Worked example
Have you ever paid a supplier for goods that never arrived?
No one meant to. The invoice looked right, and nobody had time to compare it with the delivery.
Fit
Is this you?
- Supplier invoices arrive by the hundred, on email and on paper.
- Each waits for someone to confirm the goods came in.
- When the pile is high, short deliveries and new rates slip by.
When we'd say skip it
If you pay a few dozen invoices a month, one careful person is enough. If you don't raise purchase orders, start there. Without one, there's nothing to match.
Recognition
Where it stalls
- Need
- Approved
- Purchase order
- Delivered
- Invoice in
- MatchedWaits on whoever placed the order.
- Approved to pay
- Paid
- Recorded
Every handoff is a person and an inbox.
Rates creep between the order and the bill. Duplicates get paid twice.
Ask where a payment is, and three people have to go and look.
Seen in distributors, as the freight bill nobody opens. In manufacturing, as steel billed at last month's rate. In construction, as a subcontractor's bill with no lien waiver.
Answer
What we'd build: an invoice match desk
Every invoice is checked against its order and its delivery before you pay.
What changes
- Invoices are read and matched the day they land.
- Rate changes, short deliveries and duplicates stop before payment.
- Clean invoices are coded and queued for a single approval.
- Anyone can see where a payment stands, and why.
Gain
What it's worth to you
Pull last quarter's invoices. Count the duplicates, short deliveries and rate rises you paid.
Add any early-payment discounts you missed.
Then add the hours your team spends matching each week, at their hourly cost.
| In | 146 invoices |
|---|---|
| Matched | 128 to order and receipt, queued for approval |
| Rate gap | 9 billed above the order |
| Quantity gap | 5 above what was received |
| Possible duplicates | 3 |
| Paperwork | 1 missing a lien waiver |
Nothing has been paid. Your payables lead clears each exception.
Method
How it runs, in full
Open the full notes
When it starts
When an invoice arrives, in any format.
What it reads
Your payables inbox, your accounting system or ERP, and your receiving records. We confirm each one with you first.
The steps
- Reads each invoice, scanned or digital.
- Finds the matching purchase order and delivery record.
- Compares quantities, rates, freight and terms, line by line.
- Flags duplicates and missing paperwork.
- Codes clean invoices the way past ones were coded.
- Sets each mismatch aside, with the evidence side by side.
Who signs off
Your payables lead clears every exception and approves every batch.
What it never does
It never pays an invoice. It never edits supplier bank details. It never disputes a bill with a supplier by itself.
What we'd need
Read access to the payables inbox and your ERP. Your approval rules. A hundred past invoices, disputed ones included.
Usually comes with
- Supplier chasing, so late orders surface before they stop the line.
- Month-end close, with payables clean before the month ends.
- Order status updates, so customers see what's coming too.
You become the owner who pays only for what arrived.
Each invoice is checked before payment, and nothing gets paid twice.
Your version will differ. Working out how is what a first conversation is for.
Next
Talk it through with a co-founder.
Free, about an hour, and no access needed. Bring your whole list.
A person replies, usually within one working day.