Invoice reconciliation checks that an invoice matches what was ordered (a two-way match) and what was received (a three-way match) before it is paid. Automating it means pulling those records from wherever they live, comparing them, and sending only the real exceptions to a person.
Why it is hard across systems
Invoices arrive as PDFs in an inbox, orders sit in the ERP and receipts may be in a spreadsheet. References are often missing, and real orders change: partial deliveries, new prices, separate freight.
Five steps to automate it
- Connect the inbox, the system holding purchase orders, and wherever receipts are recorded.
- Read each invoice into fields: supplier, number, lines, totals and any order reference.
- Match it to its order, using the reference when present and supplier, items and amounts when not.
- Compare line by line, ignoring differences inside agreed tolerances.
- Send real exceptions to a person with both records side by side, and a suggested fix to approve.
Keep these with people
- Approving payments.
- Changing supplier or master data.
- Supplier disputes and new kinds of exception.
Track which discrepancies keep coming back: they usually point to a fix upstream. See AI invoice reconciliation with Platypus.