Most duplicate company records in an SME CRM are not created on purpose. A salesperson types “Jansen Installatietechniek”, a colleague later adds “Jansen Installatie BV”, and an import brings in “JANSEN INSTALLATIETECHNIEK B.V.”. Searching by name does not catch this reliably. Pomio CRM recommends recording an official registration number on every company you actually do business with, so the CRM has one fact that does not depend on spelling.
Why the name is not enough
A company can trade under a different name than its legal name, which is why it helps to agree whether the CRM uses the legal name or the trading name. Whichever you choose, the name stays text that people type differently. The registration number belongs to the legal entity and stays the same when the company changes its trading name or logo.
Where it pays off
The number gives you a hard check before an import adds new companies: match on the number first and on the name only when the number is missing. It also makes it safer to decide which duplicate records may be merged, because two records with the same number are almost certainly the same customer. And once a deal is won, finance can create the customer in the invoicing system without asking sales for the details again.
Branches and groups
Large customers often have several locations or several legal entities. In the Netherlands one KvK number can have several branch numbers, and a group of companies has several KvK numbers. Decide up front whether a customer branch is a separate CRM company, and record the number that matches that choice: the registration number of the entity you contract with, plus a branch number only when you treat branches as separate records.
Which number, and when it is required
Use one field with a clear name and a short instruction per country, because formats differ: a Dutch KvK number has eight digits, a Belgian enterprise number has ten, and a German commercial register entry is only unique together with the register court. Not every business is in a commercial register, for example many freelancers, so allow the field to stay empty with a note instead of inventing a value. Keep the VAT number in its own field; it serves a different purpose. Making the registration number a required field at the quote stage works well, because by then you need the correct legal entity anyway. Like any new CRM field, write down what it is for before you add it.