Overview

Status and recency attributes describe if a place is in business and when it was last verified. Data Axle models status and recency with four fields:

• in_business - The operational status of the business.
• in_business_research - The research performed to determine the in business status.
• verified_on - The date the business was most recently verified.
• duplicate_of - The ID of the valid record that this place is a duplicate of.

Opening & Closing Dates

opened_for_business_on represents the real confirmed date a business opened. If the exact date is not known, Data Axle sometimes fills estimated_opened_for_business with a date range instead.

Every record includes a value for created_at. This represents the date and time Data Axle added the record to the database and is only a rough proxy for opening date.

See also:

• created_at - The date and time when the place record was created.
• in_business_determined_at - The date and time when the in business status was made.
• in_business_on - The date the business was determined to be in business.
• opened_for_business_on - The date when the place opened for business.
• estimated_opened_for_business - Estimates when the place opened for business.
• out_of_business_on - Date the place went out of business.

Examples

Common examples of status and recency combinations.

Operational Business

Last verified in business on September 12, 2024.

Closed Business

Verified out of business on November 1, 2024.

Maybe Operational - Not Recently Verified

Unable to research or contact the business since July 5, 2022.

Maybe Operational - Never Verified

A place yet to be verified:

Duplicate Business

After adding this place to the database, we discovered it was a duplicate of another active place.

Invalid Business

After adding this place to the database, we discovered it never existed.

Temporarily Closed with Limited Operations

A temporarily closed business is either closed to the public or partially open with limited operations. Data Axle differentiates these businesses with the temporarily_closed attribute.

temporarily_closed is compiled via phone verification, manual research, and listing management partners. If a reopen_date has been collected, Data Axle will attempt re-verify the business on this date.

When temporarily_closed is equal to limited, the limited_operations attributes are available.

See also:

• temporarily_closed - Indicates whether the business is temporarily closed or open with limited operations.
• temporarily_closed_on - The date the business was temporarily closed.
• reopen_date - The date the business expects to reopen.
• limited_operations.appointment_only - The business is by appointment only during its limited operations.
• limited_operations.delivery - The business offers delivery during its limited operations.
• limited_operations.pickup - The business offers pickup during its limited operations.
• limited_operations.web_only - The business is web only during its limited operations.
• limited_operations.description - The limited operations description.

Examples

The following query returns businesses whose operations have been temporarily limited to takeout or delivery:

Temporarily Closed - Yes

Business is temporarily closed to the public as of December 6, 2024 and expects to reopen on January 20, 2025.

Temporarily Closed - Limited

Business is temporarily closed but offers limited operations as of December 6, 2024. The reopen date is unknown.

Records Disappearing From File Snapshots

Consider file snapshots over time: In January, a place is present. In February, it is absent.

This is not necessarily due to a change of in_business status. The place might have simply moved out of the scope due to categorization or location.

Several options are available to reconcile this:

• Request file snapshots to include both in_business: yes, no records. When a place goes out of business, it continues to appear in the file deliveries as in_business: no.
• Use Incremental Files or Changes API to determine the point in time when a record leaves scope. With either option, a record leaving the universe of a subscription is reported a final time as a removal.