Why three-way matching fails on partial deliveries, and what to do about it

Three-way matching fails on partial deliveries because the invoice often bills the whole order while only part of it has arrived. A strict match holds an invoice that is only early, and a loose one pays for goods you never received. We build a check that applies your written tolerance rules and shows the line that disagrees: a Proof, from 1,500 euro, in 5 working days.

The three documents

• The purchase order says what you agreed to buy: item, quantity, unit and price.
• The goods receipt says what actually arrived. One order can have several receipts.
• The invoice says what the supplier wants paid. It can cover one receipt, several, or goods still on the way.

A three-way match compares the three, line by line. One line that disagrees stops the invoice.

Where the match breaks

• Partial deliveries. Half the boxes arrive, the invoice bills all of them. The line is early, not wrong. Oracle's help pages for the NetSuite 3 Way Match Vendor Bill Approval Workflow say it does not support item receipts that were partially received.
• Over-deliveries. More arrives than you ordered.
• Price changes. The supplier raised the price after the order. Microsoft's documentation for Dynamics 365 Finance gives an example with a 5 percent unit price tolerance: against an order price of 1.00, an invoice at 1.05 passes and one at 1.10 does not.
• Unit mismatches. You order in boxes, the supplier bills in cases. The quantities never agree until something converts them.

The tolerance rules you have to decide

These are your finance team's policy. Write them down before anything is automated.

• Price: a percentage, a fixed amount, or both, and whether it differs per supplier or per item.
• Quantity: may the invoice bill more than was received, and by how much?
• Over-delivery: pay for the extra, hold it, or accept a margin.
• Early invoices: hold the whole invoice until the rest arrives, or pass the received part and hold the rest.
• Units: the conversion for each item, such as boxes to a case.
• Charges: whether freight or surcharges missing from the order are allowed.
• Who decides: which differences go to a buyer, which to finance, and above which amount.

Why rules first beats a fully automatic match

A fully automatic match gives a yes or a no. A no lands in a queue with no reason, and someone opens three documents to find it. A loose yes pays the difference unseen.

A rules-first check runs your written rules on every line and shows the line that disagrees, with what is different and by how much. The reviewer sees the problem, not three documents. Every decision is logged next to its evidence.

A worked example, on one synthetic line

This line is synthetic sample data. No real supplier, no real amount.

Packaging supplier C gets an order for a full load of plain boxes. Half of the boxes have arrived. The invoice bills the whole order, counted in cases rather than boxes.

A strict match fails twice: cases against boxes, and the full order against half received. A loose match on value passes, and pays for the half that has not arrived.

The rules-first check converts cases into boxes with your rule for boxes to a case, so the price per box agrees. Then it shows one line: invoiced the full order, received half, short the rest, with the value still missing. Your early-invoice rule decides: hold the whole invoice, or pass the received part and hold the rest.

What the Proof gives you

On day 1 we write 3 to 5 tests with you, such as "an invoice billing more than was received is held, and the short line is shown." The check runs in shadow mode: it reads and reports, it writes nothing. The Proof is credited in full against a Pilot booked within 30 days. See the three-way match write-up, the invoice matching write-up and the sample hold list.

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