Audience: Accounting Manager
Summary: This article reviews the auto-PO match feature, how to enable it, and how it works. Auto PO Matching is available for our Universal Connector, NetSuite, Sage Intacct, and Xero.
This article contains:
- Overview of PO Matching
- Setup and Configuration
- The Linking Process
- Handling Exceptions and Re-linking Invoices
Overview of PO Matching
MineralTree's Automated Purchase Order Matching functionality significantly reduces the time required to process vendor invoices by algorithmically matching them to Purchase Orders (POs). When this feature is enabled, every draft invoice created in MineralTree will be put through a linking process in which MineralTree automatically attempts to link each invoice line to a PO line. Accounting Manager users can then review the results, and make any needed adjustments.
For more information on manual PO matching in MineralTree, please see this article.
Setup and Configuration
The feature is disabled by default, and needs to be enabled by a MineralTree administrator by navigating to Settings > Manage Company Settings and clicking on the Invoice Approval tab. Once the overarching PO Match feature is enabled, users can also enable Automated PO Matching, as well as set match tolerances and invoice approval preferences for PO-based invoices. Match tolerance is usually set to between 3-5% allowing for a 3-5% margin of error.
The Linking Process
Once the feature is enabled, our linking engine runs continuously in the background to link invoice lines in MineralTree to PO lines in your accounting package. Every time a new invoice is created in MineralTree, the engine will attempt to link each line-item and expense to a corresponding line-item and expense on an open PO for the same vendor. The linking engine will also run every time an unrecognized vendor name is validated. To obtain the best results, we consider all the PO lines and invoice lines for a given vendor when running the linking process. The following values (marked with an "*") are considered when linking invoice and PO lines:
| Invoice Line-Item | PO Line-Item | Invoice Expense | PO Expense | |
| Item | Item | GL Account | GL Account | |
| Quantity* | Quantity* | Description* | Description* | |
| Cost Per* | Cost Per* | Amount* | Amount* | |
| Amount | Amount | Class | Class | |
| Description* | Description* | Location | Location | |
| Class | Class | Department | Department | |
| Location | Location | |||
| Department | Department |
It is not necessary for the invoice to have a PO number in order for the linking engine to successfully link the invoice, but it does help ensure accuracy, especially if there are multiple open POs in MineralTree for a given vendor. When a PO number(s) is specified on the invoice, the linking engine will give precedence to lines on this particular PO(s). If the initial linking process fails to find the correct results, adding a PO number can help refine the results.
By considering multiple values simultaneously, MineralTree is able to link PO-Invoice lines even if there is some discrepancy between them. For example, if a PO line-item has a cost per value of $100, but a vendor over charges at $105, the linking will still be successful as long as the description lines are similar. If there is no PO association found for a particular invoice line, the invoice line will display as unlinked and the invoice will be marked as mismatched. This can happen if there is no corresponding PO line in the system, or if there isn't enough data to find a good match.
After the linking process is complete, MineralTree will evaluate whether the invoice line matches the PO line, by comparing the quantity, cost per, and amount values.
Once an invoice is posted back to the accounting system or the PO Match is approved (see below), the invoice-PO links will be finalized, and the lines will no longer be considered as part of the linking process.
Handling Exceptions and Re-Linking Invoices
Once the linking process has run on an invoice, a relink button will appear on the invoice details page, which gives users the ability to re-run the linking process as necessary.
In order to utilize the relink option, you must first add the POs you want to link up to.
Once you add your POs you an relink. Relinking will cause all existing invoice line links to be removed, and re-run the linking process for the invoice. This is only available for draft invoices that have not yet been posted. If there are no associated POs, the relink button will not appear.
To help users manage POs with large numbers of lines, a "Search PO" dialog has been added, which allows users to filter the PO lines by their quantity, cost per, amount, and description values as well as view only unlinked lines.
Additionally, users can check "Display exceptions only" to view only unlinked or mismatched invoice lines.