Why Invoq checks every supplier against VIES and Ariregister

Before an invoice can be trusted, you need to know the supplier is who they say they are. That sounds obvious, but it's a step that's easy to skip when you're moving fast through a stack of invoices — and skipping it is exactly how a wrong VAT number, an unregistered supplier, or a mismatched company name ends up baked into your books.

Why this check matters

A VAT number on an invoice is only useful if it's actually valid, belongs to the company that issued the invoice, and is registered the way the invoice assumes. Get any of that wrong and the effect isn't cosmetic — it can change how the invoice should be treated for VAT purposes, and it's exactly the kind of mismatch that draws a query from the EMTA later, since your return gets cross-checked against your suppliers' and customers' returns.

What Invoq checks

For every invoice, Invoq verifies the supplier in two places:

• VIES — for suppliers based elsewhere in the EU, Invoq validates the VAT number against the VIES system to confirm it's currently valid and registered to the name on the invoice.
• Ariregister (the Estonian Business Register) — for Estonian suppliers, Invoq confirms the company exists in the registry and checks whether it's VAT registered at all. An Estonian supplier charging VAT while not actually VAT registered comes up regularly, and it changes how that VAT should be treated on your side.

Both checks happen automatically, without anyone opening a government portal and typing a number in by hand.

What gets flagged

Invoq surfaces a problem whenever something doesn't line up:

• A VAT number that isn't valid, or doesn't match the country it claims to be from.
• A company name on the invoice that doesn't match what's registered against that VAT number.
• An Estonian supplier charging VAT without being VAT registered.
• A supplier that can't be found in the registry at all.

Each flag comes with the specific mismatch, not just a generic warning — so the reviewer knows exactly what to check before approving.

Registrations change — Invoq checks every time

A supplier's VAT status isn't fixed. A company can register for VAT, lose its registration, or update its details between one invoice and the next. Checking once and assuming it still holds months later is how outdated information quietly ends up in your VAT treatment.

That's why Invoq runs the check on every invoice, not just the first time it sees a supplier. If something has changed since the last invoice from that same company, it shows up as a flag rather than going unnoticed.

The accountant still makes the call on what to do with it — Invoq's part is making sure the information in front of them is up to date.