Invoice to purchase order match and exception queue
Problem
Invoices arrive by email as PDFs, and the purchase order they relate to sits in a different system, or a printed copy in a drawer. The accounts payable clerk opens both, checks line items, quantities and unit price by eye, and keys the result into the finance system. A mismatch, a quantity delivered short, a price that has moved, a PO number typed wrong, gets set aside in a personal 'to query' folder until there is time to chase it. That time often does not come until the supplier calls asking why they have not been paid. By then the dispute is weeks old, the person who raised the order has moved on, and nobody can say how many invoices are sitting unmatched at any given moment.
Product idea
A workflow that takes invoice line data and purchase order line data, whichever spreadsheet or export each currently lives in, and matches them on PO number, quantity and unit price within a tolerance the finance team sets. Matches within tolerance move straight to an approved list ready for the finance system. Anything outside tolerance drops into an exception queue with a reason code (quantity mismatch, price variance, missing PO, over the delegated authority limit) and an owner assigned by rule rather than by whoever notices the message first. It does not attempt to read an unstructured invoice image on its own; it works from structured line data, uploaded or exported, and leaves judgement about a genuine dispute to the person the exception is routed to.
Who it is for
Accounts payable clerks who run the match, financial controllers who need a clean exception trail for audit, and procurement leads who sponsor the change so line item disputes stop turning into supplier phone calls.
Possible first version
A tool that accepts a CSV export of open purchase orders and a CSV or manually entered invoice line list, matches them against configurable tolerance rules, and produces two outputs: an approved list ready to key into the finance system, and an exception queue with reason codes and an assigned owner. Version one has no live connection to the finance or procurement system; both exports are uploaded by hand and the approved list goes back out the same way. Escalation beyond the assigned owner and automatic supplier notification are out of scope for this release.
- Build classification
- Workflow application
- Rough effort
- 4-6 week first release
- Roles involved
- Accounts payable clerk, Financial controller, Procurement lead
- Relevant to
- Professional club, League office, Federation / governing body, Venue & stadium operator
- Systems in play
- Finance and ERP systems, Procurement and purchase order systems, Spreadsheets
- Product framing
- Automate a workflow
Questions we get asked
What do we actually need ready before this is any use to us?
Two exports: open purchase order lines and invoice lines, each with a PO number, quantity and unit price. Most finance and procurement systems can export this as a CSV without any development work. If your PO data still lives only on paper or in a document that is not exported anywhere, that gap needs fixing first, and it is worth fixing regardless of this tool.
Does this replace our finance system, or sit next to it?
It sits next to it. The finance system remains the record of what was paid and when. This tool only decides which invoices are clean enough to key in without a human re-checking every line, and gives the ones that are not a home other than an inbox. Nothing here posts a payment or changes a ledger entry.
We already reconcile invoices against purchase orders at month end and it works well enough. Why change it?
Month end reconciliation catches a mismatch after the fact, often after a supplier has already chased for payment or a duplicate has already gone out. This runs the same check at the point an invoice arrives instead, so the small number that genuinely need a person get found in days rather than weeks. It does not remove your month end process; it should make it shorter, because fewer invoices reach it unmatched.
Who ends up owning the exception queue once it exists?
Typically the accounts payable clerk owns the queue day to day, and the financial controller owns the tolerance rules and the delegated authority limits behind them. Someone has to review and clear exceptions regularly, or the queue becomes exactly what the old 'to query' folder was, just with a better name. That review time is real and should be planned for, not assumed to be free.
Is this your workflow?
Tell us one sports workflow that still runs on paper, spreadsheets, WhatsApp or an outdated system. We will map it and show you what a simpler product looks like.
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