Two-Way Match

A two-way match is a financial control process that compares the vendor’s invoice to the purchase order (PO) to verify that details such as quantity, unit price, and total amount align with what was originally approved. It occurs within accounts payable and ensures an organization only pays for goods or services that were properly ordered and billed at the correct price. 

 

Companies can establish tolerance levels to automatically approve small differences caused by rounding, shipping costs, or currency fluctuations. If an invoice falls outside approved tolerance limits, it is placed on hold for manual review before payment is made.

 

This process forms the foundation of strong financial governance, helping to prevent overpayments, detect fraudulent billing, and maintain invoice accuracy across all purchasing activities so that procurement can provide optimal data for financial accruals.

 

Two-way matching is a cornerstone of effective procurement and accounts payable management. It establishes a consistent, automated control that protects company funds and enforces compliance with purchasing policies so teams can focus their efforts on exceptions and more intensive work such as analyzing spend, negotiating supplier terms, or driving strategic sourcing initiatives. The result is a more efficient, accurate, and accountable procure-to-pay (P2P) process that strengthens both financial integrity and supplier relationships.

The key components of a two-way match are identifying the purchase order, verifying data fields, providing transactional thresholds, resolving unexpected discrepancies, and approving all aspects of the payment. Each stage of the matching process plays a role in confirming how the invoice aligns with the original purchase order. This structured approach establishes consistency and control in the accounts payable process, reduces payment error risk, and strengthens alignment between procurement and finance. The following components outline how invoices are received, matched, verified, and approved within a standard two-way match workflow.

 

• Invoice Acquisition: The accounts payable (AP) team or system receives an invoice from the vendor.

 

• Purchase Order Identification: The system identifies the corresponding purchase order and initiates the matching process.

 

• Data Field Verification: Key fields such as item description, quantity, unit price, and total amount are checked to ensure alignment between the invoice and the PO.

 

• Tolerance Level Application: Acceptable thresholds are applied to allow variances without manual intervention.

 

• Discrepancies Resolved: If mismatches exceed tolerance levels, the system places the invoice on hold and alerts AP or procurement staff to investigate the issue with the vendor.
• Approve and Pay: Once the invoice is verified, it is approved for payment and processed based on company policy.

A two-way match system helps organizations prevent fraud, control costs, and improve financial accuracy by ensuring invoices match purchase orders before payment. Key benefits include:

 

• Fraud Prevention: Ensures payments match up to authorized purchases and prevents duplicate and fraudulent invoices.

 

• Cost Control: Aligns invoice amounts with agreed contractual terms, avoiding overbilling or unauthorized price increases.

 

• Operational Efficiency: Automates routine invoice validation to reduce manual review effort and enable faster payment cycles.

 

• Accuracy and Auditability: Improves financial accuracy and creates a verifiable audit trail for compliance and reporting purposes.
• Supplier Relationship Management: Speeds up payment approvals for accurate invoices to improve vendor trust and collaboration.

Levelpath enhances the traditional two-way match process by connecting it to a unified supplier system of record that integrates supplier, contract, sourcing, and invoicing data into one intelligent framework. This creates a continuous flow of information from sourcing to payment, allowing procurement and finance to work from the same data foundation.

 

Invoices in Levelpath are automatically captured and parsed through optical character recognition (OCR) and AI to extract key details such as supplier name, purchase order number, invoice date, quantity, and pricing. Each invoice is then automatically linked to its related supplier record, contract, department, business owner, and sourcing event. This linkage transforms invoice processing from a simple two-document comparison into a context-aware process that aligns invoices directly with negotiated terms, supplier relationships, and sourcing outcomes.

 

Because the invoice is tied to the relevant contract, Levelpath ensures that payments are executed in accordance with agreed pricing and terms for the appropriate time frames. The system checks each invoice against both the purchase order and contract details, identifying discrepancies to target for resolution. This minimizes manual intervention, enforces commercial compliance, and provides direct connections between procurement execution and financial oversight.

 

Levelpath delivers complete visibility across the procurement lifecycle through a single supplier record. Procurement and finance teams can see spend under management tracked back to contracts and suppliers, understand how payments align with contractual commitments, and identify cost leakage or compliance issues early. The platform also ties invoice-level activity back to sourcing events and savings initiatives, allowing organizations to demonstrate how negotiated value is realized through payment and providing detailed guidance on tracking both committed and executed savings.

 

Levelpath’s approach transforms two-way matching from an accounts payable control into a comprehensive procurement and finance integration layer. It eliminates the traditional disconnects between purchase orders, contracts, and supplier data, creating a single environment where invoices automatically execute on negotiated terms. This results in greater accuracy, faster approvals, improved compliance, and a complete view of how every dollar of spend is managed from contract creation to final payment.