Run a three-way match before paying a supplier
Only pay for what you ordered and received: line the invoice up against the purchase order and the goods received note, resolve the differences, then release the payment.
How it works, step by step
3 steps across the platform - what you do at each one, and why it matters.
Pull the order and the receipt
ProcurementOpen the purchase order and its goods received note so you have, side by side, what you agreed to buy at what price and what actually turned up on site.
Why: The invoice is only one of three documents that have to agree. Pulling the order and the receipt first is what gives you something honest to check the supplier's bill against.
Match the invoice against both
ReconciliationLine the invoice up against the order and the receipt, pass the lines where price and quantity agree on all three, and flag any short delivery, price creep or item you never ordered.
Why: A three-way match is the check that catches the invoice for forty units when thirty arrived. Doing it before payment is far cheaper than clawing money back from a supplier afterwards.
Release only the matched payment
FinanceRelease payment for the lines that matched, hold back the flagged ones until the supplier explains or credits them, and record why anything was held so the query has a trail.
Why: Paying the whole invoice to avoid the hassle of a query is how the leaks add up. Releasing only what matched keeps the pressure on the supplier to fix their bill and keeps your cost honest.