Purchase invoice processing
Supplier invoices arrive by email and by post, as PDFs from a dozen different systems, faster than anyone can check them. This role reads each one, matches it to the purchase order and the goods received note, codes it and queues it for approval. Your purchase ledger clerk settles the differences, and your people approve and pay.
The role in brief
Reads every supplier invoice, matches it to the purchase order and the goods received note, codes it, and queues it for a person to approve.
Your accounts payable mailbox and your accounts or stock system, for example Sage 200, Business Central or Xero.
The purchase ledger clerk or finance manager. Every invoice waits for their approval, and mismatches and bank detail changes go to them.
Invoices matched first time, days from receipt to approval queue, and differences caught before approval.
Who matches supplier invoices today
A purchase ledger clerk or a bookkeeper does it, or in a smaller firm the owner on a Sunday evening. Each invoice is opened, keyed into Sage 200, Business Central or Xero, and checked against the order and the delivery paperwork from the warehouse or the site. The checking is the part that gets skipped when the pile is high and the payment run is tomorrow.
Paying for goods that never arrived
The invoice says 40 cases and the warehouse booked in 36. Unless someone compares the invoice with the goods received note line by line, the business pays for all 40 and finds the shortage at the stock take, when it is far harder to claim back.
The same invoice paid twice
A supplier emails an invoice, posts a copy, then attaches it again to a statement. Keyed twice under slightly different references, it is paid twice. Getting the money back means noticing first, and nobody is looking.
Approvals that sit, suppliers that stop
An invoice waiting on a desk for a signature is not in the ledger and not in the payment run. Where no date was agreed, a business invoice is late after 30 days, and the supplier can claim statutory interest of 8% plus the Bank of England base rate, or put your account on stop.
How an invoice gets from inbox to approved
Payment is never the agent's, and a person approves every invoice. The agent reads, matches and codes, to the tolerance and the approvers you set with us at the outset.
Capture
Reads each invoice and credit note from the accounts mailbox, picks out supplier, invoice number, date, order number, lines, VAT and total, and checks it has not been entered before.
Invoices from a supplier not on your ledger. A person sets up every new supplier.
Match
Makes the three-way match, comparing each line with the purchase order for price and the goods received note for quantity. Differences inside your tolerance pass, and the rest are held.
Every difference outside tolerance, and any invoice with no order or no delivery record.
Code
Codes each line to the nominal account, department or job, from the order and from how that supplier was coded before, and records the VAT as the invoice shows it.
Coding it cannot support from the order or the history, and any VAT treatment that looks wrong.
Queue
Puts the invoice in the approval queue for the right person, with the order and the delivery record beside it and every difference it found listed.
Approval, every payment, and any change to a supplier's bank details.
Invoices matched first time
The share of invoices matched to an order and a goods received note, inside your tolerances, with nothing held for a person. Reviewed with you each month.
Days from receipt to approval queue
Counted for every invoice, from the day it reaches the accounts mailbox to the day it is coded and waiting for approval.
Differences caught before approval
How many invoices were held for a price, quantity or duplicate difference, the value involved, and how each one was settled.
Wholesale and distribution
Stock invoices matched line by line to purchase orders and goods received notes, with short deliveries and price changes held for the purchase ledger clerk.
Construction contractors and trades
Merchant invoices matched to orders and delivery tickets and coded to the job. Subcontractor payments and their CIS deductions stay with your accounts team.
Manufacturing
Material and subcontract invoices matched to purchase orders and goods received notes, and coded to the works order or cost centre for approval.
Questions owners ask
Will the agent pay our suppliers?
No. It has no access to your bank or your payment run, is never given any, and does not edit supplier bank details. It prepares each invoice for approval; a person approves it and a person pays it. That split is deliberate: whoever checks an invoice should not also pay it.
What does three-way matching mean here?
Three documents have to agree before an invoice is passed: the purchase order for what was ordered and at what price, the goods received note for what arrived, and the supplier's invoice. The agent compares them line by line, and anything outside the tolerance you set is held for your purchase ledger clerk.
What about invoices that have no purchase order?
Plenty are like that: utilities, rent, subscriptions, the engineer who came out on Tuesday. The agent codes them from how the same supplier was coded before and sends each to the budget holder you name. It cannot confirm the work was done, so a person does.
A supplier emails to say their bank details have changed. What happens?
Nothing changes. The agent treats the request as a warning sign and passes the email to your finance team, who confirm it with the supplier using contact details already on file, as the Take Five fraud campaign advises.