PCPayment Check

Invoice matching

Invoice vs purchase order: what should match

A purchase order says what you agreed to buy. An invoice says what the supplier is billing. Invoice matching is the work of putting those two documents next to each other before money leaves.

Two-way matching

Two-way matching compares the invoice with the purchase order (or a quote that played the same role). You are asking: did they bill what we ordered, at the prices we accepted? Typical fields:

  • Supplier / vendor identity
  • PO or quote reference on the invoice
  • Item or service description
  • Quantity and unit of measure
  • Unit price and currency
  • Tax treatment and totals
  • Payment terms where they were agreed on the PO

This is the comparison Payment Check can help with: you upload the invoice and the supporting PO or quote. It is invoice matching in the narrow sense — two documents — not a full accounts payable workflow.

Three-way matching is a different control

Three-way matching also includes a goods receipt or delivery note: ordered, received, billed. That catches invoices for goods that never arrived. Payment Check does not ingest a goods receipt or connect to an ERP, so it is not a three-way match tool. The full process is explained in three-way invoice matching. If your process requires a receipt, keep that step in your own system.

What a mismatch usually means

A quantity increase without a change order is often overbilling. A unit price that drifted from the PO is the same problem with a different label. A tax difference can be independent (wrong rate) or derived (the net was already wrong). Totals that disagree after the lines agree usually mean a footer error or an undeclared discount.

Not every difference is an error. Partial deliveries, agreed extras, and currency rounding can be legitimate. The point of the check is to make the difference visible so a person can decide.

If you do not have a PO

Use the quote, statement of work, rate card, or email confirmation that authorized the work. The control is the same: invoice versus the document that defined the deal. For a broader review order, see how to check an invoice. Typical mistakes on those fields are listed under common invoice errors. For the online comparison, use the invoice checker.