Three-way match
Matching purchase order, goods receipt and invoice before paying.
Definition
The three-way match is a control that compares three documents before an invoice is paid: the purchase order (what was ordered), the goods receipt (what was received) and the vendor invoice (what is being billed). Payment is approved only when all three agree within tolerance.
Why it matters
It is the standard preventive control against paying for goods never ordered or received — but it does not catch the same invoice being paid twice, which is why duplicate detection is still needed alongside it.
How SpanFin helps
SpanFin complements the three-way match by checking the payment and invoice data itself for duplicates, cross-vendor duplicates and credit/refund mismatches that matching controls do not see.
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