Matching is a concept that is very familiar to people in the accounting field and especially those involved in the processing of accounts payable (AP) invoices. There are two main types of matches that are often considered as a company evaluates the potential purchase of an invoice processing solution such as ABBYY FlexiCapture for Invoices.

The Two Way Match of an Invoice with a Purchase Order

The two way match is at the most basic level a correspondence between the details on the invoice and the purchase order that requisitioned the product or service. This type of match generally arises for purchases such as office supplies, recurring purchases like janitorial services, or temporary service orders such as painting services. During this matching process the accounts payable analyst will verify their business rules for the following:

• The price of each line item on the invoice is less than or equal to the line item values on the purchase order.  This can be a time consuming process if done manually as both documents must be compared, or the printed invoice must be compared with the value listed in the company’s accounting system.
• Verify that the total invoice price is less than or equal to that listed on the purchase order.

The Three Way Match of an Invoice with a Purchase Order

The three way match adds one additional business rule that must be verified by the AP clerk or analyst, either manually or through automated invoice processing software such as FlexiCapture:

• The quantity billed on the invoice is less than or equal to the quantity accepted.

The Four Way Match of an Invoice with a Purchase Order

The four way match adds one additional rule to be verified by the AP clerk or analyst:

• The quantity listed on the invoice from the vendor is less than or equal to the quantity listed on the purchase order. This requires the examination of documents from the Receiving Department.

How an Automated Invoice Processing System such as ABBYY FlexiCapture for Invoices Helps in the Accounts Payable Two, Three and Four Way Matching Process

ABBYY FlexiCapture for Invoices provides an automatic two-way match of the line items on an invoice to the accounting system.

See a video of how Two Way Matching Works

See a video of how Two Way Matching Works: