🌐 Web | 👤 Invoice processor
Three-way matching (3-way) is a process of comparing invoice data to purchase order (PO) and goods receipt (GR) data.
By comparing the three documents, you can check that what was ordered matches what was received and what was invoiced to prevent fraudulent transactions and incorrect payments. Three-way matching is essential for businesses to ensure that all information is accurate and matches before releasing payment.
To perform three-way matching in Yokoy, purchase order data, goods receipt data, and invoice line item data are required. Goods receipts must have been previously associated with the corresponding PO in Yokoy.
Three-way matching can be performed automatically or manually.
PO line item column
PO line item column lets you manually match an invoice record to a goods receipt or PO item by clicking on the Choose PO option in the Line items tab. The invoice matching window appears.
💡 Tip
The position of the window is not fixed. You can drag it to another part of the screen as required. Click the Expand icon beside the Match button to display more PO line items.
In the invoice matcher, the related PO item and GR item data is displayed. All PO line items for the selected PO numbers are shown. PO line items are sorted in ascending order by PO number and then position. If the PO number or position contains non-numerical values, these line items are sorted alphabetically in ascending order.
Goods receipt items are nested under the associated PO line items. To view them, click on the arrow next to a PO line item to expand the view.
✏️ Note
If you can’t see any GR data even though your finance system has been set up to send this information to Yokoy, check that your Yokoy admin has enabled the Display goods receipt data checkbox in Admin > Invoice settings. The data may have been imported but is not displayed in the invoice matcher table.
Matching status column
This column indicates the matching status of the PO item and the GR item. The possible statuses for POs and GR line items are:
Not matched: No invoice line item has been matched to the GR item.
Matched: Invoice line item(s) has been fully matched to the GR item. No amount or quantity discrepancies exist.
Partially matched: Invoice line item(s) has been matched to the GR item. Quantity received hasn’t been matched in full. There is still open Quantity to Match left.
Mismatch: Invoice line item(s) has been matched to the GR item. Amount and/or quantity discrepancies exist.
Matching statuses are calculated in Yokoy when matching is performed or when existing matching data is imported from the external PO source. For more information on the specific meaning of these statuses, see Matching statuses for POs and GRs.
🚧 Caution
Yokoy only allows a one-to-one relationship between invoice line items and PO/GR line items.
If the items have been ordered or delivered in separate POs or GRs, but invoiced in a single invoice line item, you need to duplicate the invoice line item and adjust the amounts and quantities so they match the PO/GR line item.
Auto matching PO, GR & invoices
Yokoy can automatically match invoices with purchase orders and goods receipts.
With automatic three-way matching, Yokoy detects information in the invoice that helps to identify purchase orders and goods receipt. Yokoy uses this information to automatically associate a PO and goods receipt item with the invoice item.
✏️ Note - Admin-enabled feature
To enable auto three-way matching, navigate to Admin > Invoice settings. Check the Enable purchase orders option is turned on and select the Enable auto matching checkbox.
PO/Goods receipt items are automatically matched to invoice line when the invoice is uploaded for the first time.
There are two ways to manually trigger auto matching:
by adding or removing manually a purchase order number in the Purchase order number header field, or
by using the Trigger auto-match option available in the line items section. Users can select one, multiple, or all line items and trigger auto-matching.
If Yokoy is unable to detect the PO number in the invoice, invoice line item matching behavior depends on the supplier settings:
if the supplier is flagged as a PO supplier and Trigger auto-matching if PO number not found is enabled for the supplier, Yokoy tries to match the invoice line items automatically to the PO line items
if the supplier is flagged as a PO supplier and Trigger auto-matching if PO number not found is not enabled, you must match the invoice manually to the PO.
if the supplier is not flagged as a PO supplier, the invoice must be matched manually to the PO.
To match data in the purchase order item with the invoice line item, Yokoy‘s AI looks for these attributes:
Supplier
PO number
Currency
Description
Quantity
Amount
Item price
Delivery note (if exists on invoice)
Item number (if exists on invoice)
✏️ Note
Delivery note data and item numbers are not extracted by AI as a separate data item, but are read out as part of the raw line item extraction. That means that if a delivery note number or an item number exists on the imported GR item and the same reference is found in the extracted raw line item data, the auto-match includes it in the matching score determination.
Manually matching POs and GRs to invoices
If the PO number(s) are selected in the invoice header, the Line items tab changes to include two additional columns:
In the PO number column, click Choose PO and select a PO number (if not already selected).
To match an invoice line item to PO/GR item, select the matching GR item and click Match button.
1. Invoice line item, 2. PO line item, 3. GR line item
The invoice matcher dialog window closes. You can see the matching result in the invoice line items section.
Invoice line items with matched PO/GR line items
💡 Tip
You can show or hide columns in the Invoice matcher window according to preferences. Click the columns icon (...) on the right to display the columns that can be shown in the view.
Possible matching scenarios
In the PO line item field, the matching PO number is displayed. Depending on the matching success, the following matching statuses can appear:
Matched: The invoice line has been fully matched to the PO/GR item. No quantity or amount discrepancies exist.
Mismatch: The invoice line has been matched to the PO/GR item. Quantity and or amount discrepancies exist. To give additional information on the reason for mismatch, a notification is displayed on the screen.
Quantity Mismatch: The notification appears when the invoice line quantity is greater than Quantity to Match of the goods receipt item.
Amount Mismatch: The notification appears when the invoice line net amount is greater than (Invoice line quantity * PO Item Price). If configured, tolerances should also be considered in this case.
Quantity mismatch in Line items tab
💡 Tip
If you only see the warning icon for each line item, check you have enabled the Notifications column.
PO or GR items with deleted or blocked status
When PO item and/or GR item has either deleted or blocked status, an invoice line can still be matched to it. A notification is displayed indicating that the PO or GR item is blocked or deleted.
Depending on your company’s preference, you can set up the workflow to prevent users from processing such invoices further than a specific status. For example, invoices with blocked PO items should not continue in the workflow any further than new/draft status, or invoices with blocked PO items should not continue further than in approval status, etc.
Matched invoice line items with missing goods receipt
In some cases, an invoice may arrive before the goods have actually been received. Therefore, no GR exists in the system for the corresponding PO item. It is still possible to match the invoice line item, indicating at line item level that the invoice is awaiting a goods receipt.
To do so, you need to match the invoice line item directly to the PO item. If the PO item is flagged to require goods receipt, then two-way matching is not performed. The invoice line remains as Not matched, and a notification is displayed.
When Yokoy receives the associated goods receipt, the line items are automatically matched, removing the Missing GR warning. If there are multiple GRs for the same line item, you must manually update the line item.