Invoice reconciliation
Invoice reconciliation: order, receipt and invoice matched at line level, before payment
Invoice reconciliation means verifying, line by line, that what is invoiced matches what was ordered and what was received: references, quantities, units, prices. Zylio’s Matching agent does it across the three documents, applies your tolerances, lets compliant cases through and presents the others with the gap already quantified.
The problem
Matching exists in the ERP. It gets stuck on everything that is not clean.
Most ERPs can match an invoice to an order and a receipt. When the invoice repeats the order exactly, one line for one line, same reference, same quantity, same price, the match goes through. The problem is not there. It is in everything that is not exactly the same: a delivery split in two, a unit invoiced by the kilo when the order was by the case, a supplier reference that looks nothing like yours, a delivery charge that was on no purchase order.
Those cases drop out of the automatic flow and land in a queue. Someone opens the invoice, looks for the order, finds the delivery note, compares, and decides. Three documents, three screens, one decision at a time. When the queue grows faster than it empties, invoices get paid on the strength of the order, or blocked “just in case” and the supplier chases.
Invoice reconciliation by an AI agent does not replace the ERP’s matching. It takes on what the ERP cannot pair, and returns to the team cases already qualified: which document diverges, by how much, and why.
What is matched
Three documents, three versions of the same delivery
Each document says something different. Matching means making the three hold together, line by line.
The purchase order
What you asked for: reference, quantity, unit, unit price at the time of commitment, delivery terms. It is the reference document for the price and the expected quantity.
The delivery note or goods receipt
What actually arrived, and when: quantity delivered, backorder, batch, date. For a service, it is the work order or the signed report.
The invoice
What the supplier is claiming: lines, quantities, prices, ancillary charges, taxes. It may cover one order, part of an order, or several orders at once.
The mechanism
How the Matching agent reconciles an invoice
- 01
Read the three documents at line level
Order, receipt and invoice are extracted line by line, whatever the format: ERP export, PDF, scan, portal. Each value stays linked to the place in the document where it was read.
- 02
Pair the lines with each other
By reference when it exists, otherwise by description, unit and price. A supplier reference and an internal reference that differ for the same item are recognised as such, with a confidence level displayed.
- 03
Apply your tolerances
By supplier, by spend category, by amount: a quantity gap of two units out of a thousand is not handled like two out of ten. The tolerances are yours, and the same case produces the same decision six months from now.
- 04
Qualify and present the gap
Which document diverges, on which line, by how much. Compliant cases pass on their own; the others reach the team with the gap quantified and the three documents side by side. Nothing is dismissed silently.
The pillar: two-, three- or four-way matching, tolerances, match rate.
What the agent detects
Six situations that block a conventional match
Quantity gap
Invoiced one hundred, received ninety-eight. The gap is quantified, tied to the receipt line, and compared with your tolerance before being raised.
Partial, split or grouped delivery
One order delivered in three shipments, or three orders delivered together. Lines are tied to the right order, backorder included, without the invoice being rejected.
Unit of measure to convert
Ordered by the case of twelve, invoiced by the unit; ordered by the metre, delivered by the roll. The conversion is applied before quantities and prices are compared.
Diverging item reference
Your internal code, the supplier code, the manufacturer code: three identifiers for one item. The agent pairs them and states its confidence.
Additional charge absent from the order
Delivery, pallet, packaging, urgency: an invoiced line that exists on no purchase order comes out as such, for decision.
Invoicing before actual receipt
The invoice arrives, the goods do not. The line is flagged as awaiting receipt, not paid on the strength of the order.
What it changes
What changes when matching does not stop at clean invoices
The amount outstanding becomes readable again. When every invoice is tied to its order and its receipt, the supplier ledger reflects real commitments, backorders included, rather than a queue of pending cases nobody can explain. A close no longer starts with an inventory of blocked invoices.
Disputes become tangible. An invoice is no longer blocked “just in case” but because a specific line diverges from a specific document, by a specific amount. That finding can be sent to the supplier by your teams, with the three documents; the conversation is shorter and ends more often with a credit note.
Time changes in nature. On the scopes analysed, 15 to 45% of time handed back to teams, per FTE, depending on the scope and the maturity of the data: the time spent looking for documents is returned, the time spent deciding remains. And every decision leaves a trace (who, what, how much, when) which is the audit trail your statutory auditors ask for.
The use case: what happens when the invoice and the receipt do not say the same thing.
What comes next
Matching finds the gap. Two pages handle what follows.
Once the invoice is matched, two questions remain. The first concerns the price: the quantity is right, the receipt is right, but is the unit price the contract price? That is a separate check, run by the Compliance agent. The second concerns the gaps themselves: once found, how are they qualified, resolved, closed? That is AI invoice reconciliation.
Check invoiced prices
The invoiced price confronted with the negotiated price, line by line, with the gap quantified and the evidence ready to send.
Discover
Qualify, resolve and close the gaps found by matching.
Matching
Purchase order, goods receipt and invoice matching, automated.
Matches the three documents line by line and applies your tolerances by supplier, by purchasing category and by amount.
Compliant cases go through on their own. The others arrive qualified, with the discrepancy already costed.
What Matching detects
- Quantity discrepancies
- Partial receipts, deliveries split or grouped
- Units of measure to convert
- Diverging item references
- Additional charges absent from the purchase order
- Invoicing before the goods were actually received
Nothing is lost. Everything can be checked, everything can be proven.
- The contract clause and the invoice line, highlighted side by side.
- Every extracted value stays linked to the exact place in the document where it was read.
- The same case produces the same decision, today as in six months: the rules are applied deterministically.
- No discrepancy is set aside in silence. Anything that matches no rule is raised, with its reason.
- The agent records what it did, in the order it did it: who, what, how much, when.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between two-, three- and four-way matching?
Two-way matches the invoice to the order. Three-way adds the receipt. Four-way adds a quality control or acceptance document. Zylio applies the level you choose per supplier or spend category; a service with no physical receipt is matched two-way with the signed report.
What happens with an invoice covering several orders?
Each invoiced line is tied to the order line it corresponds to, even if the orders differ or one order is invoiced in several instalments. The backorder is calculated per order line. This case, like the invoice without an order, also falls to the Exception agent.
Does Zylio change the invoice status in the ERP?
No. Zylio reads the order, the receipt and the invoice through an export or an API, matches them, and returns a qualified result. Blocking, approving or paying remain actions carried out in your ERP by your teams, with the file provided by the agent.
How are tolerances set?
With you, at the start: an acceptable quantity or amount gap per supplier, per spend category and per threshold. Those rules are then applied deterministically and remain visible; you can tighten or widen them at any time, and every past decision stays traced with the rule that applied.
Measurable impact in every environment
More than 5 million procurement documents analysed
Between 1 and 7% of margin recovered
on the scope analysed
From 15 to 45% of time given back to teams, per FTE
depending on the scope and on data maturity
Zylio fits into your existing ecosystem.
The ERP runs the process. Zylio handles the exception and recovers the value that escapes it: invoices without a purchase order, line-by-line price discrepancies, duplicates and overbilling, off-contract spend.
Your data under high security.
Zylio meets the most demanding standards, and nothing is committed without your approval.
- Certifications
- Hosting
- Encryption
- Access
The other situations handled by the Matching agent
- Matching purchasing documentsThe pillar: two-, three- or four-way, tolerances, match rate.
- Accounting reconciliationInvoices, credit notes and payments tied to supplier ledger entries, clearing proposed, open items qualified: a close without an inventory.
- AI invoice reconciliationWhat happens after matching: qualifying and resolving the gaps.
- Match services without goods receiptWhen there is no delivery note: the case of services.
- See matching in a demoOne order, one receipt, one invoice: the agent on screen on a concrete case.
See what this looks like on your own data
Twenty minutes, on a spend category of your choosing. We show you what the agents detect, with the evidence behind it.
- No commitment, on your own data
- Result in 3 weeks
- 20 minutes, no sales pitch
- Your data stays hosted in France
- No change of tool or process