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Business Verification is Meta’s process for confirming that your company is real, owned by you, and operating legitimately. It is the single most common stuck-on-setup step in Flowella onboarding because the Start Verification button on a fresh business portfolio is often greyed out, with no obvious reason why. This page covers the information Meta needs, how the verification itself runs, and the workaround for the greyed-out button.

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Why verification matters

Without passing Business Verification, your WhatsApp Business Account is capped at the Tier 1 messaging limit (250 unique recipients per 24 hours). Templates can still be approved and sent, but you cannot graduate to higher tiers, and some features are disabled. Most teams hit the cap on day one of a real campaign. For the messaging tiers themselves, see Messaging limits for new accounts.

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What Meta needs

Before starting verification, gather the following so it’s all to hand once you click the button. Mismatches are the most common reason verification fails on the first attempt.
The registered legal address of the company, again as it appears on public filings. A c/o address (e.g. care of your accountants) is fine if that’s what the registry shows.Trading addresses, virtual offices, and PO boxes are accepted but slow down the manual review if Meta cannot match them to public records.
A phone number that is clearly associated with the business. Meta will call this number during verification, so it has to ring through to a person who can confirm details — not an IVR menu that drops calls to voicemail. A mobile that goes to your operations manager is often a better choice than a switchboard.
A live website on a domain you own, where the legal business name appears on the homepage, the About page, or the footer. Squarespace and Wix sites count.If your trading brand is different to the legal entity (for example, “Flowella” trading from “Discover Digital Solutions Limited”), both names need to be visible somewhere on the website. The Privacy Policy and Terms pages are common places to expose this.
An email address on the same domain as your website (name@yourcompany.com). Gmail and Outlook addresses are accepted but flagged for additional review.
Be ready to upload at least one of: certificate of incorporation, business licence, tax registration document, utility bill in the business name, or recent bank statement in the business name. PDF or clear photo is fine.All four corners of the document must be visible and all text legible. Cropped images and screenshots usually fail.

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Add or update your business information

Before starting verification you need the basics filled in on the portfolio.
1

Open business information

Go to your Meta business portfolio in Meta Business Suite → Settings → Business info, or directly at business.facebook.com/settings/info.
2

Complete every field

Fill in the legal name, address, phone, website, email, and primary contact. Save each section as you go.
3

Cross-check against your website

Open your website in a separate tab and verify the legal name matches what appears publicly. If they differ, update the website first.
With that done, the Start Verification button should appear in the Security Centre. If it doesn’t, you’ve hit the dummy-asset trap below.

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The Start Verification button is greyed out

This catches teams with brand new business portfolios. Meta will not start the verification process for a portfolio that has no business assets attached to it — the assumption being that there is nothing to verify against. A WABA on its own does not count as a sufficient asset to trigger verification. The fix is to attach any single Meta asset to the portfolio. The lightest-weight option is to create an App in Meta for Developers, which takes about 90 seconds and never has to actually be used.
1

Go to Meta for Developers

Sign in at developers.facebook.com with the same Facebook account that admins your business portfolio.
2

Create a new App

Click My Apps → Create App. Pick Other as the use case, Business as the app type, and give it any name (“Verification Helper” is fine).
3

Attach the App to your portfolio

When prompted for a business portfolio, choose the portfolio that holds your WABA. Save.
4

Return to the Security Centre

Back in Meta Business Suite, go to Settings → Security Centre and refresh the page. The Start Verification button should now be active.
5

Click Start Verification

Walk through Meta’s verification flow with the information you gathered above.
Once verification succeeds you can leave the dummy App attached or delete it from developers.facebook.com → the App → Settings → Delete App. Either is fine.

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During verification

Meta typically responds within 1–2 business days. The flow is:
  1. Automatic checks first. Meta compares your legal name, address, and website against public records and the documents you uploaded. If everything matches, you’re verified in minutes.
  2. Manual review if mismatched. Anything Meta can’t auto-match goes to a human reviewer, which adds 1–2 business days. You may be asked to upload additional documents or take a verification call.
  3. Phone or email confirmation. Meta sends a verification code to either your business phone or business email — you choose which. Enter the code to finish.
You can check status anytime under Security Centre → Business Verification.

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Common rejection reasons

Meta requires the legal name to be visible on your live website. If your brand differs from the legal entity, add the legal name to your footer, Privacy Policy, or Terms page.
Cropped, blurry, or screenshot-quality uploads fail. Use a flatbed scanner or take a phone photo in good light with all four corners visible.
Meta may search your business phone number against public records. If it doesn’t match (for example, a personal mobile), the review takes longer. List the number on your website’s contact page to make the link clear.
Brand new portfolios sometimes face additional manual review even after the Start Verification button works. Adding the dummy App helps Meta accept that the portfolio is real.

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After verification

Verification unlocks:
  • Higher messaging limits — graduating from Tier 1 (250 recipients/24h) up to Tier 4 (100,000+/24h) becomes possible. See Messaging limits for the criteria.
  • Display name approval — the green badge in WhatsApp comes from a verified business with an approved display name.
  • Click-to-WhatsApp ads — unverified accounts can’t run CTWA at scale. See CTWA Ads.
If verification has succeeded but Flowella still shows a warning, open Flowella → Settings → Meta and click Refresh status. The Meta status syncs to Flowella on a schedule but a manual refresh forces an immediate read.