Maintaining Your Vendor Record

While onboarding or updating a vendor, Mekorma Vendor Validation provides real-time information to verify if a vendor is legitimate and if their information is correct.

Validate a new vendor from the Vendor Record main page either by using the Validate Vendor button in the upper menu or simply saving the vendor record. After the validation process finishes, you will see status results in:

• Validation Status field
• Current TIN Status field
  

To review the validation in more detail, open the Validation Result tab from the lower menu. Understanding Your Results provides more information on the results of a validation check and any potential next steps.

While adding or updating a vendor, ensure you capture the information below, which is necessary for a successful vendor validation.

TIN Match

The TIN Match provider reviews the tax-related information of a vendor record. The name you establish as the Vendor TIN Account Name in TIN Provider AP Configurations will be used to match against the IRS database for TIN Match. This can be one of the following:

• Vendor account name
• Remit to account name
• Ship from account name
  

Located in the Purchase Settings tab, the Tax Registration ID field contains the TIN that is validated against IRS records. Without a legit Tax ID, a vendor will always receive an error for their validation status.

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If you receive a TIN error, use the Current TIN Status field in the General tab to determine why you received an error. The Current TIN Status field shows the specific result from the TIN Match. There are six different TIN statuses:

• Matched means the TIN matched, the IEN matched, or both matched
• Unmatched means there is no match at all
• Invalid means the TIN was incorrect (i.e., not 9 characters, not numerical, or not logged in IRS records)
• Incompatible means it is a duplicate TIN
• Suspended means the TIN has been tried too many times
• Unknown means there is no information on the TIN
  

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OFAC Screen

To get the most out of the OFAC provider, gather as much information on a vendor as possible. OFAC Screens will validate against the OFAC Sanctions List:

• Master data information
• Locations
• Contacts
  

Master Data Information
Using the data entered in the General tab of the vendor record, the OFAC Screen will validate account names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and primary contact information against the OFAC Sanctions List.

Locations
Each location associated with a vendor will be validated against the OFAC Sanctions List. This includes any ship from or remit to addresses. Review, edit, and add locations in the Locations tab of the vendor record.

Contacts
Each contact associated with a vendor will be validated against the OFAC Sanctions List. Review, edit, and add contacts in the Contacts tab of the vendor record.

If any of the information from these three sections has a full or partial match, you will receive an OFAC error, and the vendor status will be set to Hold Payments. It is then up to you to research the vendor and ensure that you know who you are doing business with.

Learn more about the next steps in the event of an OFAC error in Understanding Your Results. If this happens and you can verify your vendor is not on the OFAC Sanctions List, you can exclude that vendor from future OFAC screens.

Address Validation

Mekorma Address Validation tracks all addresses associated with a vendor, including the main account, ship from, and remit to addresses. If you receive any errors, individually verify each address with your records and run the validation again.

For example, if you mistype an address and save the record, you will receive a warning or error status. Review the most recent validations in the Validation Result tab and use the details to correct the vendor address.

• Internal Message column informs you if the address has been altered. If the result is unconfirmed address, that address cannot be confirmed. The validation also informs you if the address is either a business or PO Box.
• Match To Value column shows the closest address that matches with the address provided. If you had an incorrect address, this may be the correct address for the vendor. If so, update your vendor record accordingly.
  

Address Validation returns the entire zip code +4 in the Match To Value column, even if you do not submit the full zip code. This can be used to aid with determining sales tax.

When you are done entering or updating vendor information, use the Validate Vendor button or click save to trigger the validation process.