Legal Identifiers

An invoice that you send to a business client is a legal document. Their accounts department checks it against their own records before they pay it. In Algeria, the invoice has to carry the client’s NIF (tax identification number). It usually carries their RC (commercial register number) and their AI (tax article number) as well. If a number is missing, the client often sends the invoice back, and the payment waits until you issue it again.

The Legal identifiers tab on a partner holds these numbers. Every document that you print for that partner then carries them, and nobody has to look them up.

Why this is not the Tax identifier field

Every partner already has one Tax identifier field on its Overview tab. That field holds one number, and it cannot say which number it holds. That is enough to find a partner. It is not enough for a printed document, which has to label each number.

The tab takes over from that field on documents. If the tab holds no active number, a document prints the Tax identifier as the NIF, so nothing that you typed before is lost. As soon as the tab holds one active number, a document prints the tab and no longer prints the Tax identifier. So add every number, and not only the one that was missing.

Add an identifier

Only the owner of your organization can add or change an identifier. No other built-in role can, so anyone else needs a role that the owner gives them (Roles and Permissions).

1. Open Business Partners → Partners, and open the partner.
2. Choose its Legal identifiers tab.
3. Click Add.
4. Fill in the row:
   • Label is what prints before the number: NIF, NIS, RC or AI. Write the letters as the partner’s own papers write them.
   • Value is the number exactly as the partner writes it, with its spaces and signs. An Algerian commercial register number reads like 16/00-1234567 B 21, and it has to print the same way.
   • Order is where the number sits in the printed block. A lower order prints first.
   • Active is ticked. Leave it ticked. See Replacing a number below.
5. Leave the row. Beelocity saves it when you leave a cell. If the label or the value is missing, a message says so.

Repeat these steps for each number that the partner has. A typical Algerian company looks like this:

Labels are yours to choose

The label is free text, because the numbers differ from one country to the next. A French supplier has a SIRET and an intra-community VAT number. A British supplier has a company number and a VAT registration number. Write the letters that the partner’s papers use, and Beelocity prints them.

Two rules keep the block readable:

• Beelocity stores each label in capitals. nif and NIF are the same label, so you cannot enter both by mistake and print one number twice.
• A partner has each label once. If you add a second NIF, Beelocity refuses it and asks you to edit the one that exists. This holds for an inactive number too.

Replacing a number

A partner has each label once, even when the old number is inactive. So when a partner’s RC changes, you cannot keep the old RC and add a new one beside it. Beelocity refuses the second RC.

To replace the number, click the Value of the RC row and type the new number. The next document prints the new number. The old number leaves the tab, and a stored copy of a document keeps the number that it printed.

If you want to keep the old number on the tab, do this instead:

1. Clear Active on the old RC. It stops printing at once.
2. Change its Label to a label of its own, such as RC 2019.
3. Click Add, and add the new RC with the same Order as the old one.

Do not leave both rows active. A document that shows two commercial register numbers looks like a mistake by you.

What changes and what does not

A change on this tab reaches the next document that you print or download. It never changes a stored copy. An invoice that you sent keeps the numbers that it went out with. So the copy in your client’s file and the copy in yours stay the same. This is on purpose. A document that changed after you sent it would be worthless as a record. Print invoice on a sent invoice shows today’s numbers, so it can differ from the stored copy.

Tips

• Fill these in when you create the client, not when an invoice comes back. The numbers are on the client’s letterhead, on their own invoices and on their commercial register extract.
• The NIF is the number that holds payments back. If you have time for one number only, record the NIF.
• Do it for suppliers too. Their numbers print on the purchase orders that you send them. A supplier who can match your order to their own records can ship sooner.