What is an entity?
An entity is any subject your team needs to track, verify, or monitor: an individual (a natural person) or a business (a legal entity). The entity is the central object in Youverify — every check, alert, and case references it rather than standing alone as an orphaned report. Entities carry a uniqueent_… identifier that you use to associate all subsequent activity. Create an entity once, then reference it forever.
Individual
A natural person. Carries identity data such as name, date of birth, and government ID, enriched over time through KYC verifications.
Business
A legal entity with incorporation details and a full ownership graph — UBOs, directors, shareholders, and PSCs with share percentages.
How little data do you need to start?
You can create an entity with remarkably thin data. For a standard individual, a name, phone number, and date of birth complete a basic profile. For a business, an incorporation name and number are sufficient. In the downstream-entity (payment-processor customer) case, you can create an entity from just an email address — the platform scores on whatever is present and tightens the score as you enrich the record over time.The only hard requirements are entity type and a consent flag. Everything else can be added progressively.
Two ways to create an entity
- Manual
You supply the data yourself — name, contact details, document numbers, or whatever you have. This is the most common path when you already hold your customer’s information.
Entity ID format
Every entity receives an identifier with theent_ prefix — for example, ent_01j9xkp4f8e3q2wr5td6mnbc7a. Store this ID in your own database alongside your internal customer reference so you can always look up or update the entity later.
Entity status lifecycle
An entity moves through clearly separated stages. Keeping creation and decisioning separate lets you start monitoring an entity and building its history before any onboarding decision has been made.1
Created
The entity is added — manually or from authoritative data — and an initial risk score is computed immediately from whatever data is present. This is a tracking state, not an approval.
2
Enriched
As more data and checks arrive (all referencing the entity ID), the profile fills out and the score tightens. Verifications, transactions, and AML results fold into the 360 automatically.
3
Decisioned
The entity is approved, rejected, restricted, or escalated — driven by an AI-agent workflow. Edge cases are escalated to a human reviewer or a case.
4
Monitored
The entity stays live. Ongoing re-screening and transaction monitoring continue to raise signals and alerts over time, keeping the 360 current.
What attaches to an entity
The Entity 360 is not a separate object — it is the entity viewed through everything attached to it. Retrieving an entity gives you its profile and, for a business, its full ownership graph. From there you traverse to every linked object:Verifications
Every KYC, KYB, and AML result ever run on this entity, with outcomes and evidence.
AML Screening Results
PEP hits, sanctions matches, adverse-media findings, and custom watchlist results.
Transaction Signals
Financial activity and its KYT evaluations — transaction rhythm, counterparties, and anomaly flags.
Alerts
Monitoring outputs generated when signal thresholds are crossed, ready for triage.
Cases
Investigations opened from alerts, with AI-generated summaries and evidence collection.
Risk Score
A continuously-updated 0–100 score computed from all available signals and check results.
The 360 canvas
The 360 canvas in the Youverify Cowork dashboard gives your compliance team a single-screen view of all activity for an entity: profile data, ownership graph, verifications, transactions, signals, alerts, and open cases. Nothing needs reconciling — every object shares the entity as its anchor.Entity object structure
string
required
Unique entity identifier with the
ent_… prefix. Use this ID to reference the entity in all subsequent API calls.string
required
Classification of the entity. One of
individual or business.string
Current lifecycle status of the entity — for example
not_approved or approved. The profileStatus field (e.g. pending) tracks enrichment progress separately.number
Computed risk score from 0 (lowest risk) to 100 (highest risk). Updated continuously as new signals arrive.
string
First name of the individual. Present on
individual entities only.string
Last name of the individual. Present on
individual entities only.string
Email address. May be the only field present on a thinly-created downstream entity.
string
ISO 8601 timestamp of when the entity record was created.
string
ISO 8601 timestamp of the most recent update to the entity record.
Example: a newly created entity
The response below shows what Youverify returns immediately after you create an individual entity. Note theent_… identifier, the initial riskScore, and the not_approved status — the entity is tracked and scored, but no approval decision has been made yet.