---
title: "Legal Identifiers"
description: "An invoice you send to a business customer is a legal document, and their accounts department checks it against their own records before paying it."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.beelocity.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Legal Identifiers

An invoice you send to a business customer is a legal document, and their accounts department checks
it against their own records before paying it. In Algeria that means it has to carry the customer's
**NIF** (tax identification number) and usually their **RC** (commercial register number) and **AI**
(tax article number) as well. A document missing them is regularly sent back, which turns a paid
invoice into a phone call and a re-issue.

The **Legal Identifiers** tab on a partner is where you record those numbers, so every document you
produce for that customer carries them without anyone having to look them up.

## Why this is not the Tax identifier field

Every partner already has a single **Tax identifier** box on its Overview tab. That box holds one number and
cannot say which number it is holding — which is fine for finding a partner, and not enough for a
printed document that has to label each one.

The tab replaces it for documents. If a partner has no identifiers on this tab, Beelocity prints its
Tax identifier as the NIF, so nothing you filled in previously is lost. As soon as you add one identifier
here, the tab is what prints — so add all of them, not just the one you were missing.

## Add an identifier

1. Open **Business Partners → Partners** and click the partner.
2. Choose the **Legal Identifiers** tab.
3. Click **Add Identifier**.
4. Fill in:
- **Label** — what prints to the left of the number: `NIF`, `NIS`, `RC`, `AI`. Write the acronym
     as it appears on the partner's own paperwork.
- **Value** — the number exactly as they write it, punctuation included. An Algerian commercial
     register entry reads `16/00-1234567 B 21`, and it has to reproduce that way.
- **Order** — where it sits in the printed block. Lower numbers print first.
- **Active** — leave it ticked. See [Replacing a number](#replacing-a-number) below.
5. Save the row.

Repeat for each identifier the partner has. A typical Algerian company record looks like this:

| Label | Value                | Order |
| ----- | -------------------- | ----- |
| NIF   | 000916007654321      | 0     |
| NIS   | 099816007654321      | 1     |
| RC    | 16/00-7654321 B 19   | 2     |
| AI    | 16010203040506       | 3     |

## Labels are yours to choose

The label is free text, because identifiers are not the same everywhere. A French supplier carries a
SIRET and an intra-community VAT number; a British one carries a company number and a VAT
registration. Write whichever acronym that partner's paperwork uses and Beelocity prints it.

Two rules make the block readable:

- **Labels are stored in capitals.** `nif` and `NIF` are the same identifier, so you cannot
  accidentally enter both and print the same number twice.
- **One label per partner.** If you try to add a second `NIF`, Beelocity tells you the partner
  already has one and asks you to edit it instead.

<a id="replacing-a-number"></a>

## Replacing a number

When a partner re-registers and their RC changes, do not overwrite the old one straight away and do
not leave both ticked as Active — a document showing two commercial register numbers looks like a
mistake by *you*.

Instead:

1. Clear **Active** on the old identifier. It stops printing immediately and stays on the tab, so
   anyone asking "what was their old RC" can still see it.
2. Add the new one, with the same Order number as the old one so the block keeps its shape.

## What changes and what does not

Changing anything on this tab affects **the next document you produce**. It never rewrites a document
you have already sent: an invoice keeps the identifiers it was sent with, so the copy in your
customer's file and the copy in yours stay identical. That is deliberate — a document that quietly
changed after it was sent would be worthless as a record.

## Tips

- **Fill this in when you create the customer, not when an invoice bounces.** The numbers are on
  their letterhead, their own invoices, and their commercial register extract.
- **The NIF is the one that stops payments.** If you only have time for one, record that.
- **Suppliers are worth doing too.** Their identifiers appear on the purchase orders you send them,
  and a supplier who can match your order to their own records ships faster.

Source: https://docs.beelocity.com/en/business-partners/legal-identifiers/index.mdx