AI-driven Accounts Payable Solution | Automate 3-Way Matching
Optimize 3-Way Matching Process
with Automated Solution
To manage financial risk and ensure company funds are spent suitably, Accounts Payable (AP) team in any organization engages in a critical step in the accounts payable process called 3-way matching. This step involves matching three key documents—purchase order, invoice, and goods received note—to ensure an invoice is accurate before payment. Three-Way Matching is critical because it helps organizations save money, improve vendor relationships, prepare for audits, and reduce fraud risk. However, manual, paper-based three-way matching is prone to errors and can be time consuming, inefficient, and also costly
What is 3-Way Matching in Accounts Payable process?
Three-Way Matching is a procedure for processing a vendor invoice to ensure that a payment is complete and accurate and the purpose is to highlight any discrepancies in three important documents in the purchasing process i.e. purchase order (PO) created by the buyer and sent to the supplier, invoice sent by the supplier to the buyer after the goods have been delivered, and goods Received Note (GRN) or Order Receipt created by the receiving team.
Three-way matching works by having accounts payable review the quantities, prices, and terms to ensure that what is ordered (via the PO) matches the goods received (via GRN or order receipt) which matches what they are being charged (via the invoice).
Challenges with Manual Invoice Matching
Three-way matching when done manually can be labor-intensive, time-consuming, and a considerable cost to your organization because a typical manual matching process is like:
Not only manual 3-way matching is inefficient, but it’s also highly prone to human error.
Organization-level impacts:
Other common challenges with manual matching that can have organization level impact include:
Why Automate 3-Way Matching?
Automating 3-way matching makes your accounts payable team more efficient while ensuring you don’t overpay your suppliers. Automated invoice matching is the process of using AI to compare key documents in accounts payable without manual intervention. Instead of staff checking each document line by line, automation tools extract, validate, and match data across all three documents in real time. If everything matches (PO number, quantities, prices, and item details), the invoice is approved automatically. If there’s a mismatch, the system flags it for review—reducing time spent on manual checks and exception handling.
Advantages of Ospyn’s AI-driven 3-Way Matching Solution
AI automatically compares invoice quantities with GRN records and purchase orders, flagging discrepancies instantly detecting mismatches early and triggering validation workflows.
AI-powered dashboards provide real-time visibility into invoice status, aging, and discrepancies, improving cash flow forecasting.
AI tracks invoices eligible for early payment discounts, prioritizing approvals and payments to maximize cost savings.
AI detects duplicate invoices by cross-referencing invoice numbers, vendor names, and amounts across historical transactions, preventing unnecessary payments.
Continuous monitoring of the matching process and reports helps in identifying patterns and areas for improvement.
Automating 3-way matching is simple when you upgrade to Ospyn AI’s 3-Way Matching Solution that delivers up to 65% process efficiency and can save USD 200,000 in a 10,000 invoices processing per day setting.
Assured 100% ROI in the first year with continued savings in the subsequent years.