Check a record

There are two ways to check a record and each is a complete answer on its own. If you have the file, give it to the page and it will read everything it needs. If you only have the record on paper, type what it says instead.

Give it the file

Choose the PDF as you received it. The page works out a code from the file itself and compares it with the one sealed inside, so a single character changed anywhere in the document shows up. Nothing is uploaded: the file is read where it sits.

The record, as a PDF

Or type what it says

A record carries a block headed Verification near the foot of the last page. Copy or type those lines into the first box. Then enter the details printed on the first page, which is what ties the signature to what the record actually says rather than only showing the block came from us.

The lines under Verification

The details from the first page

Leave these empty to check the block alone. That tells you the block is ours and nothing about what the record says, which is why it is worth filling them in.

Reference

Rule set

Depth

Fixed for you

To look at

To answer

The Before code

The After code

Check it

Check the advert text too

The record prints two long codes, one for the advert as it arrived and one for the advert as it stands. They are worked out from the text: change one character and the code changes completely. Paste the advert here and this page will work the code out and compare it, so you do not have to. Nothing is sent anywhere.

The advert text

The code from the record

Compare them

What this does and does not tell you

It tells you the file is the one we produced, unaltered. When you give the page the PDF, the seal covers every byte of it. Change one character anywhere, in a finding, a date or the advert, and it stops matching.

Typed, it tells you the details are the ones we signed. The block alone only shows it came from us. Filling the details in ties it to what the record says: the reference, both advert codes, the rule set, the depth and the three counts.

Opening a record and saving it will fail this check. A PDF editor rewrites every byte of a file when it saves, even when nothing on the page looks any different, and the seal covers the bytes. So keep the record as it arrived and check that copy. If a file does not pass, a re-save is the likeliest innocent explanation, and this page cannot tell it apart from somebody changing the words.

A record made before September 2026 covers less. Those carry no Document line and were sealed over the details alone, so the file itself was not covered. The page says so rather than treating it as a fault: those records are genuine and still verify.

It does not prove the time independently. The clock is ours. We sign the moment we were asked, and we do not use a third party timestamping authority, so somebody determined to dispute the date can say we chose it. The record says the same thing on its face rather than implying otherwise.

It does not mean the advert is lawful. A signature says this document is the one we produced. It says nothing about whether the check was right.

We hold no copy. There is no record here to look your reference up in, and there never was. That is why the proof travels on the paper instead.