Translate a classification code, or map YOUR word for a concept to this surface's fields — ask before concluding absence.
**Codes — the crosswalk.** Every record carries NAICS, SIC, the Google
Business category and the payment MCC, tied together by our own taxonomy.
Give ANY one — `term` "MCC 5812", "SIC 1711", "NAICS 238220", "google
category plumber" (or `system` = naics / sic / mcc / google_category plus
`code`) — and get the other three back: the equivalents in each system, our
industry, the ready-to-use `filters` for each system, and a live count
(`total` is the whole crosswalk neighborhood; `total_exact` only industries
that carry the code itself; each industry is marked `exact` or `related`).
A code we do not carry directly WIDENS — to its parent group, then to the
industries the crosswalk ties it to — and `widened` says which step it took;
an empty answer means nothing relates to it, and names where to go next.
A trade word works too — "plumbers", "electrician", "lawyer", "locksmith": it is
read against the NAME of every code at every level (the Google category
"Plumber", the NAICS title "Offices of Lawyers", the SIC group "Legal
Services", the MCC description), and the answer says which level named it and
gives the broader parent. A SIC or NAICS prefix (`17`, `238`) is a whole group. A payments seller starts
from an MCC, a web designer from a Google category, a lender from NAICS — all
reach the same list. Hand the `filters` to `browse_leads` / `quote_list`.
**Concepts.** Call this whenever a term you or your buyer uses ("vertical",
"direct dial", "sole proprietor", "operating address", "decision maker")
doesn't obviously match a field name. It answers in three shapes:
`carried` names the exact fields and how to use them; `partially_carried`
adds per-state availability with the reason a state is zero (zero by state
design is not a data gap); `not_carried` explains why and names the nearest
signal we do hold. Ambiguous terms return a clarifying question instead of
a guess.
Never conclude "this data is missing" from an empty filter result or an
unmatched field name without calling this first — several concepts are
carried under a different name, and several zeros are publication facts,
not gaps.