Data from state registers in your company system

Copying a contractor's details from one website to another is the most common source of typos on invoices. Most of this data can be retrieved automatically from public registers, and without a contract with an intermediary.

What is available

• The register of VAT taxpayers (the so-called VAT white list, Biała lista) kept by the Ministry of Finance. It lets you check a contractor's VAT status and the bank account numbers reported to the tax office.
• REGON, the business database of GUS (Statistics Poland). Name, address, legal form and PKD activity codes, looked up by NIP (tax ID) or REGON number. Access requires a free user key, which you request from GUS.
• KRS, the National Court Register run by the Ministry of Justice. An extract for a company as structured data rather than a scanned PDF: management board, rules of representation, share capital.
• CEIDG, the register of sole traders. Access here also requires registration and the issue of a token.
• NBP exchange rates, published by the National Bank of Poland. The simplest on the list, with no registration at all.

What this really gives you in a system

• A "NIP" field in the form: once it is filled in, the rest of the details complete themselves. No more typos in company names.
• A warning at payment time when the bank account on the invoice does not match the account reported in the register.
• A check of the contractor's VAT status at the moment the document is issued, rather than manually once a quarter.
• Conversion of foreign currency invoices at the rate for the correct day, without visiting the NBP website.

What to watch out for

Each of these registers has query limits and its own rules. They change more often than the content of this post, so before we design anything, we check the current documentation rather than relying on memory. That is the difference between an integration that runs for a year and one that stops working on the first day of heavy traffic.

• A register is sometimes unavailable. The system has to be able to save the invoice despite the lack of a response, not block sales.
• It is worth caching responses for a while. Asking about the same NIP a hundred times a day makes no sense and quickly uses up the limits.
• Personal data of entrepreneurs from CEIDG is still personal data. Retrieving it does not release you from the obligations that come with storing it.
• A check in the VAT register only has evidential value if you keep the confirmation from that day. The mere fact that the system "checked" means nothing if it left no record.

What this does not solve

None of these sources will tell you whether a contractor will pay. They describe formal status, not creditworthiness. Assessing commercial risk calls for other, paid tools, and it is worth keeping the two apart before someone bases a trade credit decision on the white list.

How we do it

It is usually a plugin for the system you already have, not a separate program. It retrieves the data, saves the confirmation and does not change the way you work. The code and access to the keys stay on your side.