--- title: "What the Danish company registry tells you before a meeting, and how to read it in five minutes | Floral" description: "Every Danish company files its ownership, management, industry and accounts in the public CVR register. Most sellers and advisors never open it. Here is what is in there, the seven questions it answers before you walk in, and where it stops." canonical: https://floral.so/insights/company-registry-data-meeting-preparation --- # What the Danish company registry tells you before a meeting, and how to read it in five minutes | Floral > Every Danish company files its ownership, management, industry and accounts in the public CVR register. Most sellers and advisors never open it. Here is what is in there, the seven questions it answers before you walk in, and where it stops. Source: https://floral.so/insights/company-registry-data-meeting-preparation [Insights](https://floral.so/insights) # What the Danish company registry tells you before a meeting, and how to read it in five minutes Every Danish company files its ownership, management, industry and accounts in the public CVR register. Most sellers and advisors never open it. Here is what is in there, the seven questions it answers before you walk in, and where it stops. Jesper Nykjær Jeppesen·September 4, 2026·9 min read Denmark has one of the most open company registers in the world. The Central Business Register, CVR, run by the Danish Business Authority, publishes the legal identity, ownership, management, industry and filed accounts of every registered company, free, at [datacvr.virk.dk](https://datacvr.virk.dk). Most of what a seller or advisor needs to know about a company before the first meeting is in there. And yet, in our experience, most reps prepare from the company's own website and a LinkedIn profile. The website tells you what the company wants you to think. The register tells you what is true. This post is about reading the second one quickly. ## What is actually in the register Open any company on datacvr.virk.dk and you get, roughly in this order: - **Identity.** Legal name, CVR number, legal form (ApS, A/S, sole trader, partnership, foundation), founding date, status (active, under liquidation, bankrupt, dissolved) and registered address. Production units, P-numbers, show where the company physically operates. - **Industry.** A primary industry code (branchekode, based on the EU NACE system) and up to three secondary codes. The code is chosen by the company, so it can be stale, but it is usually a more honest description than the tagline on the website. - **People.** Management (direktion), board (bestyrelse), auditor, and, since 2015, the beneficial owners (reelle ejere) with their ownership band. Ownership above 5 percent through the legal owners register (legale ejere) shows which holding companies sit above the one you are meeting. - **Size.** Employee count as a band (for example 20–49), updated quarterly from the payroll reporting the company has to do anyway. Harder to inflate than a LinkedIn headcount. - **Accounts.** Every annual report filed since the company was required to file. Small companies (accounting class B) may leave out revenue, but they still publish gross profit, staff costs, result, equity, and the auditor's statement, including any reservations. ## Seven questions the register answers before you walk in ### 1\. Who actually decides? The person who booked the meeting is rarely the person who signs. The board and ownership sections tell you whether you are meeting the owner-manager of an independent ApS, a hired CEO reporting to a board, or a subsidiary whose parent will approve anything over a threshold. Each is a different sale. If the beneficial owner is a private-equity fund, expect a procurement process; if it is one person with 100 percent, expect a decision in the room. ### 2\. How big are they, really? Employee band plus gross profit gives a truer size than revenue claims. A company with 50–99 employees and a gross profit of 60 million kroner is a substantial business regardless of what the website says about being a “leading provider”. A company with 5–9 employees and three years of losses is not a candidate for your enterprise tier, however impressive the founder's profile. ### 3\. Which direction are they moving? Five years of accounts side by side show the trend: is gross profit growing, is the staff cost growing faster than gross profit, has equity been building or eroding? A company that has doubled staff in two years has different problems, and different budgets, from one that has been flat for five. Both can be good customers. They need different conversations. ### 4\. Can they pay, and will finance say yes? Equity, result and the auditor's statement answer the question you cannot ask in the meeting. A going concern reservation from the auditor, negative equity, or a shift from audited to unaudited accounts are all signals to shorten your payment terms, or to sell a smaller first step. ### 5\. Are there red flags? Frequent changes of management, a recent change of registered address to a co-working space, a change of auditor after a reservation, a status other than “normal”, or a founding date that is younger than the company's claimed history. None of these is disqualifying on its own. Together they are worth a question early in the meeting rather than late in the deal. ### 6\. Who else do the owners own? The ownership chain works in both directions. Following the beneficial owner upward and then down again often reveals sister companies in the same group: the same decision makers, a warm introduction, and a second deal you did not know existed. Consultants in particular tend to find their next engagement here. ### 7\. What has changed since we last met? For an existing account, the register is a change log. New board member, new auditor, new address, new production unit in another city, a filed annual report. Each is a reason to reach out with something more specific than “checking in”. ## The five-minute version 1. Status, legal form and founding date: is this the company you think it is, and is it healthy? 2. Beneficial owners and board: who decides, and how far up does approval go? 3. Employee band and the last three years of gross profit and result: size and direction. 4. Auditor's statement in the latest report: any reservations? 5. Anything changed in the last twelve months: management, address, auditor, ownership? Write the answers into your meeting notes before you walk in. The point is not to recite them; it is to ask better questions and to notice when what you are told does not match what was filed. ## Where the register stops The register is a record, not a story. It lags: annual reports are filed up to five or six months after the financial year ends, so the newest numbers can be over a year old. Small companies may omit revenue. Ownership below 5 percent is not listed. And it tells you nothing about the need you are there to discuss, the people you will meet, or what your colleague agreed with them last spring. For that you need news, the company's own material and, most of all, your team's own history with the account. ## How Floral does this Floral's [meeting briefing](https://floral.so/features/ai-meeting-briefings) starts from the register. Every external meeting in your calendar gets a brief that carries the company's registry record and five years of key figures, matched on the CVR number so it is the same company your CRM knows, and then adds what the register cannot: recent news, a SWOT, talking points and questions, and everything your team has already discussed with that company in approved meeting summaries. Documents and websites you add as [knowledge sources](https://floral.so/features/knowledge-sources) go in too. The five-minute version above is what the brief looks like when it is written for you every morning. The [page for sales teams](https://floral.so/for-sales-teams) and the [page for consultants](https://floral.so/for-consultants) show what the day looks like around it, and [the meeting preparation checklist](https://floral.so/insights/sales-meeting-preparation-checklist) covers what to do with the rest of your prep time. ![Jesper Nykjær Jeppesen](https://floral.so/img/team/jesper.jpg) Jesper Nykjær Jeppesen · CEO, Floral Jesper is CEO and co-founder of Floral. He has spent his career in B2B sales and business development, and writes about how sales teams and advisory firms keep what they learn in meetings. [Jesper on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesper-nykj%C3%A6r-jeppesen-43440b14/) Insights ## Keep reading [Insights →](https://floral.so/insights) - April 2, 2026 · 10 min read ### [Sales knowledge base best practices: the four components of one your team will actually use](https://floral.so/insights/sales-knowledge-base-best-practices) Most sales knowledge bases die within a year. Here are the four components that make a sales knowledge base self-sustaining, and the honest criteria for evaluating tools. - August 17, 2026 · 11 min read ### [CRM vs meeting intelligence: where each belongs in a modern sales stack](https://floral.so/insights/crm-vs-meeting-intelligence) CRM vs meeting intelligence is not a choice between two tools. One is a system of record, the other a system of evidence. Here is which jobs belong where, and why. - June 23, 2026 · 9 min read ### [How to run a pipeline review that actually moves deals](https://floral.so/insights/pipeline-review-meeting-playbook) Most pipeline review meetings are status meetings in disguise. Here is a 45-minute agenda, the five questions to ask per deal, and the red flags worth stopping for. ## The knowledge engine behind your CRM Floral briefs you before the meeting, records it in the room or online, and writes approved summaries and follow-ups into the CRM you already use. AI runs in the EU, and nothing is written without a person’s approval. [Try now](https://floral.so/signup)[Let's meet](https://floral.so/book-a-demo)