How You Can Bulk Validate VAT Numbers
If you need to check a few VAT numbers the VIES website is a good place to go, but validating more gets time-consuming. This guide explores a bulk VAT verification service for VAT numbers.
There are a few bulk VAT number verification services out there that can perform the task for you. One that I’ve come across recently is an Excel-based macro that will obtain results from VIES.
Since I’m personally a fan of cloud-based services I wanted to look beyond what the first few Google results suggested to me.
A bulk validation service that could be particularly attractive to a wider audience is Vatstack because it lets you control everything from a dashboard.
Why a Cloud-Based Solution
The advantage of Vatstack’s solution is that all VAT number validation requests are stored in the cloud for future retrieval. This makes it easy for me to look into historical records for potential changes in my customer’s VAT registration status.
Furthermore, Vatstack will re-validate unsuccessful attempts automatically as government services across the 28 EU member states can be down regularly due to maintenance. I don’t need to re-run them for hours myself. The idea is that I upload a list of VAT numbers and let the validation process run in the background.
Another advantage is that it also validates VAT numbers for Australia, Switzerland and Norway. Something that no other service I’ve tried is capable of.
Import a CSV File Through the Dashboard
Although Vatstack is primarily an API-based VAT service, it conveniently allows you to import a list of VAT numbers to a batch process. Prepare a CSV file according to their template, give your batch process a descriptive name and you’re good to go.
The screen will look like this after import:
Click the Start Validation button to begin the batch process and Vatstack will run through your entire list. Invalid VAT number formats are automatically detected and marked accordingly.
If any VAT number could not be check against the government databases, the process will continue to run until all results were obtained.
The Finished Report
The finished report is downloadable in CSV which makes it easy for anyone to evaluate the results in a spreadsheet software for example. Your list will include all relevant information:
- VAT number that was tested
- Whether it’s valid or invalid
- A unique reference number and the requested date (acts as proof for tax administrations)
- Company name and address (note that names and addresses are not public in Germany and Spain)
- Country code
Conclusion
I hope this article helped you discover a useful bulk VAT validation service and that it helped you save a ton of manual work.
