Three-way match
In accounting, three-way match means agreeing the purchase order, the goods receipt and the vendor invoice — quantity and price, line by line, within tolerance — before a bill is approved for payment.
- Layer
- Lexicon
- Defined in
- Lexicon
- Components
- 1
- Nearby
- 1
Authority
This definition follows Internal control — SOX §404.
Every citation in this system, with the text we read and the date we checked it, is in US GAAP and where these rules come from.
Three-way match, in use
Quoted from the 2 documents that use the word — what it does to an interface, in the spec's own sentence.
A reader who hits three-way match in the middle of a payables spec has no way to know it is defined elsewhere, and the block of terms at the foot of the page is only useful to someone who already finished reading.
Cross-references & the shape of the site — TermRef and automatic glossary linking
Item lines participate in three-way match and inventory; expense lines do not.
Lopifi APIs: Xero, QuickBooks Online, NetSuite — The differences
For founders
The same idea written for a founder: what it costs a startup that ignores it, and what to do in a real month.
What it is not called
Each of these is a real word for a different thing. Using it here is what makes a product read as though it was built by someone who has not done the work.
- matching
Components that render this
The concept is not documentation-only. These are the components that name it in their specification, grouped and stated exactly as the catalog states them.
Components that render the terms it depends on
Little in the catalog names this concept outright, but its definition is built out of others that are named. These render purchase order, invoice, vendor, bill.
Nearby in the catalog
Components in this part of the system that no term names outright. A weaker claim than the list above, and stated as one — but a component nothing links to is a component nobody finds.
Terms this one depends on
Also in Payables
Work with this concept
The calculators that compute it and the ledger payloads that carry it. A definition is where a reader starts; these are where they go next.
- Vendor billsWhere does supplier spend actually live in each ledger?API
- Two-way match vs three-way matchA two-way match checks a vendor invoice against its purchase order; a three-way match adds the goods receipt, so the company pays only for what it ordered and actually received.Compare
- Journal entry for accounts payableWhen an approved vendor bill is entered, debit the expense or asset it bought and credit Accounts payable. When it is paid, debit Accounts payable and credit Cash.Entry
- Journal entry for an inventory purchaseWhen inventory is bought on credit under a perpetual system, debit Inventory and credit Accounts payable. If an early-payment discount is taken, debit Accounts payable for the full bill, credit Cash for what is paid and credit Inventory for the discount.Entry
Defined in Lexicon. This page is generated from that document, so the two cannot disagree.