Comparison

Checking a company by hand vs a single report

You can check any New Zealand company yourself from public records. The question is what that costs in time once you do it often. Here is an honest side by side.

Updated 2026-06-20 · 5 min read

The short version

Both approaches read the same underlying public record. Doing it by hand is free and fine for the occasional one off. A consolidated report saves time and keeps a consistent record once you are checking companies regularly or across a team.

Side by side

Both draw on the public record; the difference is time, consistency and monitoring.
	By hand	A single report
Cost	Free to search yourself	Paid, per check or by plan
Sources	Visit several sites per company	Brought together in one place
Time per company	Longer, adds up across a list	A few minutes
Consistency	Depends who does it	Same check every time
Record kept	Whatever you save yourself	A dated report you can keep on file
Ongoing monitoring	You must remember to re-check	Continuous, with alerts on change
Team sharing	Manual	Shared history and credits

Which to choose

If you check a company once in a while, doing it by hand is perfectly reasonable, and the official registers are free. If you check companies often, onboard suppliers or customers, or need a record on file, a consolidated report and monitoring save the time the manual approach quietly eats.

Questions and answers

Can I do everything by hand for free?

You can confirm the core company record yourself for free on the official registers. A report does not unlock secret data; it saves the time of gathering it and adds ongoing monitoring and a kept record.

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