# How to read a record — Companies holding an active Philadelphia business license

> What the record is, what the status means, and what is left out.

## How to read these records

### The record

Philadelphia's Department of Licenses and Inspections licenses rentals, food businesses, contractors, dumpsters, vacant properties and many trades, and publishes every license with its status and dates.

### Status

Active license held by a company. Only a legal name carrying a company word is shown; the trade-name field, which often holds a contact person, is not. Licenses held by individuals — more than half of the City's file — are left out, as are inactive, expired and closed licenses.

### What is not here

Individuals, and any name without a company word (Inc, LLC, Corp, Co…). Owner and contact names, phone numbers
and mailing addresses, which this site never downloads.

**For owners and managers: does
your company have 30 to 200 employees?**

AI labs pay companies to license their internal workflows (SOPs,
documentation, support tickets), anonymized and under contract. You keep ownership and pay nothing.

**Describe your company in 2 minutes →** 
 Offered by Registres, an independent data gateway. Not affiliated with the City of Philadelphia.

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Página: https://philadelphia-business-license-records.pages.dev/how-to-read/
Fonte: https://phl.carto.com/api/v2/sql?q=SELECT+%2A,+ST_Y(the_geom)+AS+lat,+ST_X(the_geom)+AS+lng+FROM+business_licenses&filename=business_licenses&format=csv&skipfields=cartodb_id
Recolha: 2026-10-10