PO matching FAQs

Purchase OrderA purchase order (PO) is a legally binding contract established between you and your supplier that outlines types, quantities, and agreed upon prices for products or services (PO) Matching is a feature of the Bills module. This feature enables automatic matching of bills to POs (two-way matching) and receipts (three-way matching).

The matching process occurs at

• Header only - Data in the headers of the bills, POs and receipts are compared.
• Header + lines - Data in both the headers and lines of bills, POs and receipts are compared.

Several actions trigger the matching process:

• The bill is routed automatically for matching.
• The bill is submitted manually for matching.
• PO and bill are linked/ unlinked.
• The bill header information is updated.
• PO and bill lines are linked/ unlinked.
• PO is created or updated.
• Receipt is created or updated.

You can enable a PO matchingThe process of matching goods and services from purchase orders to invoices (2-way matching), and receipts (3-way matching) threshold policy, so that bills are sent for PO matching only if the bill total amount is larger than a defined threshold, or if the bill has a PO linked to it. Other bills are sent for approval without PO matching.

Without a threshold policy enabled, all bills are sent for PO matching.

Yes, you can define exception thresholds to control how the system handles bills when there are matching exceptions. Click here for how-to steps.

Yes, If some payees' invoices are not supported by POs, you can disable/ enable PO matching for these payees so that their bills skip the matching process.

Tipalti checks for the following conditions after invoices are converted to bills via AI Smart ScanAI Smart Scan is a tool that reads scanned invoice images or PDFs and extracts the details, which are used to populate the fields on a bill. scan:

1. PO matching is enabled on the payer's account.
   AND
2. PO matching is enabled for the payee.
   AND
3. A PO number exists on the bill OR the payee has one PO in an "Active" or "Partially billed" status.

If all conditions have been met and all required fields are complete on the bill, then it is sent for matching.

1. Consider the following when a PO number is not linked to the bill:
   1. Check the attached invoice for the PO number, then add it to the "Purchase orders" field on the bill.
   2. If the invoice does not contain the PO number, select the "PO number is not specified" check box. Alternatively, dispute the bill and ask the supplier to provide an invoice that includes the PO number.
   3. If an invoice is not attached to the bill, select the "PO number is not specified" check box.
2. To send the bill for matching, at the bottom of the screen, click "Submit". The "Send for matching" dialog asks you to confirm sending the bill for PO matching.
3. Click "Confirm".Bill status changes to "Pending matching" and the bill is forwarded to the "All bills" subtab.

1. At the top right of the screen, click "Actions" and select "Send for PO matching". The "Send for matching" dialog asks you to confirm sending the bill for PO matching.
2. Click "Confirm".Bill status changes to "Review matching" and the bill is forwarded to the "PO matching" subtab.

PO numbers are used to link bills to one or more POs and receipts. You can have Tipalti compare bill, PO and receipt fields at only the header level or at both the header and line levels. For further details, see Matching process.

Bills are considered not fully matched when:

• A PO number is not identified on the bill.
• The POs identified on the bill are missing in Tipalti.
• The bill has been updated. In this case, the bill is sent for automatic matching, which may or may not result in a fully matched bill.
• A linked PO or receipt has been updated. In this case, the bill is sent for automatic matching, which may or may not result in a fully matched bill.
• Matching fails for one or more field values.

Bills that are not fully matched have "matching exceptions" that need to be reconciled. These bills are sent to the "PO matching" subtab so that users can reconcile the matching exceptions.

The review of matching is a 2-step process.

• Step 1: Review the matching and try to resolve matching exceptions, if any, on the "Matching" page. See "Matching" page structure.
• Step 2: Add or update expense accounts and custom fields on the "Coding" page. See "Coding" page structure.

On the "PO matching" subtab, you can perform the following actions:

• View bill
• Review bill
• Delete bill
• Dispute bill
• Send bill back to AP
• Download invoice

On the "Matching" page, you can perform the following actions:

• Review bill and bill line details
• View the invoice for the bill
• View all POs related to the same payee and payer entityAn entity can be a subsidiary, division, business unit, brand, etc. of your organization. Entities can have similar or different AP processes and workflows.
• View POs and PO lines linked to the bill
• Link or unlink POs and bill
• Update bill header details
• Link bill lines and PO lines
• Approve or unapprove non-PO bill lines
• Send the bill back to AP
• Send exceptions for approval
• Send the bill for approval without PO matching
• Delete the bill

Exceptions occur in four main scenarios:

1. No PO is linked to the bill or the PO is in a non-matchable status.
2. Bill header details could not be matched with PO header details (e.g., bill and PO have different payees).
3. Bill line could not be linked automatically to any PO line.
4. Linked bill and PO lines are not matched due to differences in line fields such as quantity and price.

There are two ways to link a PO to the bill on the "Matching" page.

1. In the "Purchase orders" field in the bill header, do one of the following:
   1. Place your cursor in the field for a list of POs to appear. Then, select a PO number.
   2. Start typing the PO number into the field for the auto-populate feature to list POs that begin with those characters. Then, select a PO number.

   The PO numbers available for selection have been filtered automatically based on the payee name and payer entity identified on the bill (POs without a payee name or payer entity always appear in the list).

2. On the "Purchase orders" subtab, at the end of the relevant row, click "Link PO".

There are two ways to unlink a PO from the bill on the "Matching" page:

1. In the bill header, "Purchase orders" field, click the "x" beside the PO number.
2. On the "Purchase orders" subtab, at the end of the relevant row, click "Unlink PO".

1. In the bill header, beside the field you want to edit, click . The field is now editable.
2. Update the information.
3. Click the check mark to confirm. Matching is triggered.

1. On the "Matching" page, ensure you are on the "Bill and PO lines" subtab.
2. In the "Outstanding purchase order lines" table, drag a PO line up to the relevant empty row in the "Purchase order lines" table above.

Matching is triggered automatically between bill, PO and receipt with each drag and drop:

• If field values match correctly, to the left of the bill line, replaces .
• If field values do not match, the unmatched values are highlighted red and the information icon contains the errors found.

If you want to unlink a PO line from a bill line, to the right of the PO line, click . The line is returned to the "Outstanding purchase order lines" table.

No. You need to add the PO owner/ creator manually.

You need the Non-PO Line Approver user role. To approve a non-PO bill line:

1. In the "Purchase order lines" table, adjacent to the unlinked bill line, click "Approve non-PO line". A "Non-PO line approval" dialog displays.
2. In the dialog, add or update the required coding information (e.g., expense accountThe general ledger (GL) account that is debited for the payment amount and custom fields).
3. Type the reason for approval.
4. Click "Confirm".The empty PO line now indicates that it has been approved as a non-PO line. To the left of the bill line, replaces , and when hovered over, the approver, approval date and time, and approval reason display in a tooltip.

Changing the payer entity on the bill after non-PO line approval will remove the approval if the new entity is not linked to the same expense account as the non-PO line. The line will need to be approved again.

You need the Non-PO Line Approver user role. To unapprove a non-PO line:

1. In the "Purchase order lines" table, click "Cancel non-PO line". A "Cancel non-PO line approval" dialog displays.
2. Click "Confirm". The bill line reverts to its previous state.

To send bill back to AP for bill lines edit:

1. In the top right corner of the "Matching" page, click "Actions" and select "Send back to AP". The "Send back to AP" dialog displays.
2. In the "Send back reason" field, enter the reason you are sending the bill back to AP.
3. Click "Confirm". An email notification with the send-back reason is sent to AP. The send-back reason appears in a tooltip when you hover over the new bill status.

To send the exceptions for approval:

1. On the "Matching" page, above the bill, click "Send for approval". The "Bill approver" dialog displays.
2. Add approvers manually in the dialog. Adding approvers works the same way here as it does when reviewing bills without the PO Matching feature enabled (see Add bill approvers or Add new bill approvers). You can re-arrange or delete approvers, if necessary.
3. Click "Send". Bill status changes to "Pending approval" and the bill is sent to the first approver in the sequence of approvers.

You need the Approval Management role to perform this action:

1. On the "Matching" page, above the bill, click "Actions" and select "Send bill for approval without PO matching". The "Bill approver" dialog displays.
2. Add approvers manually in the dialog. Adding approvers works the same way here as it does when reviewing bills without the PO Matching feature enabled (see Add bill approvers or Add new bill approvers). You can re-arrange or delete approvers, if necessary.
3. Click "Send". Bill status changes to "Pending approval" and the bill is sent to the first approver in the sequence of approvers.