Handle matching exceptions
After the automated PO matchingThe process of matching goods and services from purchase orders to invoices (2-way matching), and receipts (3-way matching) process, all bills (fully matched or not) are assigned a "Review matching" status and are sent to the "PO matching" subtab. Clicking a bill in the bill list opens the bill for payer review.
Review of matching is a 2-step process—one page is dedicated to each step:
- Matching page - The user reviews the matching and tries to resolve matching exceptions, if any. Matching must be confirmed before the user is allowed to proceed to step 2.
- Coding page - The user adds or updates expense accounts and custom fields.
Matching page structure
Header
The "Matching" page displays bill information in the header1, including the PO linked to the bill2. Clicking the dropdown arrow reveals further bill details.3 Any field with a pencil icon beside it can be edited.
A red information icon indicates that the field has matching exceptions.4 Hover over the icon to see a tooltip of what the matching exceptions are, including which linked POs could not be matched to the bill. Click the link in the tooltip to view how to reconcile matching exceptions.
Depending on the payer's configuration, either the "Bill and PO lines" subtab or the "PO lines allocation" subtab displays below the header, along with the "Invoice image" and "Purchase orders" subtabs. Click each of the subtabs listed below to view further details.
This subtab is part of the "Header + lines" matching flow and applies to both 2- and 3-way matching. It shows bill and PO line details.5
A check mark icon to the left of a line indicates the bill line has been matched:
-
is for "item" lines that have been matched to the PO line on the right.
-
is for lines that have been approved as non-PO lines.
-
indicates that there is a matching exception for the bill line.
If a value is missing in a line, a minus icon displays.
In the image below, the matching exception for the third bill line is that it has not been matched to a PO line. If this line is for an "expense", then in the "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 lines" table, the user can click "Approve non-PO line".6 The PO line will then look like the second line in the table, which indicates the line has been approved as a non-PO line.7
The "Outstanding purchase order lines" table lists all PO lines (belonging to the linked POs) that are not matched to any bill lines.8 To match a PO line to a bill line, drag and drop the line from this table into an empty row in the table above. To unlink a PO line from the bill line, click the link icon9 to move the PO line to the "Outstanding purchase order lines" table.
"Item" lines that have exceptions show these exceptions circled and in red font. Hover over an exception to see the corresponding fields highlighted.
You can also edit bill lines if required. Lines are automatically rematched with each edit.
When you’re done editing, click "Save".
The line amount is automatically re-calculated with each edit. You need to delete the amount then click outside the bill line for the amount to be recalculated.
Any changes made to bill lines during the PO matching process are highlighted in blue.
You can filter bill lines according to the following statuses:
- Matched, no exception
- Soft exception
- Requires approval
- Unapprovable
- Matching required
If 3-way matching is enabled, another table for receipt information displays between the "Bill lines" and "Purchase order lines" tables. Select the table names below to reveal descriptions of the fields in each table.
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
| Item # |
|
| Description | A description of the bill line |
| Qty |
|
| Price | Price of a single bill line item |
| Amount | Total amount of the bill line item (Price × Qty) |
- If a PO line of type "expense" is not linked to a receipt line, the receipt line in the table shows the text "Not receipted" in red font.
- If a PO line is linked to a receipt line, the receipt line in the table displays the following data.
Field |
description |
|---|---|
| Receipt # | Receipt identifier |
| Qty |
|
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
| PO # |
|
| Item # |
|
| Description | Description of the purchase order line item |
| Qty |
|
| Price | Price of a single purchase order line item |
| Amount | Total amount of the purchase order line item (Price × Qty) |
|
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
| PO # |
|
| Item # |
|
| Description | Description of the purchase order line item |
| Unbilled Qty |
|
| Price | Price of a single purchase order line item |
| Amount | The amount of the PO line that has not yet been billed (e.g., if the PO line amount is $100, and $20 was previously matched to another bill, this amount would be $80) |
This subtab is part of the "Header only" matching flow and applies to only 2-way matching.5 It displays all PO lines linked to the bill that have yet to be fully billed.
If the bill amount and the unbilled PO amount are the same, the system auto-allocates the bill amount to the PO lines to save you time and effort in doing it manually. If amounts are not the same, users with the Process Bills role need to allocate manually.6 The entire bill net amount must be allocated or else an error is raised (the unallocated amount displays below the table).7
Based on the allocation details, when you click "Proceed to coding", the system validates the values and creates bill lines derived from the PO, including all coding information.
The following table describes the fields on this subtab.
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
| PO # |
|
| Item # |
|
| Description | Description of the purchase order line item |
| Expense Account | The expense account linked to the PO line |
| Custom fields | If custom fields (including taxation custom fields) have been defined for the PO line entity, these fields display here. |
| Quantity |
|
| Unit price | Price of a single purchase order line item |
| Net amount | The original net amount of the PO line item (Price × Quantity) |
| Unbilled amount | The amount of the PO line that has not yet been billed (e.g., if the PO line amount is $100, and $20 was previously matched to another bill, this amount would be $80) |
| Allocation amount |
|
This subtab displays an image of the invoice. The invoice must have been added to Tipalti in PDF or image format (JPEG, JPG, BMP, PNG, TIFF, TIF and GIF). Invoices added via CSV file or API cannot display on this subtab.
This subtab lists all POs in Tipalti. If no POs are linked to the bill, a warning message advises you to link a PO to begin the matching process.
Only 50 POs can display on-screen at a time, so use "Add filters" to focus on a subset of POs. You can filter by PO number, status and buyer.
Coding page structure
The "Coding" page is where you can update custom fields1 and expense accounts2. The "Invoice image" subtab also displays on this page so you can view invoice details.
After the coding step:
- If the bill has exceptions, it needs to be sent for approval.
- If the bill does not have exceptions:
- And the payer is using 2-way matching, the bill needs to be sent for approval
- And the payer is using 3-way matching, the coding needs to be confirmed, which assigns the bill a "Pending payment" status and forwards it to the "Pending payment" subtab.
Actions
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
Select a bill to view its details on the "Matching" page, where you can do many of the same and more 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
Reconcile matching exceptions
Exceptions occur in four main scenarios:
- No PO is linked to the bill or the PO is in a non-matchable status.
- Bill header details could not be matched with PO header details (e.g., bill and PO have different payees).
- Bill line could not be linked automatically to any PO line.
- Linked bill and PO lines are not matched due to differences in line fields such as quantity and price.
To reconcile matching exceptions, users with the Process Bills role can perform the following actions. Select an action to reveal how-to steps.
There are two ways to link a PO to the bill on the "Matching" page. All actions are saved automatically and will trigger matching of PO to bill.
- In the "Purchase orders" field in the bill header, do one of the following:
- Place your cursor in the field for a list of POs to appear. Then, select a PO number.
- 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).
- 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:
- In the bill header, "Purchase orders" field, click the "x" beside the PO number.
- On the "Purchase orders" subtab, at the end of the relevant row, click "Unlink PO".
- In the bill header, beside the field you want to edit, click
. The field is now editable.
- Update the information.
- Click the check mark to confirm. Matching is triggered.
- On the "Matching" page, ensure you are on the "Bill and PO lines" subtab.
- 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,
- If field values do not match, the unmatched values are highlighted red and the information icon contains the errors found.
- If you link multiple bill lines to the same PO line, a warning icon
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.
If you have the Non-PO Line Approver role, you can approve additional expenses, such as sales tax and delivery costs that were not part of the approved PO. Each additional expense appears as an unlinked bill line.
- In the "Purchase order lines" table, adjacent to the unlinked bill line, click "Approve non-PO line". A "Non-PO line approval" dialog displays.
- 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).
- Type the reason for approval.
- 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,
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.
To unapprove a non-PO line:
- In the "Purchase order lines" table, click "Cancel non-PO line". A "Cancel non-PO line approval" dialog displays.
- Click "Confirm". The bill line reverts to its previous state.
- In the top right corner of the "Matching" page, click "Actions" and select "Send back to AP". The "Send back to AP" dialog displays.
- In the "Send back reason" field, enter the reason you are sending the bill back to AP.
- 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.
All matching exceptions that could not be fully reconciled must be approved.
- On the "Matching" page, above the bill, click "Send for approval". The "Bill approver" dialog displays.
- 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.
- Click "Send". Bill status changes to "Pending approval" and the bill is sent to the first approver in the sequence of approvers.
Whether the approver can subsequently approve the bill depends on a number of factors (see Bill approval for PO-backed bills).
Send bills for approval without PO matching when a PO is not linked to the bill, none of the POs are relevant to the bill, or if there are significant differences between bill, PO and receipt. You need the Approval Management role to perform this action.
- On the "Matching" page, above the bill, click "Actions" and select "Send bill for approval without PO matching". The "Bill approver" dialog displays.
- 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.
- Click "Send". Bill status changes to "Pending approval" and the bill is sent to the first approver in the sequence of approvers.
The bill is now disconnected from PO matching (i.e., if the bill is updated, it cannot be sent for PO matching again).
If the bill does not have a linked PO, go to the "Purchase orders" subtab to find the relevant PO to link to the bill. Alternatively, you can dispute the bill and ask the supplier to provide an invoice that includes the PO number.
When you fully match the bill, a green message informs you that matching was successful. The bill is assigned a status of "Pending payment" and is forwarded automatically to the "Pending payment" subtab.
Creating and updating POs
When a PO is created or updated, it is assigned a status of "Pending approval" until it is synchronized with Tipalti. In this status, the PO is ineligible for matching.
- For a newly created PO, once synchronized, its status changes to "Active" and the PO becomes eligible for matching.
- For bills previously matched to a PO, once the PO is updated, the bills are no longer considered matched. Bill status changes to "Review matching" and the bill shows the PO as unapproved (i.e., ineligible for matching). Once the PO is synchronized and becomes eligible for matching, it is re-matched with all linked bills.
Marking landed cost in PO Matching
When the landed cost is included in the PO, you can process respective invoices using 3-way matching by marking that the landed cost line requires no receipt.
- On the "Matching" page, ensure you are on the "Bill and PO lines" subtab.
- In the "Outstanding purchase order lines" table, drag a PO line up to the relevant empty row in the "Purchase order lines" table above.
- For the landed cost line, click "Set as a no receipt".
This feature is only available for NetSuite payers.