---
title: "Automatic VAT Number Verification | JustAutomate"
description: "Four checks before the invoice leaves: number format, VIES, the national register and the bank account. A mismatch holds it. Live in 2 to 6 weeks."
url: "https://justautomate.ai/en/automations/vat-number-verification/"
lang: en
---

Finance and documents

# Automatic VAT number verification four checks before the invoice goes out

When a deal or an order is marked ready to invoice, the workflow validates the VAT number, confirms it in VIES for the date of the supply, checks the company in its national register and compares the bank account against the published account list where one exists. The result and the timestamp sit against the invoice. A mismatch holds the invoice and alerts finance.

 Book a free consultation [See how the workshop works](https://justautomate.ai/en/services/process-workshop/)

- 4 checksnumber format and check digit, the EU VAT number in VIES, company status in the national register, the bank account against the published list, all in one gate
- 3 statesverified, rejected, recheck. The workflow tells a refusal from a register apart from a register that did not answer, so a short outage never passes an invoice through unchecked
- 2 to 6 weeksfrom the workshop to a gate running in production, tested first on real VAT numbers from your own customer list: registered, deregistered and foreign
- 5 to 10 secondsthat is how long finance waits for the AI agent to answer which invoices this month went to customers with a register mismatch

The problem

## What does one payment to the wrong bank account cost you?

Finance checks a customer once, at onboarding, and writes registered in the CRM. Six months later the company changes its bank account or loses its VAT registration, and the payment still goes to the old account. A rep retypes a VAT number out of an email and swaps two digits. An invoice to a customer in Czechia goes out zero-rated, though their VAT number stopped being valid in VIES a month ago.

These are four separate obligations, and in most companies one person holds all four in their head. Is the number itself well formed. Is the company registered and trading in its own country. Is the EU VAT number valid in VIES on the date of the supply. Does the bank account printed on the invoice actually belong to the supplier. Each sits in a different register, each has its own moment to be checked, each fails differently. Registers refresh on their own schedule, so a check from six months ago proves nothing about today.

The cost lands in two places at once. An intra-EU supply zero-rated against a number that was not valid on the day is a supply you have to defend later, and until you do, the tax is yours. Confirmation comes from [VIES, the European Commission service that validates VAT numbers across the EU](https://ec.europa.eu/taxation%5Fcustoms/vies/), and it has to be dated. On the payment side the loss is simpler and faster: money sent to an account that is not the supplier's is money you chase, and invoice redirection fraud works precisely because nobody re-checks the account on an invoice from a supplier they already know.

- A payment leaves for an account that stopped being the supplier's account months ago
- Zero rating applied on an EU supply against a VAT number that VIES no longer confirms
- A typo in a VAT number found after the invoice is issued, so it takes a credit note, not an edit
- Verification stops at onboarding and then depends on one person remembering
- Nobody can show, on the day of an audit, when a given customer was last checked

Why now

## What changed, so that every invoice can be checked instead of every customer once?

Registers answer machines now. VIES confirms an EU VAT number through an interface the workflow calls, rather than a person with a browser and a spare quarter of an hour. National company registers answer by registration or tax number and return the current status. Format and check digit rules differ per country and are applied locally, before any request leaves your systems, so a typo is caught for free and daily register quotas go on real checks. Some national registers go further: the Polish VAT taxpayer register, for one, answers by tax number or by bank account for a chosen date and returns a request identifier that stands on its own as evidence the check happened.

On the other side, CRMs and invoicing systems fire webhooks. Moving a deal to ready to invoice in HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce or LiveSpace starts a workflow in Make or [n8n](https://docs.n8n.io/) a second after the click. Fakturownia, iFirma, enova365 and sevDesk accept an invoice over the API. Systems installed on a server in your office, Subiekt or Comarch Optima among them, are reached through a connector running inside your network. The verification result and its date go back onto the deal and onto the invoice. Four checks that cost a quarter of an hour of clicking take a few seconds and do not depend on anybody remembering.

The third change is the AI agent. A gate will hold an invoice, but it will not answer a finance director asking which invoices this month went to customers with a register mismatch. BOND, our company AI agent, answers that in a plain sentence, out of the verification log and the invoicing system, in 5 to 10 seconds.

What changes

## What does finance get once VAT numbers check themselves?

- ### Four checks in one gate
Number format, company status in the national register, the EU VAT number in VIES, the bank account against the published list. Every invoice passes all four, in the same order, rather than whenever somebody thinks of it.
The invoice does not leave until the gate returns four results; there is no check it later mode
- ### Status on the date that counts, not the date of the contract
What matters is the customer's status on the day of the supply or the day the payment is ordered, and registers change daily. The workflow asks for that date and re-checks the account on every payment, including for a customer you have billed for five years.
Registers that support a date answer for the date the workflow asks about, not for today
- ### Proof of the check against every invoice
The request identifier where the register returns one, the date of the check and the result of each of the four checks land on the invoice and on the deal in the CRM. In an audit you show the log instead of arguing that finance surely checked.
Identifier and date against every invoice, including the ones the gate held
- ### A mismatch holds the invoice, not the company
Deregistered or unknown in the national register, a bank account outside the published list, an EU VAT number VIES will not confirm: the workflow holds the invoice and sends an alert to Slack or by email with a mismatch report and the next step.
An alert within seconds of detection, with the mismatch spelled out field by field
- ### VIES does not answer, so the invoice waits rather than passes
VIES pulls from the registers of every EU member state and has windows when a country's register is down. The workflow separates rejected from no answer: it retries, and after a few attempts it calls a person. Neither a false block nor an invoice waved through unchecked.
Three states instead of two: verified, rejected, recheck
- ### Questions about customers in a plain sentence
How many customers changed status this quarter, which invoices the gate held in August and why, how many times VIES failed to answer. The AI agent answers from the verification log, with no digging and no request to finance.
An answer from the verification log, the CRM and the invoicing system in 5 to 10 seconds

And in your company

## What if our invoices are issued by an accountant, not a system?

Four sentences we hear most often, and what we answer to each.

If the neighbouring problem is the one you actually have, there are separate pages: [automatic invoicing from CRM](https://justautomate.ai/en/automations/automatic-invoicing-from-crm/) when the invoice itself is issued by hand, [CRM to ERP sync](https://justautomate.ai/en/automations/crm-erp-sync/) when customer data is retyped between systems, and [API integration](https://justautomate.ai/en/services/api-integration/) when the register or the invoicing system sits behind an interface nobody has connected yet.

- We check customers at onboarding, that is enough.
It was enough while the check counted once. It counts on the date of each supply and each payment now, and registers change daily: a customer changes bank, loses a registration, gets it back. A check from January does not defend a payment in September. The gate asks for the right date every time; a person asks when they remember.
- Our invoicing system and our bank already check this.
Some invoicing systems and some banks do check an account at payment time or a number at issue time, and if that closes your process, we say so in the workshop. The gap is usually somewhere else: VIES on EU supplies, payments ordered from a system other than the invoicing one, customers in countries where the bank has no register to check against, and no dated evidence held in one place. The workshop shows which of the four checks you already have and which you do not.
- We issue 20 invoices a month, this will not pay for itself.
It may well not. At 20 invoices a month for domestic customers only, a written checklist and a manual check are the sensible answer, and that is what we will tell you. The point where a gate starts defending itself is regular high value payments, sales into other EU countries, or an accounting firm doing this for many clients at once.
- We have no IT department and nobody who works with APIs.
You do not need one. The workflow runs in Make or n8n, we build it and we monitor it, and the person who handles invoices learns three things: how to read an alert, how to read the mismatch report and what to send the customer when the bank account does not match. Changing a threshold or adding a check is something they do later on their own, with no ticket to us.

Registers

VIES for EU VAT numbers, national company and tax registers, published bank account lists where a country keeps one

Invoicing and accounting

Fakturownia, iFirma, Comarch Optima, Subiekt, enova365, sevDesk

CRM and sales

HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, LiveSpace, BaseLinker

Notifications

Slack, Microsoft Teams, email

Data and verification log

Google Sheets, BigQuery, SQL databases

Automation layer

Make, n8n, custom integrations over the API

## The four checks, and what happens on a mismatch

The checks that make up the gate, in the order they run. The order is deliberate: format and check digit reject a typo locally, before any request reaches a register, so daily register quotas go on real checks.

| Check                                   | Where the data comes from                                                                            | What happens on a mismatch                                                                          |
| --------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| VAT number format and check digit       | the format and check digit rule for the country the number belongs to, applied locally               | the invoice goes back to the rep with a request to correct the number, with no register call at all |
| EU VAT number in VIES                   | VIES, confirmation that the number is valid on the date of the supply                                | the zero-rated invoice does not go out; the decision is domestic rate or a recheck                  |
| Company status in the national register | the national company or tax register for the customer's country, by registration number              | deregistered or unknown holds the invoice and raises an alert to finance                            |
| Bank account on the invoice             | the published account list for the supplier's country, where one exists, for the date of the payment | the payment is held and the alert asks for written confirmation of the account before it goes out   |
| Register unavailable                    | no answer from VIES or a national register within the agreed time                                    | the invoice queues, the request repeats every 15 minutes, after 3 attempts a person is called       |
| Evidence of the check                   | the request identifier where the register returns one, the date and the result of each check         | stored on the invoice and on the deal whatever the result, including for held invoices              |

The rows are a starting point. A company with no sales into other EU countries does not need VIES, and a company whose suppliers sit in countries with no published account list gets three checks rather than four. Which ones go into the gate is settled in the workshop.

How we do it

## Five steps from checking by memory to a gate running in production

Each step ends with something you can judge before you decide on the next one.

1. ### Workshop
We map the path from order to issued invoice: who checks a VAT number today, how often, in which tool and what happens on a mismatch. We look for the three gaps we see most often: verification done once at onboarding, a check made for today instead of for the date that counts, and a customer status in the CRM that no longer matches the invoicing system.
2. ### Gate design
Which of the four checks go in, in what order, against which thresholds. What the workflow does on each result and on no answer from a register. The tool choice: Make, n8n or an integration straight over the API into your invoicing system. We settle what gets stored as evidence and how long it is kept.
3. ### Build and tests on real VAT numbers
The gate runs alongside your current control, with nothing switched off. We test on customers from your own database: registered, deregistered, foreign, and ones whose bank account is not on the published list. We simulate a VIES outage and confirm that the invoice waits rather than passes.
4. ### Switch and training
After verification we move to production with error monitoring and alerts, at no extra charge. The person who handles invoices learns the alerts, the mismatch report and what to send a customer whose account does not match. You get process documentation, not a black box only the implementer understands.
5. ### Measurement after 30 and 90 days
We count how many invoices the gate held and why, how many alerts were false, how many times a register failed to answer. We retune the thresholds and the retry interval against what actually turns up, rather than against what we guessed in the workshop.

Before and after

## How the day changes for the person who issues invoices

### Before

- Before a large invoice they open a register search and paste the number in, if they remember and if they have the time
- An EU customer is checked in VIES once, on the first supply, and never again
- A bank account that no longer belongs to the supplier surfaces after the payment has left
- In an audit they dig through email for evidence that the customer was ever checked

### After

- Every invoice carries a register result for the date that counts, before anyone opens it
- The EU VAT number is confirmed in VIES on every supply, not on the first one
- A bank account outside the published list holds the payment and asks for written confirmation
- The request identifier and the date of the check sit against every invoice, ready for an audit

The first held invoices show up on the day of the switch. Thresholds and the false alert rate are judged after 30 days, on your own invoices.

For the person signing this off

## What the finance director gets out of it

Tax you have to defend on an EU supply, and payments that leave for accounts nobody re-checked, are risks you carry personally today while one person's memory guards them. After the rollout a rule you approved guards them, plus a log you hand to an auditor instead of an explanation.

The second thing carries more weight in a board meeting. You know how many invoices the gate held in the quarter and why, how many customers changed status, how many payments were stopped before they left. That is a number nobody in the company has today, and it says how much risk was passing through invoicing unnoticed.

- Dated evidence of a check against every invoice, rather than in an accountant's memory
- Exposure on EU supplies and on payments turned into a rule that does not take holiday
- The gate runs in parallel, so your current control stays live until testing ends
- Your team changes a threshold or adds a check, with no ticket to us

What it costs

## The workshop has a published price, the rollout is quoted after it

The process workshop costs **EUR 3,500 net per week**. On VAT number verification one week is usually enough, because the process is narrow: from ready to invoice to an issued invoice. We quote the rollout after the workshop, once it is clear how many of the four checks apply, which invoicing system you run and how many invoices a month go through the gate.

Queries to VIES and to national registers are free. You pay the cost of running the workflow directly to the tool vendor, meaning Make or n8n, or you pay nothing at all when it runs on your own infrastructure. Where the AI agent is part of the scope, model queries cost the vendor EUR 0.005 to 0.07 each. No commission from us on any of it.

- ### Process workshop
EUR 3,500 net
per week, on VAT number verification usually one
A self-contained piece of work. It ends with a map of your invoicing process, the gaps in verification and a gate plan you can execute without us.

  - Map of the path from order to invoice and the points where a customer is never checked
  - The list of checks and thresholds that fit your invoices and the markets you sell into
  - Tool recommendation: a check inside the invoicing system, the bank, Make, n8n or the API
  - Metrics to measure after 30 days: held invoices, false alerts, register outages
 Start with the workshop
- Most popular
### Workshop and gate rollout
Quoted after the workshop
scope follows from the number of checks and the systems we connect
The option most companies choose. A working gate within 2 to 6 weeks of the workshop, tested on real VAT numbers from your own customer list.

  - Everything in the workshop
  - A workflow in Make, n8n or over the API, wired into the CRM, the invoicing system, VIES and the national registers
  - Handling for mismatches, register outages and the retry policy
  - Parallel rollout, then the switch with monitoring and alerts, at no extra charge
  - Training for the person who handles invoices on alerts and the mismatch report
 Talk about a rollout
- ### Gate and an AI agent for finance
Quoted after the workshop
for teams that would rather ask about customers than search a log
Everything in the rollout plus BOND, which answers questions about checks and customers in a plain sentence.

  - Everything in the gate rollout
  - AI agent wired into the verification log, the invoicing system and the CRM
  - Alerts when a customer changes status or a bank account stops matching
  - Access for finance, sales and the board, in English and in Polish
 Ask about the agent

If the workshop shows that your invoicing system and your bank already check what matters and you do not sell into other EU countries, we say so plainly and show you where the gap is left, if there is one at all. The workshop ends with a document holding the process map and the list of checks, and that document stands without us. It does not end with a rollout you do not need.

## Frequently asked questions

What is automatic VAT number verification?

It is a gate inside the invoicing process. Before an invoice is issued, it checks the customer four ways: the format and check digit of the number, company status in the national register, the EU VAT number in VIES for the date of the supply, and the bank account against the published account list where the country keeps one. The result and the date are stored against the invoice. Everything matching releases the invoice; a mismatch holds it and alerts finance.

What is the difference between VIES and a national company register?

VIES is the EU wide service for confirming that a VAT number issued in another member state is valid, which is what an intra-EU supply at zero rate rests on. It pulls its answers live from the registers of every member state, so it is less stable than any single national one. A national register is the source for the company itself: whether it exists, whether it is trading, in some countries which bank accounts it has reported. You need both, because one confirms the number for cross-border VAT and the other confirms the company and where its money should go.

What is the risk in paying an account that is not the supplier's?

Two things at once. Commercially, money sent to the wrong account is money you chase rather than recover, and invoice redirection fraud works because nobody re-checks the account on an invoice from a familiar supplier. In tax terms, several countries tie deductibility or joint liability to paying an account the supplier has reported to the tax authority, so a payment outside that list can cost you more than the payment itself. The gate spots the account before the payment leaves, which is the only cheap moment.

How does the workflow react when VIES or a register does not answer?

It separates no answer from a negative answer. The invoice goes into a queue with the state recheck, the workflow repeats the request every 15 minutes, and after 3 failed attempts it calls a person. A short register outage therefore neither blocks your invoicing blindly nor lets an invoice through unchecked. The retry interval and the number of attempts are set in the workshop, against how often your registers actually go down.

Does this work with Fakturownia, iFirma or Comarch Optima?

Yes. We integrate with Fakturownia, iFirma, enova365 and any system with an invoicing API, and with sevDesk for customers in DACH. Subiekt and Comarch Optima are installed locally, so we reach them through a connector running inside your network rather than a request from the cloud. On the CRM side we connect HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce and LiveSpace, and BaseLinker for online sales. If your system already checks a register at issue time, the gate takes over what it does not do: VIES, the bank account and dated evidence in one place.

How long does it take to implement VAT number verification?

A week of workshop and 2 to 6 weeks of build, depending on how many of the four checks apply and how many systems we connect. A single register for domestic customers is the lower end; VIES, a national register and bank account checks across several invoicing systems is the upper one. The gate runs alongside your current control, so nothing is switched off until testing is finished.

A number is valid in VIES, so is the customer safe?

VIES confirms that a VAT number is valid for the member state that issued it, on the day you ask. It says nothing about whether the company is solvent, whether the bank account on the invoice belongs to it, or whether the trading name matches the registered one. That is why the gate runs four checks rather than one: VIES answers the cross-border VAT question, the national register answers the company question, and the account list answers the payment question.

What does evidence of the check look like in an audit?

Every query is logged with the date, the register it went to, the answer it returned and the invoice it belongs to, and where a register returns a request identifier, that identifier is stored too. The workflow writes all of it to the verification log and onto the deal in the CRM. In an audit you open the entry for the specific invoice, rather than reconstructing from email who checked the customer and when.

## Let us find where your customers are passing through without a check today

The free consultation takes 30 minutes. You tell us how you check customers today, who handles a negative result and what happens next. We show a demo of the gate on sample VAT numbers in different states: registered, deregistered, unknown, and an EU number VIES will not confirm. You write to Pawel, the founder, not to a reception desk. You do not have to give access to any system at this stage.

We run at most two rollouts at a time, so that someone is actually sitting on each of them.

[Book a free consultation](https://justautomate.ai/en/contact/)

**PS.** If anybody at your company paid a large invoice this quarter and only then looked at whose bank account it was, that is this problem exactly. Four checks that depend on one person's memory today can become a gate an invoice cannot pass without them. That is where the workshop starts.

## Related

- [Automatic invoicing from CRM](https://justautomate.ai/en/automations/automatic-invoicing-from-crm/)
- [Automatic payment reminders](https://justautomate.ai/en/automations/automatic-payment-reminders/)
- [Automation for accounting firms](https://justautomate.ai/en/industries/accounting-firms/)
- [n8n automation](https://justautomate.ai/en/services/n8n-automation/)
- [BOND, business AI agent](https://justautomate.ai/en/services/bond-business-ai-agent/)
- [Process workshop](https://justautomate.ai/en/services/process-workshop/)

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**JustAutomate** · contact: contact@justautomate.ai · form: https://justautomate.ai/en/contact/