2-Way PO Matching Best Practices | 2 minute read

Matching Process

When a bill enters the invoice processing flow, the system determines whether or not the bill needs to be sent for PO matching. 2-way PO matching is the process of matching bills to POs, and is commonly used when a company does not maintain or keep records of inventory.

2-Way Matching Protocols

2-way PO matching protocols (or rules) can be set at the payee level. When 2-way PO matching is set for a payee, PO matching will match the PO to a bill.

  • Bills can be matched at either the header level or the line level, which can be determined by the payee and the amount of detail required.
      • When matching at the header level, the PO amount available is reduced by the total of the bill.
      • When matching at the line level, items will be checked to see if they have the same quantity, units, price (per unit), and amount.
  • You can also approve a line on the Bill that is not on the PO by selecting ‘Approve non-PO line.’

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Who Uses PO Matching?

Users with the Approval Management, Non-PO Line Approver, and Process Bills permission have access to the PO matching process.

The table below indicates what each of these roles allow users to do. 

User Role

Action

Approval Management
  • Allows the user to:
      • Approve bills on behalf of the designated approver
      • Retract approved bills
      • Manually route bills for PO matching
      • Send bills for approval without PO matching

Non-PO Line Approver
  • Enables the user to approve or unapprove non-PO bill lines
  • This role only applies to PO matching

Process Bills 
  • Allows the user to:
      • Add bills
      • Review and update bills, and define bill approvers
      • Process bills manually
      • Send reminders to approvers and payees
      • Cancel bill approval requests and payee approval/ invoice requests
      • Delete or dispute (and undo delete, undo dispute) bills
      • Prepare bill payments
      • Mark bills as paid manually
      • Mark/ unmark bills as "Hold payment"
      • Link bills with purchase orders
      • Reconcile PO matching exceptions
      • Allocate bill amounts to PO lines

 

Exception Thresholds 

Thresholds are key for ensuring matching can remain accurate with conditions. Thresholds are highly recommended for 2-way PO matching.

  • If they match perfectly, bills will either be immediately sent to Pending Payment or assigned to a bill approver - depending on what is set on the instance.
  • If bills do not match perfectly, but are within the tolerances you set, they will be able to be approved by a bill approver.
  • If bills are outside of your tolerances, or have a hard exception such as incorrect unit type or currency type, the bill cannot be approved.

Exception Field

Threshold Type

 Threshold Value

Bill Amount

Percentage

10%

Line Amount

Percentage

10%

Line Price

Percentage

10%

Line Quantity

Percentage

10%