Verifying and Certifying ACRA Documents: Proving a Business Profile Is Real

If somebody emails you a PDF that looks like an ACRA business profile, you can check whether it is genuine in under a minute, free, without logging in to anything. ACRA runs a public verification service called trustBar, and for products it does not cover, Bizfile has its own product authentication page.

Raffles Corporate Services works with a panel of experienced Singapore law firms who offer cost-effective and efficient legal service and advice. This article is general information only and is not legal advice.

This matters more than it used to. A business profile is a PDF. PDFs are trivially editable, and the two fields most worth editing are the ones people rely on most: the paid-up share capital and the list of directors. We have seen profiles arrive with a plausible-looking capital figure that the register does not support, and we have seen a resigned director quietly reinstated for the benefit of a counterparty who was never going to check.

Verification and certification are different things and are often confused. Verification proves a document you received is authentic. Certification produces a document ACRA has formally attested, usually because a third party demands it. Here is how each works.

Verifying a document someone else gave you

Verification is free and you do not need an account. Which route you take depends on the product.

trustBar is ACRA’s public verification portal, launched in March 2023. It lets you confirm authenticity and preview the underlying document for two products: the Business Profile, and the Certificate Confirming Registration or Incorporation of Entity. These are the two documents most often sent to outsiders, so trustBar covers the large majority of real cases.

The Bizfile product authentication page covers the rest: the Corporate Compliance and Financial Profile, the People Profile, Extracts, Registers, and certificates other than the incorporation or registration certificate.

The practical difference is that trustBar will show you the genuine document, not just a yes or no. That is what makes it useful. You are not confirming that a document with that reference exists. You are seeing what ACRA actually issued, which you can then compare line by line against the PDF in your inbox.

Where to verify what

The steps, in order

1. Open trustBar if you are holding a Business Profile or an incorporation or registration certificate. For anything else, open the product authentication page on Bizfile.
2. Enter the identifying details from the document you were given. These sit on the document itself, so you do not need anything from the sender.
3. Read the result. On trustBar, preview the document ACRA holds.
4. Compare the previewed document against the PDF you received. Do not stop at “it verified”. Check the capital figures, the officer list, the registered address and the entity status.
5. Check the issue date. A document can be perfectly genuine and six months stale, which for a director change is a lifetime.

Step four is the one people skip, and it is the one that catches things. A verification result that says the reference is valid does not tell you that nobody altered the copy in front of you.

Certification: when a stamp is required

Certification is for the other direction. You have a document, and somebody, usually a bank, a court, a foreign registry or an embassy, will not accept it unless ACRA has formally attested it.

Since 9 December 2024 ACRA certifies electronically. Manual certification, where a physical document was stamped and signed, is no longer offered. Applicable products, including extracts and registers, are certified within the system and delivered as an electronically certified file.

The certification fee was reduced to $1 per page at the same time, down from $2.

Two consequences follow from the move to electronic certification, and both surprise people.

First, an electronically certified document is a file, not a piece of paper. Printing it does not carry the certification across. If a counterparty asks you to courier a certified hard copy, that request no longer matches how the system works, and the conversation you need to have is about whether they will accept the electronic file.

Second, because the certification is electronic, the recipient can verify it themselves. That is the point. A certified document that cannot be checked is just a document with more ink on it. The wider legal framework for electronic documents and signatures in Singapore is covered in our guide to the Electronic Transactions Act in business operations.

Taking a certified document overseas

ACRA’s certified products are recognised by the Singapore Academy of Law. If a foreign embassy, consulate or registry requires legalisation, the Academy provides that service for a fee, and ACRA’s own verification and certification page points you to it.

The order matters and people get it backwards. Buy the product, have it certified by ACRA, then legalise through SAL. Attempting legalisation on an uncertified download will fail, and you will lose the time.

Build in more runway than feels necessary. Where the chain runs ACRA certification, then SAL legalisation, then a foreign consulate’s own attestation, each link has its own queue, and the deal driving the request rarely waits.

What goes wrong in practice

Accepting a profile because it “looks official”. The layout, the logo and the file name are the easiest things to reproduce and the least informative. If a number in the document is going to influence a decision worth more than a few thousand dollars, verify it. It is free.

Verifying and not comparing. A valid reference number tells you a genuine document exists. It does not tell you the copy in your hand matches it. The comparison is the check.

Buying certification you do not need. Certification exists for third parties who demand it. For your own records, for your auditor, or for an internal file note, a plain purchased product is sufficient. Ask the requester whether they actually require certification before paying per page. If you are unsure which product they wanted in the first place, our note on the types of ACRA information products and what each costs sorts that out.

Requesting a stamped hard copy. Manual certification has been withdrawn. If your counterparty’s checklist still says “originally certified hard copy”, raise it early rather than three days before completion.

Relying on an old certified document. Certification attests to what ACRA held on the day it was issued. It is not a warranty about today. For anything time-sensitive, buy fresh and certify fresh.

Treating a genuine document as a clean bill of health. A verified business profile confirms what was filed. It says nothing about whether the company is solvent, whether the person emailing you has authority, or whether the bank account they gave you belongs to them. That is a separate exercise, covered in our note on conducting a basic risk assessment with ACRA information.

Frequently asked questions

How do I check if an ACRA business profile is fake?
Open ACRA’s trustBar verification portal, enter the identifying details printed on the document, and preview the document ACRA actually issued. The service is free and requires no login. Then compare the preview against your copy field by field, paying particular attention to share capital, officers and entity status.

Is verification free?
Yes. Both trustBar and the Bizfile product authentication page are free to use, and neither requires you to buy anything or create an account. Only certification carries a fee, charged per page.

Does ACRA still provide manually certified hard copies?
No. ACRA moved to electronic certification on 9 December 2024 and discontinued manual certification. Applicable products, including extracts and registers, are certified electronically and issued as a file. If a counterparty insists on a physically stamped original, that expectation needs renegotiating.

Can a foreign bank or embassy accept an ACRA electronic certification?
Many do, but not all. Where a foreign authority requires more, ACRA’s certified products are recognised by the Singapore Academy of Law, which can legalise them for overseas use for a fee. Certify with ACRA first, then legalise, then satisfy any consular requirement on top.

How long is a certified ACRA document valid?
There is no stated expiry, but it attests to the register as at the date of issue and nothing after. Most recipients apply their own rule, commonly accepting documents issued within the last one to three months. Ask the recipient rather than assuming.

Someone sent me a profile that does not verify. What now?
Treat the transaction as unverified and go to the source: buy the profile yourself for a few dollars. Do not ask the sender to resend it. If they produced an altered document once, they can do it again, and your own purchase settles the question outright.

Checking before it costs you

The gap between “this document looks fine” and “this document is fine” is one free minute on a government portal. Almost nobody spends it, which is precisely why altered profiles keep working.

If you would rather counterparty checks were handled to a consistent standard, or you need your own company’s documents certified and legalised on a deadline that does not have room for a false start, Raffles Corporate Services does this routinely. You can also read more on Singapore corporate secretarial practice at Singapore Secretary Services, and our guide to what Bizfile is and what you can do in it covers the platform itself.

— The Editorial Team, Raffles Corporate Services