Verifying an FFL

A firearm cannot be received from a dealer, or shipped to one, unless their license is on file, verified and unexpired. This is how you get it there. A C&R (Type 03) collector is the one exception to the live check, because the ATF directory lists no collectors. See C&R (Type 03) collectors.

Every license the store has looked up, cached locally and searchable by number.

The ATF FFL Record library

Every license the store has looked up is cached locally as an ATF FFL Record. The record is named by the FFL number itself, and carries License Type, Licensee Name, Doing Business As, Street, Street Address 2, City, State, ZIP, Phone and Expiry Date.

A Provenance section records where it came from: Loaded From, Loaded At and Live-Verified At. A record loaded in bulk from the ATF's published list has never been checked live, and its Live-Verified At is empty.

One cached license. Provenance records where it was loaded from and when. Live-Verified At shows only once the record has been checked live.

The library is the destination side of a transfer. A disposition picks its Destination FFL from here.

Looking one up

From the ATF FFL Record list, the primary button is + Lookup by FFL #, which replaces the ordinary add button. It opens Lookup FFL Record and asks for an FFL Number, described as: "Format: 1-99-999-99-9X-99999. Hyphens are optional. The lookup hits ATF EZ Check live and caches the result here."

Click Lookup & Save. On success the record is saved and a message names it and the licensee, in green when the status is Verified and orange otherwise.

The same lookup appears in two other places:

• Lookup FFL via ATF on an FFL Disposition, for a transfer destination.
• A FFL Dealer? Lookup by FFL # panel inside the quick-add dialog for a new Supplier, which fills the whole supplier form from the license.

Creating a party from a record

An ATF FFL Record on its own is a directory entry, not somebody you can trade with. Two buttons under Create turn it into one:

• Create Dealer Customer, for a dealer you ship guns to.
• Create Supplier, for a dealer you buy guns from.

Either creates the party already marked as an FFL dealer, already carrying the license number and already linked back to the record, then opens it. If a party already carries that FFL number the button opens that one instead and says so: " already carries this FFL — opening it."

A dealer customer is also created for you when you pick Business (FFL) as the buyer on Create Order and enter their license.

The Customer list. Its own ATF FFL Record box filters it down to the dealers created from a license. A Banned, Inactive or Prospect customer carries a colored status.

Search ATF and Verify FFL

Both the Customer form and the Supplier form carry an FFL button group. It appears only when Is FFL Dealer is ticked, so tick it and save first.

A new Customer, before Is FFL Dealer is ticked. Tick it inside the FFL Dealer section and save, and the FFL button group appears on the toolbar. The Profile tab is covered on Customers.

Search ATF

Use this when you know the dealer's name but not their number, or you want to pick from the directory rather than type a license in.

1. Click Search ATF. The dialog is titled Search ATF FFL.
2. Type into FFL # or licensee name and click Search.
3. Results list FFL #, Licensee, City, State and Expiry. Click Pick on the right row.

Picking fills in the FFL number, the license type, the licensee name, the licensed premises address and the expiry date, and sets the verification status to Pending. The message says what to do next: "Filled from ATF FFL Record. Click Verify FFL to confirm against the live ATF."

When the provider is the Data Service, the search asks the service's national listing first and adds any matching records from the local library. Those national rows are shown but not saved until you pick one. If the service cannot be reached, or the provider is anything else, the local library answers alone.

Verify FFL

Use this to confirm a license against the live ATF check. It is the step that turns Pending into Verified.

Click Verify FFL on the saved Customer or Supplier. It calls out to the provider and stamps the result back onto the party: EZ Check Status, EZ Check Last Run, the licensee name, the licensed address and the expiry date. The message reads "FFL status: Verified" in green, "FFL status: Expired" in orange, or "FFL status: Failed" in red.

EZ Check Status is one of Pending, Verified, Failed or Expired. A lookup that finds nothing, and a provider that cannot be reached, both land on Failed.

There is a third verify button, Verify Our FFL, on FFL Settings. It checks the store's own license and stamps nothing. Use it to test that the provider is working.

Providers, rate limits and caching

The provider is set in FFL Settings under FFL Verification → Live EZ Check.

Provider	What it does
ATF Form Scraper	The default. Queries the ATF's own eZ Check form directly.
Data Service	Routes through the shared Data Service, using the connection on Data Service Settings. The store and the web site share one cache and one polite request budget. It also returns a structured address.
Manual Only	Turns live verification off entirely.

Two more fields sit beside it:

• Rate Limit (req/hr), default 30, caps how often the ATF Form Scraper calls the ATF.
• Cache TTL (minutes), default 1440, is how long a live result is reused before it is looked up again.

A cached record is only reused when it has actually been verified live and is inside the TTL. A record loaded from the ATF's bulk list has never been verified live, so it is never treated as fresh.

Every Verify FFL and every Lookup by FFL # forces a live call, skipping the freshness check but still refreshing the cache.

If the provider is unavailable or the rate limit is hit, the system falls back to the cached record rather than failing, and only raises an error when there is no cached record at all. That means a number you have looked up before keeps working through an ATF outage, and a brand-new number does not.

Choosing Manual Only makes every live lookup answer: EZ Check provider unavailable: Manual Only mode — live verification disabled.

The shipping rule

A firearm cannot leave the store to a dealer whose license is not verified and unexpired. The check runs when the delivery note or the stock-moving invoice submits, so it applies however the document was built.

The dealer's own record is checked in this order:

Reason you see	What is wrong
No FFL number on file.	The customer is marked a dealer but carries no license number.
FFL not verified (status: Pending).	The license was filled in but never verified live.
FFL not verified (status: Failed).	The last verification failed.
FFL expired <date>.	The license has expired.
FFL expired (no expiry on file).	No expiry date is recorded, which counts as blocked.

The refusal appears under the title Dealer FFL Not Shippable, or Destination FFL Expired when the block is on an explicitly chosen destination.

The rule is deliberately stricter than the receiving rule. Receiving accepts Pending, so a clerk's first purchase from a newly created supplier is not blocked. Shipping does not, because here the store is the one handing the gun over.

Two more blocks apply to a destination chosen on an order:

• Destination FFL Address Incomplete, when the record has no street or no valid state. The message explains that the address is needed so sales tax is computed correctly.
• Destination FFL Unresolved, when a dealer customer's FFL number cannot be matched to any ATF record at all.

In every case the fix is the same. Open the dealer, run Search ATF if the address is thin, then Verify FFL.

C&R (Type 03) collectors

A collector with a Curio & Relic license holds a real FFL, so a C&R-eligible gun can ship straight to their licensed premises. The ATF directory holds no Type 03 licenses, so Verify FFL and Lookup by FFL # can never find one. Staff read the license copy instead.

On Create Order, in Destination FFL:

1. Tick C&R (Type 03) — ships to the collector's own license. The lookup buttons give way to a form.
2. Type the C&R License Number as printed, in the form 1-23-456-03-7C-89012. A collector who has ordered before fills in the rest from the record on file.
3. Type or check License Expires, Collector Name, Licensed Premises Address, City, State and ZIP, as they appear on the copy.
4. Click Use this C&R license. "C&R license saved — the order ships to the licensed premises."

The system saves an ATF FFL Record for the collector with a comment naming who read the copy, and uses it as the order's destination. From then on it works as any destination FFL: the ship-to is the licensed premises, sales tax follows that address, and the gun leaves the bound book as an FFL Transfer. A web order for a collector is checked against the same rules when it is disposed. See Web orders.

Message you see	What it means
Missing C&R details: …	A field on the form is blank.
… is not a Type 03 (Curio & Relic) license — the fourth group must be 03…	The number is not a collector's license.
C&R license <n> expired on <date>.	The license has expired. The gun cannot ship to it.
"<value>" is not a valid US state.	Fix the state.

Federal recordkeeping

You are attesting that you read these details from the collector's license, and the record names you. Keep the copy with the order's records. The system does not check that the gun is a curio or relic. That judgment stays with the person shipping it.

Troubleshooting

Message you see	What it means	Fix
'<value>' doesn't look like an FFL number. Expected format: 1-99-999-99-9X-99999	The number is too short.	Retype it. Hyphens are optional.
FFL number '<n>' not found in ATF EZ Check.	The ATF has no such license.	Check the number with the dealer.
EZ Check provider unavailable: Local rate limit exceeded	Too many live lookups this hour.	Wait, or raise Rate Limit (req/hr).
EZ Check provider unavailable: Manual Only mode — live verification disabled.	Live verification is switched off.	A manager changes Provider in FFL Settings.
Data Service: shared EZ Check budget exhausted	The shared service has hit its limit.	Wait, or switch Provider to ATF Form Scraper.
Cannot receive firearm from supplier '<name>' — not registered as FFL Dealer.	Receiving a gun from a non-dealer supplier.	Tick Is FFL Dealer, run Search ATF, then Verify FFL.
Dealer FFL Not Shippable	The receiving dealer's license is not usable.	Read the reason, then re-verify the dealer.
Destination FFL Address Incomplete	The record has no street or no valid state.	Open the ATF FFL Record and complete it, or re-verify.
Destination FFL Unresolved	The customer's FFL number matches no ATF record.	Run Verify FFL on the customer, or check the connection.

Related pages

• The bound book for the transfer records this feeds.
• Receive Goods for the receiving gate.
• Transfers.
• Customers for the rest of the customer record.
• FFL Settings for the provider options.