# Entity data

An entity is any real-world organization that can appear as an account in your CRM. This includes commercial businesses, government bodies, educational institutions, and the sub-units within them — from holding companies and operating subsidiaries down to individual business units and physical establishments.

Every account in your CRM should map to exactly one entity. In practice, this rarely holds. The same entity appears multiple times (duplicates), different entities share the same record (conflated accounts), and some records don't map to any real entity at all (defunct or junk accounts).

Kernel's job is to resolve each CRM account to the correct real-world entity, assign it a unique [KERN ID](/concepts/kern-id.md), classify it by type, and place it in the right position within a [corporate hierarchy](/concepts/corporate-hierarchies.md).

### Why entity definitions matter

Consistent entity definitions are the foundation for every downstream operation:

* **Deduplication** — You can only identify duplicates if you know what constitutes "the same entity"
* **Hierarchy mapping** — Parent-child relationships depend on clearly defined entity boundaries (is this a separate company or a business unit within one?)
* **Enrichment** — Firmographic data must be attributed to the right entity, not a parent when you mean a subsidiary
* **Territory assignment** — Reps need to know whether an account represents a global parent, a regional subsidiary, or a local branch

### How Kernel classifies entities

Kernel classifies every entity along four dimensions:

| Dimension               | What it answers                    | Examples                                        |
| ----------------------- | ---------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------- |
| **Entity category**     | What kind of organization is this? | Company, Government, Education                  |
| **Entity sub-category** | What specific role does it play?   | Operating, HoldCo, Business unit, Establishment |
| **Operational status**  | Is it still active?                | Active, Absorbed, Out of Business               |
| **Family position**     | Where does it sit in a hierarchy?  | Parent, Child                                   |

These classifications are not static labels pulled from a database. They're determined through Kernel's [entity resolution](/concepts/entity-resolution.md) process, which analyzes all available data to determine what each account actually represents.

***

In addition to the core fields that accompany a KERN ID, Kernel's entity database includes the following data points across all entities and all corporate hierarchies:

1. Entity category & sub-category
2. Operational status
3. Regional subsidiary flag & regional scope

### 1. Entity category & sub-category

The entity category field classifies the organization into one of three main categories based on its primary function and legal nature.

**Company:** Used for commercial businesses, non-profits, and trade associations.

* **Includes:** Corporations, partnerships, startups, NGOs, charities, unions, and state-owned enterprises operating as commercial entities (e.g., national airlines).

**Government:** Used for public administration bodies.

* **Includes:** National, regional, and local government bodies, ministries, departments, agencies, regulators, and armed forces.

**Education:** Used for teaching and academic research institutions.

* **Includes:** Universities, colleges, business schools, K-12 schools, and research institutes.

#### Company sub-categories

| Sub-Type            | Definition                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           | Examples                                                                                    |
| ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Operating           | Companies that sell goods or services directly to external customers under their own brand.                                                                                                                                                                                          | Salesforce, Frito-Lay, Heineken                                                             |
| HoldCo / Investment | Entities that primarily exist to own or control other companies/assets. They rarely sell products directly.                                                                                                                                                                          | Berkshire Hathaway, Alphabet Inc., KKR & Co.                                                |
| Business unit       | <p>A unit (brand/portfolio/line/division) inside a Company that is not a separate legal entity. It packages offerings for customers but contracts through a parent Operating entity.</p><p><br></p>                                                                                  | Jell‑O (under Kraft Heinz); Amazon Music (under Amazon)                                     |
| Establishment       | A specific physical site (branch, office, store, hotel, warehouse, plant, etc.) tied to a company, not a separate corporation and not independently legally responsible; generally shares the legal business name of its HQ/parent but represents a distinct address-level location. | McDonald’s Store #1234; Lloyds - London Bridge branch; Conopco, Inc. – Jefferson City plant |

#### Education sub-categories

| Sub-Type                         | Definition                                                                                                       |
| -------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Higher-Education Institution** | Degree-awarding tertiary providers (Universities, Colleges, Polytechnics).                                       |
| **Academic Unit**                | A specific department, faculty, or school *inside* a Higher-Ed institution (e.g., Harvard Business School).      |
| **Pre-tertiary school**          | K-12, High Schools, Primary Schools, and International Schools.                                                  |
| **Education System**             | A governing body that controls multiple schools/institutions (e.g., University of California System).            |
| **Research Institute**           | Organizations focused on research or vocational training that do not award degrees (e.g., Max Planck Institute). |

#### Government sub-categories

| Sub-Type                           | Definition                                                                             |
| ---------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Agency / Department**            | Executive bodies, ministries, regulators, and authorities (e.g., Ministry of Finance). |
| **National Government**            | The central/federal government of a sovereign state.                                   |
| **Subnational Government**         | First administrative level below the country (States, Provinces, Regions, Cantons).    |
| **Local Government**               | Municipal tiers (Cities, Towns, Councils, Boroughs).                                   |
| **Intergovernmental Organization** | Polities formed by sovereign states (e.g., EU, ASEAN, UN).                             |
| **Judiciary**                      | Courts and judicial councils at any level.                                             |

{% hint style="info" %}
**Hierarchy Example:** A corporate tree can span multiple Entity Types. For example, a Government body may own a Holding Company, which owns an Operating Company.

* **Government of Singapore** (Gov — National)
  * └── **Ministry of Finance** (Gov — Agency)
    * └── **Temasek Holdings** (Company — HoldCo)
      * └── **Singapore Airlines** (Company — Operating)
        {% endhint %}

***

### 2. Operational Status

Classifies the current "Go-To-Market" reality of the entity.

| Status              | Definition                                                                       | Scenario                                                                    |
| ------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Active**          | The company operates today under its own brand.                                  | **Slack** is owned by Salesforce, but the brand is still live and selling.  |
| **Absorbed**        | The original brand is retired, but operations continue under the parent's brand. | **ExactTarget** was acquired by Salesforce and rebranded (Marketing Cloud). |
| **Out of Business** | Operations have ceased. No active selling or support exists.                     | **Quibi** shut down completely.                                             |

### 3. Regional Subsidiary flag

We identify specific child entities that act as primary regional operating arms using two related data points.

#### Regional Subsidiary Flag

A boolean (`True`/`False`) indicator identifying if the entity is a verified regional branch. A record is marked as **True** only if it meets **all** of the following criteria:

1. **Verified Existence:** It is a real legal entity (e.g., "Salesforce UK Ltd"), not just a generic marketing term.
2. **Brand Identity:** It operates under the same core brand as the parent (e.g., Sony → Sony Europe).
3. **Explicit Naming:** The name contains a specific geographic term (e.g., "UK", "France", "EMEA", "APAC", "West Coast").
4. **Market Scope:** The entity operates in a specific market that is a subset of the parent's global scope.

#### Regional Scope

A text field defining the specific geographic market served by the subsidiary.

* **Value:** The core geographic area (e.g., "United Kingdom", "Western Europe", "New York Metro", "Japan").
* **Availability:** This field is only populated when the **Regional Subsidiary Flag** is `True`.

{% hint style="info" %}
**Note:** Product divisions (e.g., "Google Cloud Japan") are **not** classified as Regional Subsidiaries unless they are the only legal entity representing the parent in that region. "Google Japan Inc", however, is a regional subsidiary.
{% endhint %}


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