Details
The DUNS number is a nine-digit number, issued by D&B, assigned to each business location in the D&B database, having a unique, separate, and distinct operation for the purpose of identifying them. The DUNS number is random, and the digits have no apparent significance. Until approximately December 2006, the DUNS number contained a mod-10 check digit to support error detection. Discontinuing the check digit increased the inventory of available DUNS numbers by 800 million. There is no charge to obtain a DUNS number. When obtaining a DUNS number online, the wait is usually between 3-5 working days; when requesting a DUNS number by phone, it is issued immediately.
Unlike national employer identification numbers, a DUNS number may be issued to any business worldwide. Certain U.S. government agencies require that a vendor have a DUNS number as well as a U.S. Employer Identification Number (EIN). Other agencies, such as some United Nations offices and Australian government agencies, require certain businesses to have a DUNS number. DUNS numbers are now available to individuals; previously, DUNS numbers could only be obtained by corporations or other organizations.
The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a United States federal agency, announced in the June 27, 2003 issue of the Federal Register (68 FR 38402) that a DUNS number would be required for all grant applicants for new or renewal awards submitted on or after October 1, 2003. The DUNS number is a supplement to other identifiers, such as the EIN, and is required whether the application is made electronically or on paper.
A DUNS number is sometimes formatted with embedded dashes to promote readability, such as "15-048-3782". Modern usage typically omits dashes, and shows the number as in the form "150483782". The dashes are not part of D&B's official definition of the DUNS number.
Numerous other business-numbering systems exist independent of DUNS—for example, the International Suppliers Network system. However, few, if any, register as many international businesses as DUNS.
The DUNS number replaced another coding system known as ACASS. The ACASS number was abolished on October 5, 2005, when a modernized platform replaced the ACASS system. The ACASS system now uses the DUNS number, rather than the former ACASS number. Firms should supply their DUNS number, and notify the requester of the discontinuation of the ACASS number, when asked for their ACASS number.
Read more about this topic: Data Universal Numbering System
Famous quotes containing the word details:
“Different persons growing up in the same language are like different bushes trimmed and trained to take the shape of identical elephants. The anatomical details of twigs and branches will fulfill the elephantine form differently from bush to bush, but the overall outward results are alike.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“There was a time when the average reader read a novel simply for the moral he could get out of it, and however naïve that may have been, it was a good deal less naïve than some of the limited objectives he has now. Today novels are considered to be entirely concerned with the social or economic or psychological forces that they will by necessity exhibit, or with those details of daily life that are for the good novelist only means to some deeper end.”
—Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964)
“If my sons are to become the kind of men our daughters would be pleased to live among, attention to domestic details is critical. The hostilities that arise over housework...are crushing the daughters of my generation....Change takes time, but men’s continued obliviousness to home responsibilities is causing women everywhere to expire of trivialities.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)