Matching Process

This article will help you set up the matching process and use it to control your spending when invoices and receipts differ from purchase orders.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Matching Process Overview

• Setting Up the Matching Process

  • Activating Receipt Matching

  • Applying Tolerance Limit to Matching

  • Adding New Items Without Matching

• How to Understand What Initiated Matching

• Matching Triggers

  • What Activates the Matching Process

  • What Does Not Activate the Matching Process

• Frequently Asked Questions

Matching Process Overview

When you add an invoice or a receipt to a purchase order, Precoro checks if the invoiced/received items and their quantities match what you ordered. If there are significant discrepancies, the matching process is triggered. Matching ensures procurement accuracy and offers flexibility to adjust POs as needed.

During matching, both the PO and the related invoice/receipt have the Matching status. The PO initiator can see the discrepancies in the PO document page and has to approve or reject the changes. 

Setting Up the Matching Process

Activating Receipt Matching

By default, Precoro only initiates the invoice matching process, comparing invoices to purchase orders. To match receipts with purchase orders, activate the Match with Purchase Order setting in Configuration — Basic Settings — Document Setup — Receipts.

Applying Tolerance Limit to Matching

Tolerance Limit defines if re-approval is triggered after the document’s total changes during revision. You can apply it to matching too. Then, purchase order matching will not be triggered if the invoice’s/receipt’s total differs from the PO’s total within the tolerance limit. 

To do so, enable the Apply the Limit Rules to Matching setting in Configuration — Basic Settings — Approval — Tolerance Limit.

Adding New Items Without Matching

Matching is always triggered when an invoice has items not listed in the related PO. To add items without necessary invoice matching, activate the Adding New Items Without Matching setting in the Configuration — Basic Settings — Document Setup — Invoices. 

Here's how it works:

• When you add new items, the matching process is not triggered as long as the total of the invoice changes within the tolerance limit.

• Negative item lines are always added without matching.

How to Understand What Initiated Matching

When a new Invoice or Receipt gets a Matching status, you can see the discrepancies that triggered matching in the related purchase order. Open the related PO document and scroll down to the New Invoice requires your approval/New Receipt requires your approval section.

In this section, you will see the invoice or receipt that triggered matching and all its item lines. These features will help you understand the discrepancies that caused matching:

• If items not included in the PO were added to the invoice, they are highlighted in green and have a green dot to the left of the item line.
• If the invoice/receipt lists an ordered item, but the quantity exceeds the quantity in the PO, you will see a red dot indicating it in the Quantity column. Hover over the dot to see additional information.
• The differences in quantity, price, currency, discount, tax, and total amounts are displayed in the item lines using color: 
  • values listed in the PO are displayed in red;
  • values listed in the invoice/receipt are displayed in blue;
  • if the currencies differ, only the invoice currency is displayed.

There is also a Total column in the header of this section. It shows the invoice or receipt total in blue, while the amount in red is the total listed in the PO for items included in the invoice/receipt.

Matching Triggers

What Activates the Matching Process

The matching process will be activated in the following cases:

• The item’s price was increased or decreased in the invoice, changing the Net Total beyond the tolerance limit.

• A new item was added to the invoice (regardless of the changes in Net Total). The exceptions are the Split Lines functionality and the Adding New Items Without Matching setting. If you use these features, matching will be triggered only if the tolerance limit is exceeded.

• The quantity of an item was increased, and the invoice’s/receipt’s Net Total exceeds the PO’s Net Total beyond the tolerance limit.

• The discount was added or changed in the invoice (on the item or document level) exceeding the tolerance limit.

• The document or item currency was changed, regardless of the tolerance limit settings.

What Does Not Activate the Matching Process

The matching process will not be activated in the following cases:

• If the Locations, Custom Fields for Documents, and Custom Fields for Items are different in the invoice/receipt and the related PO.

• If there is a difference in taxes between the PO and the related invoice.

• When the Exchange Rate is changed, even if it increases the document’s Total. However, you cannot save the document if a limited budget is exceeded.

• If you use the Split Lines functionality or Adding New Items Without Matching setting, and the document’s Net Total remains within the tolerance limit.

Frequently Asked Questions