Search Tips

Enter accurate serial number information

Know when serial numbers are required

Copy and paste into PPRS screens

Enter accurate debtor information

Most PPRS screens permit you to copy and paste information into data fields rather than retyping the information.

We encourage you to use copy and paste where applicable in order to reduce errors caused by mistyping.

Restrictions for invalid characters

PPRS supports an extensive character set (ISO-8859-1) including accented characters used in French and other European languages.
PPRS does not support certain special characters used by Microsoft Office and some other applications, such as directional quotation marks, non-breaking spaces, and the elipsis (three dots). Pasting such characters into fields other than the General Collateral Description and Additional Information fields (see below) may result in an error message.
The Serial Number field does not permit characters other than alphabetic and numeric characters. The characters may be pasted into the field, but not saved. If you paste such characters, you must manually remove them from the Serial Number field before you register or search (PPRS will display an error message stating that you have entered invalid characters).

Special handling provided for General Collateral Description and Additional Information fields

In the General Collateral Description and Additional Information free-text fields, PPRS will automatically convert some invalid characters to valid equivalent characters. Special characters used by Microsoft Office and some other applications, such as directional quotation marks, non-breaking spaces, and the elipsis (three dots) will be automatically converted to equivalent characters such as standard quotation marks, spaces, and three dots. For more information see the PPRS Character Set page.

General Collateral Description and Additional Information fields may not retain special text formatting

The General Collateral Description and Additional Information fields are long, but simple, text fields. Carefully aligned columns of data from your source document may not look the same after being copied into the General Collateral Description or Additional Information field. In order to see what your copied text will look like in a completed registration, do the following:
- Continue to the Submit Registration screen.
- Before you submit the registration, click on the View Details button. This will present your draft registration details approximately the same way they will look in a Verification Statement or Search Result Report.
- If you do not like the presentation, after returning to the Submit Registration screen, click the Revise Registration Details button in order to return the Draft Registrations Details screen and edit the pasted data.