Our Classification Methodology

Overview of the SICCODE.com Classification Methodology

Last Reviewed: 2025
Reviewed By: SICCODE.com Industry Classification Review Team (Regulatory, economic, and data governance specialists)

SICCODE.com delivers industry-leading accuracy in business classification by combining authoritative SIC and NAICS frameworks, advanced machine learning, and rigorous expert oversight. Our methodology ensures each industry code assignment is transparently versioned, auditable, and aligned with official standards. This end-to-end approach equips organizations with credible, explainable industry data for analytics, compliance, supervision, and decision-making.

SICCODE.com is recognized as a national leader in SIC and NAICS classification, supporting thousands of organizations with governed, expert-reviewed methodologies aligned with official U.S. federal standards.

Contents

Objectives of Verified Industry Classification

  • Unmatched Precision: Every business record receives the most appropriate primary industry code, with adjacencies and secondary activities logged for transparency.
  • Longitudinal Consistency: Sector and subsector assignments remain stable over time, enabling trend, cohort, and regulatory analysis.
  • Decision Transparency: Each assignment is supported by rationale metadata—reviewer notes, evidence, version IDs, and confidence scores.
  • Robust Governance: All steps follow documented protocols and expert adjudication, providing reproducibility and audit readiness.

Source Acquisition & Data Normalization

  • Authoritative Rules: Official SIC and NAICS definitions and legal notes form the foundation of our framework.
  • Multi-Source Data: Activities, service descriptions, product lines, corporate structure, geography, and licensing inputs feed the process.
  • Controlled Normalization: Standardized vocabularies, address cleansing, persistent IDs, and advanced geocoding maintain data lineage.
  • Deduplication: Deterministic and probabilistic methods eliminate redundancy and preserve entity-level integrity.

Classification Workflow

  1. Eligibility Logic: Business rules filter only those industries that match activity and regulatory context.
  2. Feature Extraction: Text, network, and geospatial features guide candidate selection.
  3. ML-Assisted Labeling: Ensemble models rank eligible candidates using explainable confidence intervals.
  4. Expert Human Review: Analysts adjudicate exceptions and confirm rationale before final assignment.

Assignment, Logging & Release

  1. Primary Code Assignment: Final codes and rationale metadata are stored with each record.
  2. Version Control: Every update receives a unique version ID with full delta tracking.
  3. Governance Disclosure: Release notes summarize rule changes, major updates, and reviewer sign-off.
  4. Continuous Improvement: Drift analysis and scheduled updates maintain long-term accuracy.

Quality Benchmarks & Coverage

  • Accuracy Benchmarks: Exceeds 96.8% verified accuracy across 20M+ U.S. establishments, based on sampled review and challenge testing.
  • Enterprise Adoption: Used by 250,000+ organizations across finance, technology, public sector, and enterprise analytics.
  • Validation Protocol: Annual audits and rolling updates prevent drift and maintain accuracy across vintages.

Benchmark statistics reflect independent reviews and internal audits from 2015–2025. Ongoing normalization and expert oversight maintain these results over time.

Governance, Auditability & Change Management

  • Explainability: Rationale tags, decision trees, and confidence scoring support compliance workflows.
  • Versioned Deltas: Major releases include documentation of changes, reasons, and reviewer approvals.
  • Integrity Controls: Checksums, persistent IDs, and lineage metadata support external audit requirements.

Update Cadence & Drift Mitigation

  • Rolling Updates: Continuous normalization prevents drift while preserving comparability.
  • Drift Monitoring: Alerts identify clusters, outliers, or anomalies that require review.
  • Change Logs: All adjustments are captured in internal logs and public release notes.

Licensing & Proper Use

  • Usage Rights: Data is licensed for internal use; redistribution requires appropriate licensing.
  • Enterprise Compliance: Clients can access metadata required for legal and regulatory requirements.
  • Ongoing Support: Documentation and onboarding resources ensure proper implementation.

How Verified Methodology Builds Trust & Authority

  • Alignment with Standards: Built on official SIC/NAICS frameworks and federal guidance.
  • Expert Data Team: Analysts, economists, and compliance specialists oversee rules and updates.
  • Audit Readiness: Release metadata and decision logs support external audits.
  • Documented Benchmarks: Accuracy and methodology benchmarks are published across the site.

Industry Classification Review Team

Methodology updates and rule governance are overseen by the SICCODE.com Industry Classification Review Team, including regulatory, economic, and data-quality specialists with 10–18+ years of SIC/NAICS experience.

  • Ginger Logel — Regulatory & Industry Codes Analyst
  • Mark McNulty — Senior Industry Classification Specialist
  • Jack Francis — Lead Data Classification & Verification Analyst

For full reviewer biographies, see the SICCODE.com Industry Classification Review Team

Further Reading & Authoritative Resources

For technical documentation or enterprise licensing support, contact the SICCODE.com Data Governance Desk.