3-Way Matching
Process Enhances
Accounts Payable

Accounts payable teams go through a detailed invoice matching process whenever their business receives an invoice from a supplier.​​ The 3-way matching process is a payment verification technique that ensures that all invoices a company handles are valid before making a final payment. 

The purchase order matching process consists of three documents: the invoice, the purchase order, and the receiving report. 3-way matching is essential for accounts payable teams looking to avoid invalid or nonexistent purchase orders.

The 3-way matching process allows businesses to understand how to match purchase orders with invoices and why matching orders and invoices are essential. Practicing 3-way matching helps accounts payable teams make the correct payments to the appropriate supplier. 

You may ask: what is the 3-way matching in Accounts Payable principle? The 3-way matching principle in  accounts payable teams is the entire process of verifying and validating a purchase order before paying an invoice. 3-way matching ensures details from all corresponding documents align.

Successfully implementing this principle requires you to understand which sequence of steps allows a three-way match in procurement transactions. 3-way matches occur when accounts payable teams match the invoice, purchase order, and receipt for goods to recognize any fraudulent invoices or invoices with an incorrect number of goods. 

3-way matching saves accounts payable teams time and costs that they would waste if invoices are inaccurate. When the three documents don’t match, accounts payable teams can take appropriate steps to recognize and address the issue promptly.

Ultimately, the 3-way matching process relies on the idea that when the data for an invoice, purchase order, and receipt aligns, accounts payable teams can confidently approve and pay invoices. 

Accounts payable teams often struggle with overwhelming piles of incoming documents, making the 3-way matching principle challenging to follow. Implementing the help of platforms like Rossum will allow your accounts payable team time to focus on other parts of your business while automating communication to keep everything running smoothly.

Accounts Payable matching process

Invoice matching is essential for any accounts payable team, especially those dealing with a steady influx of documents and purchase orders. The accounts payable matching process benefits businesses by ensuring no errors in the transactional documents. 

This process is crucial to prevent financial damage to all parties involved in individual transactions. Managing an overwhelming workflow is only possible when accounts payable teams work to keep track of 3-way matches to avoid inaccurate reporting errors. 

Even minor errors in transaction processes put companies at risk of losing revenue to unverified or unfinished orders. Accounts payable teams may feel overwhelmed when an invoice does not match a purchase order. 

With the 3-way invoice match, accounts payable teams no longer worry about invoice errors or inconsistencies across the three core documents. One way to strengthen your team’s 3-way matching procedure is by implementing intelligent document processing tools like Rossum. ‘

Intelligent document processing (IDP) ensures that your invoices, purchase orders, packing lists, claims, and other transactional documents are processed and accurate. 

Rossum’s solutions are vital to managing invoices and matching documents to reduce costs and mitigate potential risks. Additionally, Rossum allows teams to track the 3-way matching process and automatically process critical data involved in the matching procedure.

What is 2-way mathing in Accounts Payable?

Another process essential for accounts payable teams is the 2-way matching process. 2-way matching eliminates the need for a receipt of goods and only concerns matching invoices to purchase orders. If you work for an accounts payable team, you may ask: what is 2-way matching in accounts payable? What is 3-way matching in accounts payable? 

Though the two processes contain similarities, knowing the differences between each process is essential to any successful accounts payable team. In the 2-way matching process, the purchase order (PO) matches the invoice for an individual order. Accounts payable teams use the 2-way matching process to compare invoices and purchase order system details to ensure no errors exist between the two documents.

Accounts payable teams should also know the difference between a PO and a non-PO invoice. Non-PO invoices are not associated with any purchase order, meaning they occur outside the typical payment-to-procure, or P2P, cycle. Many teams struggle to answer the question: what is two-way matching in accounts payable? What about 4-way matching in Oracle R12?

Additionally, if your business uses Oracle for cloud-based services and management, you must answer the question: what are 2-way, 3-way, and 4-way matching in the Oracle app? Oracle, which integrates with Rossum’s software, utilizes the 4-way match approval option by including purchase orders, receipts, invoice quantities, and accepted quantities from an inspection. Corresponding invoices are only payable if all four elements match.

What is 2-way and 3-way matching in Accounts Payable?

Many people naturally struggle to understand the differences between 2-way and 3-way matching in the accounts payable process. Because the terms are nearly identical, accounts payable teams often ask: what is 2-way and 3-way matching in accounts payable? 

Any successful accounts payable team will know the differences between these processes and how each benefits the accounts payable process. Additionally, 2-way and 3-way matching are essential to the overall P2P cycle. 

The P2P cycle combines the purchasing and accounts payable departments into a single, cohesive process. P2P involves the entire payment to identify what a business requires to create a purchase order, approve an invoice, and pay suppliers.

You may still ask: what is 3-way matching in accounts payable, and why is it important? 3-way matching is a standard process to ensure invoice accuracy for accounts payable teams. 

3-way matching is essential because all purchase order details are easily matched with invoices and receipts to provide accurate, risk-free payments. 3-way matching is a verification process for accounts payable teams that protects the company’s financial assets. 

However, it is easy for one to be confused over the numerous matching types and terms. To solve any confusion, Rossum implements a verification process that utilizes PO, vendor, and human matching verification to remove doubts over the matching process.

3-way match internal control

You are on the path to answering the ultimate question: what is 3-way matching in accounts payable? While you might think that you know all there is to know, numerous factors are relevant to a successful 3-way match. 

Among these factors is the 3-way match internal control process. Internal controls refer to the procedures a company implements to protect against fraud and any inaccuracies in its accounting department. Because a 3-way match verifies orders and invoices before making a final payment, 3-way matches are an excellent example of internal controls.

Another valuable asset for accounts payable teams is 3-way match journal entries. When organizations do not keep track of data from previous 3-way matches, they inadvertently place themselves at risk for inaccurate data reporting. When these inaccuracies accumulate, organizations lose significant revenue to incomplete orders. 

Though some companies may practice three-way matching in D365, colloquially referred to as Microsoft Dynamics 365, accounts payable teams must consider automating their journal entries instead. When employees manually track 3-way matches, they put their organization at risk of significant errors. 

By automating 3-way matches with software like Rossum, organizations can eliminate risks and ensure that they are paying valid suppliers and avoiding fraudulent invoices.

3-way matching in Accounts Payable journal entry

Once you have an understanding of the overall 3-way matching process, you must shift your attention to the importance of maintaining journal entries for all matches. A journal entry for each match is vital as you navigate 3-way matching in accounts payable. 

Though you may assume that you won’t need access to past matching processes, this is not guaranteed. To successfully follow the steps for 3-way matching in accounts payable in Oracle or another platform, you need regular journal entries and thorough documentation.

Access to data from previous 3-way matches is essential to any organization handling a massive workflow and a regular influx of documents. Maintaining steady revenue and keeping finances afloat requires accounts payable entries. PDF documents are beneficial for accounts payable teams looking to easily access past transactions and ensure that their present reporting is error-free. 

Though it is possible to enter information about 3-way matches manually, you put your company at risk of severe errors if you only operate manually. Using Accounts Payable automation software like Rossum to organize, process, and document your 3-way matches is vital to improving how your business communicates with suppliers. 

Maintaining a journal for your 3-way matches allows you to understand past errors and take action to improve how your team communicates during the 3-way match process.

What is 4-way matching in Accounts Payable?

After educating yourself on 2-way and 3-way matches in accounts payable processes, you can move on to the final question: what is 4-way matching in accounts payable? 4-way matching is similar to 3-way matching but adds another criterion to ensure that acceptance documents and invoices match within the company’s quantity tolerances. In simpler terms, 4-way matching ensures that the quantity billed is less than or equal to the quantity accepted.

Many accounts payable teams rely on Oracle’s software to help manage their workflow. Because of this, it is necessary to ask: what are 2-way, 3-way, and 4-way matching in Oracle apps? What is 4-way matching in Oracle R12? Using the invoice match option in Oracle Fusion Middleware or R12 means that your team focuses on four different elements: the purchase order, receipt, quantities from inspection, and invoice quantities. 

4-way matching in accounts payable requires that teams only pay a corresponding invoice when all four elements match. Oracle implements a match approval level to help companies determine what hold they should place on an individual order. Rossum integrates with Oracle apps, meaning that accounts payable teams can use Rossum alongside Oracle apps to get all of the benefits of both software options.