and the date the entity was formed.

If the DBA owner claims to be an LLC, but you find no LLC on the Secretary of State record, the person is either operating without a registered entity (sole proprietor using a DBA) or lying. Either way, your credit decision changes.

Why you cannot rely on a DBA alone for credit decisions

A DBA can be filed by anyone and is often filed hastily. The county recorder does not verify that the person filing the DBA actually owns the business or has the right to use the name. The filing is a declaration, not a verified fact. An expired DBA carries no legal weight, but people continue to operate under expired DBAs all the time because enforcement is lax.

A DBA also does not tell you about liens, judgments, or UCC filings against the owner or the business. It does not tell you whether the owner has tax debt or criminal history. It does not tell you whether the business has a valid FEIN or whether the owner is judgment-proof.

For a credit decision, use the Yuma County DBA filing to confirm the trade name is registered and to identify the owner. Then verify the owner’s legal structure, search UCC filings, pull OFAC sanctions screening, and look up the business on the Secretary of State. A DBA is one piece of a larger verification puzzle.

Bottom line

A Yuma County DBA search is a fast way to connect a trade name to the person or entity claiming to own it and to check that the filing is current. But a DBA is not a business registration and does not replace a Secretary of State lookup. Every applicant who hands you a DBA needs a full entity search on the state level, a UCC search, and lien verification before you sign the deal. A DBA filing is a starting point, not a finish line.