Compliance & Technical
What is Purchase Order (PO) Matching?
Purchase order matching is the AP control process of comparing a supplier invoice against the original purchase order to verify that quantities, unit prices, and terms agree before authorizing payment.
Explanation
PO matching is a core AP internal control. Two-way matching compares invoice to PO; three-way matching adds the goods receipt. Discrepancies — a price higher than the PO rate, a quantity billed that wasn't received — must be investigated and resolved before payment. Manual PO matching is time-consuming: AP staff must pull the PO for each invoice, compare line by line, and document any discrepancies. Automated PO matching pulls PO data from the ERP, compares it to extracted invoice data, and flags only the exceptions — handling the matching step for the 85–95% of invoices that match cleanly.
How Rima relates
Rima Blueprints can automate PO matching by comparing extracted invoice data against PO records and flagging discrepancies for review.
Explore invoice processing automationRelated Terms
Three-Way Match
The process of matching a supplier invoice against its purchase order and goods receipt before approving payment.
Accounts Payable (AP)
Money a business owes to suppliers for goods or services received but not yet paid.
Invoice Processing
The end-to-end workflow of receiving, validating, approving, and recording supplier invoices.
Exception Handling
The process of identifying, routing, and resolving documents or transactions that don't match expected rules.
See it in action
Rima automates the manual document workflows accounting teams spend hours on every week.