Pinyin for chinese family name and employer?

One of my parent and his employer’s company has no legal english names. Is it standard to use pinyin? Do colleges have access to information in the “family” section? A lot is lost through pinyin and there are people and companies wit the same pinyin translations.

(If I enter chinese, it just returns a question mark?

Yes, use pinyin. There are lots of folks who use pinyin names exclusively. It’s not that unusual.