One operational exception queue with owners and deadlines
Automations exist but failures remain buried in email and nobody knows what needs intervention.
Owner / operations directorWorkflow designSee pipeline, exceptions & controls →Canvo / Systems library / Finance & operations
Three-way invoice matching: purchase orders, receipts and invoices
Match supplier invoices against approved purchase orders and actual goods receipts. Apply agreed quantity and price tolerances, check duplicates and assign mismatches before accounting entry.
First workflow from A$4,900 ex GST, with 12 months of support for the agreed implementation. Scope and pricing →
Workflow design · scope to your operationBefore you build
From trigger to finished work
- Supplier invoice
- validate identity and fields
- match PO and receipt
- apply quantity/price tolerances
- route mismatch
- approved accounting entry
- reconcile acknowledgement
The rules that matter
Decimal arithmetic and explicit rounding; duplicate checks; vendor master validation; approved tolerance matrix. Keep payment authorisation separate.
When the normal path breaks
Partial receipt; freight split; credit note; duplicate invoice; vendor bank change; disputed delivery.
Uncertain inputs go to an assigned owner with the source, reason and next decision. Failed writes are reconciled before retrying, so a recovered connection does not create a duplicate order, payment or stock movement.
How we would measure it
Touch minutes/invoice; mismatch resolution time; duplicate postings; invoice first-pass rate.
Sample representative work before the build, including difficult cases. Compare the same task mix after launch; include review, exception handling and system upkeep in the time used.
Start with one accountable slice
Map the first input, the final accepted result and who can approve it. Agree source systems, read/write access, rules, exception ownership and acceptance checks. Run representative normal, failure and recovery cases before expanding across teams.
What makes this suitable for larger teams?
Role-based access, separation of preparation and approval, versioned rules, an action history, duplicate protection, reconciliation, alerts and a named recovery owner. Private deployment or customer-controlled infrastructure can be scoped where needed. These are design requirements to validate, not an unsupported promise of perfect source data or regulatory compliance.
Questions about this workflow
Specific answers to help you judge the fit, the information needed and the decisions your team keeps.
What does three-way matching actually check?
It compares the supplier invoice with the approved PO and recorded goods receipt at line level. Supplier identity, item, quantity, unit, price and relevant charges need compatible references. Invoice extraction is only the input step; a readable invoice does not prove the goods arrived or the charge was approved.
Can it handle partial deliveries and invoices across several receipts?
Track invoiced and received quantities against each PO line, including amounts already matched. A partial delivery may support a partial match under your policy while the remaining quantity stays open. Short receipts, split freight and multiple invoices need explicit allocation rules rather than a single order-level tick.
How are price and quantity tolerances set?
Your finance and purchasing owners define tolerances by the relevant supplier, item or transaction category. Specify whether a threshold is absolute, percentage-based or both, and how rounding and charges are treated. Differences outside that authority go to review; the system should not invent a convenient tolerance.
How do you detect duplicate invoices and handle a failed posting?
Check supplier identity, invoice reference and relevant amount or line details, accounting for corrected documents and credit notes. Before retrying an uncertain posting, look for the existing accounting entry or acknowledgement. A timeout must not lead automatically to another payable for the same obligation.
Does a successful match authorise payment or a supplier bank change?
No. Matching supports an accounting decision; payment authority and supplier master changes need their own controls. A changed bank account should be routed through your verification process independently of invoice content. We agree which role can prepare, approve and release each consequential step.
What do we need to test before connecting the accounting system?
Use sanitised POs, receipts, invoices and existing mismatch decisions from the same purchasing process. Check the accounting tool’s supported draft or posting interfaces and permissions. Start with proposed matches, then validate partial receipts, duplicates, credits and failed writes before allowing an approved accounting handoff.
See this in your industry
Connected problems to explore
All systems →Procurement from request to supplier performance
Purchasing decisions, receipts and invoices need a shared record of what was approved and what actually arrived.
Procurement / financeWorkflow designSee pipeline, exceptions & controls →Multi-site operations with local ownership
A regional report is useful only when each site can see and resolve the stock, staffing or service exceptions behind it.
Regional operations managerWorkflow designSee pipeline, exceptions & controls →