The Business and Professional Classification Report is used to supplement the other economic surveys at the Census Bureau with business births and helps to ensure proper industry classification in the Economic Census. This survey covers employer firms with establishments located in the United States.  These firms can be classified in all sectors covered by the Economic Census as defined by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

The Business and Professional Classification Report requests firms to designate their type of business activity, two months of sales or receipts, principle lines of merchandise, whether the firm is owned or owns another establishment, not-for-profit status, type of operation for wholesale firms, inventories, and method of selling for retail and wholesale firms.

Firms or establishments with Employer Identification Numbers (EINs) that are newly assigned, recently reactivated by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or recently added to the scope of the Census Bureau's business data collections.

Data collected includes two months of sales or receipts, principle lines of merchandise, company organization, North American Industry Classification (NAICS) code; wholesale inventories; and other industry related data.

This survey began as a monthly data collections in 1968. Data has been collected quarterly since 1976. A new sample is selected each quarter. Selected EIN's can only be selected once for inclusion in the Business and Professional Classification

Letters with instructions for completing the Business and Professional Classification Survey online will be mailed to a random sample of businesses selected from a list of new or recently added to the scope of the Census Bureau’s business data collection or reactived EINs updated with data from the IRS.

The information collected allows us to update our industry codes for these establishments. This allows our current surveys to be updated with a sample of new businesses entering the business sector. Additionally, business will be mailed five-year Economic Census forms specifically tailored to their industry based on the classification information collected using this survey.