B2B, B2C & Customer Tax Information
Use this guide when choosing customer classification, maintaining recipient VAT/EORI details, or understanding why an order shows EU PID Ready, Needs Data, Needs Review, or Not Required.
ParcelPilot's current EU PID assessment is advisory. It does not prevent shipment creation.
Client Order Customer Type Policy
The Order customer type policy on a Client controls the default classification used when stronger order-specific evidence is not available.
B2B only
Use B2B only when this client's orders are normally business-to-business.
ParcelPilot can use this as a default classification when no stronger order, customer, CSV/API, or ecommerce evidence exists. It does not by itself prove destination-country VAT details and does not automatically mean EU PID is not required.
B2C only
Use B2C only when this client's orders are normally consumer orders.
ParcelPilot can use this as a default classification when no stronger order-specific evidence exists.
Mixed B2B / B2C
Use Mixed B2B / B2C when the client can ship to both businesses and consumers.
In this mode, ParcelPilot uses individual customer, order, CSV/API, or ecommerce evidence where available. If there is not enough evidence, the order can remain Unknown.
Existing and new clients default safely to Mixed unless a different policy is selected.
Customer Type
Customer Type is the recipient/customer classification used for customer records and order snapshots.
Business
Use Business when the recipient is a business customer and you have explicit operational evidence for that classification.
Consumer
Use Consumer when the recipient is a consumer or retail customer.
Unknown
Use Unknown when you do not have enough reliable evidence to classify the recipient as Business or Consumer.
Unknown is appropriate for historic data, incomplete imports, or ecommerce/customer data that does not clearly identify the purchasing party. ParcelPilot does not classify an order as B2B just because the shipping address has a company name.
Recipient tax fields
ParcelPilot stores recipient/customer tax identity separately from merchant, tenant, shipper, and carrier-account tax identity.
VAT Registration Status
VAT Registration Status records whether the recipient/customer is known to be VAT registered.
Use Registered when the recipient has supplied that they are VAT registered. Use Not VAT Registered only when you have explicit evidence that this business/customer is not VAT registered. Use Unknown when you do not know.
This status is separate from Customer Type. A Business customer can be Registered, Not VAT Registered, or Unknown. Do not infer VAT registration from Business classification, and do not infer Not VAT Registered merely because the VAT Number is blank.
ParcelPilot stores the status you enter or import. It does not currently perform live VAT or VIES verification.
VAT Number
The Recipient VAT number is the VAT registration number supplied for the recipient/customer.
ParcelPilot stores the value you enter or import. It does not currently perform live VAT or VIES verification.
VAT Country
The VAT Country is the two-letter country code for the supplied recipient VAT registration.
For ParcelPilot's current EU PID advisory assessment, the VAT country matters because a Business order is only shown as Not Required for EU PID when the recipient is recorded as VAT Registered and destination-country recipient VAT details are supplied according to the current rules.
EORI
The Recipient EORI is the recipient/customer EORI number where one is relevant to the shipment or customer relationship.
Do not enter the ParcelPilot tenant EORI, merchant/client EORI, shipper/exporter EORI, or carrier account tax details into the recipient EORI field.
What these fields are not
Recipient/customer tax fields are not the same as:
- ParcelPilot tenant VAT details
- merchant/client VAT details
- shipper/exporter tax identity
- carrier account credentials or carrier registration numbers
- marketplace/platform tax collection settings
Keep recipient/customer evidence in the Customer or Order fields. Keep merchant, shipper, exporter, and carrier-account evidence in their own configuration areas.
Order snapshots
ParcelPilot captures commercial identity and tax details on the Order.
That snapshot is historical order evidence. Later changes to the Customer record do not silently rewrite the commercial identity already stored on existing Orders.
This protects historic context: an order imported or created with one customer classification should not change simply because a Customer Account is corrected later.
How ParcelPilot chooses order classification
At a user-facing level, ParcelPilot prefers explicit order/customer evidence over broad defaults.
Typical stronger evidence can include:
- manual Order customer type selection
- explicit CSV/API customer type values
- linked Customer type
- supported ecommerce purchasing-entity evidence, such as Shopify purchasing company/customer data where imported
- Client Order Customer Type Policy when no stronger evidence exists
ParcelPilot does not infer B2B from company name alone.
ParcelPilot also does not infer VAT Registered from Business classification, and it does not infer Not VAT Registered from a blank VAT Number.
EU PID advisory statuses
Ready
The order appears to require EU product identifiers based on the information currently available, and all relevant items have the required PID data.
Needs Data
The order appears to require EU product identifiers, and at least one relevant Item is missing required PID readiness data.
Check the item/SKU listed in the warning, then update the missing product fields on the Item.
Needs Review
ParcelPilot cannot determine the current EU PID position from the available information.
Common reasons include:
- recipient type is Unknown
- order is Business but recipient VAT Registration Status is Unknown
- order is Business and VAT Registered, but recipient VAT details are missing
- VAT number is supplied without VAT country
- VAT country does not match the destination country
- the route is a special or uncertain territory case
Not Required
Where shown, Not Required means ParcelPilot's current advisory assessment does not identify EU PID as required for that order based on the current facts.
For an EU-import Business order, B2B classification alone is not enough. The order receives the current Not Required assessment only when the recipient is recorded as VAT Registered and destination-country recipient VAT details are supplied.
If the order is Business and the recipient is recorded as Not VAT Registered, ParcelPilot currently treats EU PID as appearing to be required. If the order is Business and VAT Registration Status is Unknown or internally incomplete, ParcelPilot shows Needs Review.
ParcelPilot does not say the VAT registration has been verified.
Shipment impact
Current EU PID warnings are advisory. They do not prevent shipment creation and do not require an acknowledgement.
Future carrier rules or ParcelPilot workflows may become stricter after external carrier documentation and operational policy are confirmed, but this guide describes the current implemented behavior.