In short
Purchase order, goods receipt, invoice: why matching all three catches what two-way matching misses.
Two-way matching checks that an invoice agrees with the purchase order. Three-way matching adds the goods receipt, so you only pay for what actually arrived.
Why it matters
Most overpayments come from partial deliveries billed in full. The receipt is the only document that shows what was delivered.
Where it gets hard
Receipts arrive late, quantities are split across shipments and units don’t always match. That’s where tolerances and a clear exception queue matter more than the matching itself.
Doing it at volume
Kestrel’s Payables agent matches line by line, holds invoices that are waiting for a receipt and releases them automatically when it arrives.
Kestrel for finance teams
See Kestrel run on your own invoices
A 30-minute walkthrough on a copy of your data. No setup, no commitment.
