When a document reaches your space, Banqup reads it and links it to the matching customer or supplier in your Business Partners list. This article explains which details Banqup compares, in which order, and what happens when nothing matches.
Which details Banqup compares
Banqup checks the details on the document against your saved business partners in a fixed order of priority:
Participant ID. The unique business identifier used on the Peppol network. This is the strongest signal and is always checked first.
VAT or registration number. The official national business number, such as a VAT number (for example, BE0123456789) or a CBE number.
Company name. Used only as a last resort, when no official identifier is found on the document at all.
Note: Contact details are never used to identify a business partner. An email address or phone number on a document is treated as supporting information only, so two partners sharing this information are never confused with each other.
When you receive a document
For incoming documents, such as purchase invoices from your suppliers, Banqup works through the three levels in turn:
It looks for a business partner with the same Participant ID.
If no Participant ID matches, it falls back to the VAT number or registration number.
If the document carries no official identifier at all, it falls back to the company name.
This gives an incoming document several chances to find its supplier, which matters because you do not control how your suppliers fill in their invoices.
When you upload a sales document
Uploaded sales documents are matched more strictly. This applies to sales invoices you upload to Banqup rather than build in Document Creator, because in Document Creator you select the customer from your list yourself and no matching is needed.
For an uploaded sales document, Banqup requires an exact match on the Participant ID:
If the Participant ID on the document matches an active customer, the document is linked to that customer.
If it does not match an active customer, Banqup does not fall back to the VAT number or the company name. It creates a new active customer profile instead.
The stricter rule exists because a sales document is addressed to one specific electronic address. Falling back to a weaker signal could send an invoice to the wrong network address.
Rules worth knowing
An identifier always beats a name. As long as the document carries at least one official identifier, whether a Participant ID or a VAT or registration number, Banqup never falls back to matching on company name. This is what stops two different businesses with similar names being merged into one.
Deactivated partners are skipped. A deactivated business partner is treated as retired, so Banqup does not link new documents to it. If a document arrives for a partner you have deactivated, a brand new active profile is created rather than the deactivated one being reused. To keep documents landing on the existing profile, open the Deactivated tab in Business Partners and select Reactivate first.
A matching VAT number is not always enough. If an incoming document carries a VAT number, and the saved partner holding that VAT number has a different Participant ID registered, Banqup does not link the two automatically. Two records that disagree about the electronic address are more likely to be two different entities than one, and filing against the wrong network address is harder to unpick later than linking the document by hand.
Getting the best results
Fill in both identifiers on every partner. A partner that has a VAT or company (CBE) number and a Participant ID can be matched at either level. A partner with neither can only ever be matched on its name.
Do not worry about name variations. Because identifiers take priority over names, a difference in spelling, punctuation, or trade name on an incoming document does not break the match.
Frequently asked questions
Why did Banqup create a second profile for a supplier I already have?
The usual causes are that the existing partner is deactivated, so it is skipped and a new active profile is created, or that the existing partner has no VAT number and no Participant ID saved, so there was nothing to match on. Check the Deactivated tab first, then check that the identifiers are filled in on the profile you want to keep.
Does Banqup use the email address or phone number on an invoice to find the partner?
No. Contact details are never used to identify a business partner.
How is this different from the Duplicate found warning?
They are two separate checks. The matching described in this article runs on documents, without any action from you. The Duplicate found warning appears when you add or edit a business partner yourself and the details you typed look like a partner you already have. See Preventing duplicate suppliers for that check.
Can I link a document to a different partner myself?
Yes. Automatic matching is a starting point, not a lock. You can change the linked customer or supplier on the document.