Why does ResoFlow ask me to confirm my business?

Before your first marketing email or text — and before texts from your own sender name — the venue's owner confirms the business. It usually takes about a minute.

Before a venue sends its first marketing email or text — or texts from its own sender name — ResoFlow confirms that the business is real and that it's yours. It usually takes about a minute, the venue's owner does it once, and it's never needed for bookings: your booking page, confirmations and reminders work from day one whatever the check says.

Why ResoFlow asks: every venue's marketing goes out through ResoFlow's shared email and text accounts, and the companies behind them expect each sender to be a checked business. One sender that isn't who it says it is could put every venue's booking confirmations at risk — so every venue is checked the same way.

What waits for the check

Until your business is confirmed (and the owner has ticked the declaration below), these wait:

• marketing campaigns — emails and texts, sent now or scheduled;
• your marketing automations — thank-you emails, review requests, birthday emails and texts, welcome and "we've missed you" emails, event thank-you emails, unfinished ticket checkout emails, member round-up emails and thank-you texts;
• loyalty card messages and coupons pushed to members;
• messages to everyone holding a ticket for an event;
• texts from your own sender name.

You can switch an automation on at any time — it simply waits, and a notice at the top of your dashboard says so ("Your marketing emails are waiting. Confirm your business to start sending them."). Nothing stops without you being told.

How to confirm your business

Only the venue's owner can confirm the business — anyone else on the team sees who to ask. The card opens by itself when you press send on a campaign, or from the banner, or from Settings → Venue profile → Your business, where you click Confirm now.

• Click Start, then say how the venue is run: A limited company or LLP, A sole trader or partnership or Something else (a charity, a club or a community interest company).
• A limited company or LLP: type your company number — it's on Companies House and your company paperwork — or click Search by name. The card shows the company's registered name, status and registered office so you can confirm it's yours. A company name that's different from your venue's name is completely normal ("Exchequer Hospitality Ltd" running "The Exchequer").
• Pick your venue from the food hygiene register's listings at your address, or pick It's not listed if you can't see it (a new venue often isn't listed yet).
• Tick the declaration: "This business is mine, and I have my guests' consent to market to them." ResoFlow records who ticked it and when.
• Click Confirm my business.

What happens next

• Confirmed in seconds when the registers show a real business with a link to your venue's address — "Your business is confirmed", and marketing can start straight away. The link can be your food hygiene listing at your address, your company's registered office at your address, or your Stripe account being live.
• "We're looking at a couple of details" when there's no such link, when the business is run as Something else, when another venue on ResoFlow has already confirmed the same company or listing, or when a register didn't answer for an hour. A person at ResoFlow looks, usually in less than a working day, and emails you the outcome.
• "We need a little more from you" — our email (and Settings → Venue profile → Your business) says exactly what. Click Check again once you have it.
• A machine never refuses a business. Only a person at ResoFlow can — and if they do, the email says why and your bookings carry on as normal. If you think it's wrong, reply to the email or contact support.

A second venue on the same account that names the same company as a venue you've already confirmed is confirmed straight away. If ResoFlow met you at your venue during setup, your business may already be confirmed — you'll just see One last step: the declaration, for the owner to tick.

What ResoFlow checks — and keeps

• Companies House (for a limited company or LLP): the company's registered name, number, status and registered office.
• The Food Standards Agency's food hygiene register: the listing at your venue's address, for companies and sole traders alike.
• Your payments setup: whether your Stripe account is live — one more way to pass, never required.

ResoFlow keeps the facts it found and your declaration for as long as your account is open (and 30 days after it closes). It never asks for documents and never records directors' personal details.

The monthly re-check

Once a month — and whenever you change your venue's name or address — ResoFlow reads the registers again. If Companies House shows your company has closed, your marketing is paused ("Paused — needs checking again") and you're emailed; your bookings aren't affected. Anything else a re-check notices goes to ResoFlow to look at while your marketing carries on.

Related: How do I send a marketing email? · Marketing overview