Estimated Read Time: 5 minutes
Sections in this article:
- Introduction
- Required Fields
- Manually Re-attempt TIN Verification
- TIN Matching in Workflows
- View and Manage Matches
- FAQ
Introduction
Tax ID Verification (also known as TIN Matching) is designed to give you more confidence in the vendor data stored in Gatekeeper. When enabled, Gatekeeper automatically checks US vendors’ Tax Identification Numbers against Internal Revenue Service (IRS) records, and provides feedback on whether the values match.
This helps you identify and correct inaccurate data early, reducing the risk of confusion, delays, or penalties when submitting filings to your tax office.
Note: TIN Verification is available on all Gatekeeper plans, but is switched off by default. To enable it, please reach out to the Support Team.
Required Fields
To enable Gatekeeper to perform a verification check, ensure the following core vendor fields are populated:
- Legal Name
- Tax ID
- Registered Address
Note: TIN Verification feature only connects with the IRS, therefore only vendors with a Registered Address - Country of US will be matched.
After populating the required fields, Gatekeeper automatically performs the verification check. You can populate vendor records:
- Manually via the UI
- In bulk via a CSV import
Manually Re-attempt TIN Verification
If the required metadata is already in place, updating any of the following fields will automatically trigger a new check:
- Legal Name
- Tax ID
- Registered Address
To manually re-attempt a verification, go to the Data tab of a vendor's record, and click Verify TIN again.
Note: If the required metadata is already in place and you want to re-attempt TIN verification for multiple vendors, reach out to us about initiating this in bulk.
TIN Matching in Workflows
To perform a TIN Verification during a workflow, both of the following conditions must be met:
- Core fields (Legal Name, Tax ID, Country) are populated
- A vendor record exists in Gatekeeper
Therefore, populating these fields on a workflow form alone is not sufficient. For new vendors, include a Create Vendor action in the workflow, and for existing vendors, include an Update Vendor action.
Watch the video below for a demonstration:
Once the above conditions have been met for a new/existing vendor, a Status banner will automatically be added to the top of the workflow card.
Workflow Triggers
To avoid manual checks for unsuccessful TIN matches, you can set up an automated workflow trigger based on the TIN Matching status.
For example, a trigger using the condition TIN Status ➡️ is one of ➡️ Did Not Match can be used to automatically start a review of failed vendor matches. See the video below for an example of a simple process which uses this status to perform a review and correction:
Email Notifications
You can include TIN verification results in notification emails sent from the workflow. This allows recipients to see whether the match was successful before logging into Gatekeeper.
To display the TIN verification summary in a notification email, add the tag {{ tin_matching.summary }} where you want the results to appear in the email template
View and Manage Matches
You can view TIN verification results across multiple areas of Gatekeeper. Results can have one of the following four statuses:
- TIN Matched - The verification was successful.
- Did not Match - The verification was completed, but the Tax ID and Legal Name in Gatekeeper do not match the records from the tax agency.
- Pending - The verification has been submitted and is awaiting results.
- In Review - TIN checks have been temporarily paused. This occurs if the same Legal Name or Tax ID has been submitted three or more times. The pause helps prevent disruption to the tax agency integration and typically clears within 30 minutes, but may take up to 48 hours if multiple vendors are affected.
Vendor Record View
To check a vendor’s verification status, go to the Data tab within the vendor record. The TIN Matching section displays the latest result.
Repository List View
For visibility across multiple vendors, navigate to the list view and add the TIN Matching fields as columns. You can save this view if you regularly check on the TIN Matching statuses of vendors.
Including TIN Matching fields along with Tax ID, Legal Name, and Registered Address in the list view makes it easy to identify vendors with missing data or incomplete connections.
TIN Matching Log
Administrators with the Configuration additional permission can access the logs to review the data sent during a TIN check and view any related errors.
From the navigation menu, expand Settings and click Configuration, then click TIN Matching.
Click Request Payload to view the data Gatekeeper sent for the TIN check, or click Response to see the results returned by the external agency.
FAQ 💬
Q: Which countries are available for TIN Matching?
A: Currently only US vendors can be checked via the IRS.
To suggest another country to be added to this feature, please comment on this Ideas Forum post: Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) Matching.
Q: We already have a custom field where we store Tax IDs, can this be used for TIN Verification?
A: No. Only the core field can be used for this. We recommend a bulk update to easily copy your existing data from the custom field to the core field.