Rever's blog defines the 3-way match itself. An exception is the invoice the control stops: the purchase order, the receiving record and the invoice disagree by more than the tolerance you set, and the invoice waits until someone explains the gap.
The freight case below is an illustrative case, not a customer result. Read it as an accounting team reads a workpaper: first as the person who prepared it, then as the person who signs it.
The signal
An invoice from FreightCo lands at $4,812 against purchase order PO-1884 for $4,502. The difference is $310. Matcher compares the three documents field by field, within the value, quantity, rate, date and rounding tolerances you set. The $310 falls outside them, so Matcher records an unexplained difference and leaves the invoice uncleared.
Tolerances and the exception queue
Under payment-run pressure, teams waive tolerances to keep invoices moving, and the reason goes unrecorded. In Rever a tolerance never removes an invoice from the population, and a similarity score cannot waive a contractual condition or a required approval. An invoice outside tolerance stays in view as a three-way match exception until someone explains it.
The preparer's work
Investigator adds a fourth and a fifth document when the first three disagree. In the vendor's contract file it finds amendment A2, signed 28 June, which adds $240 of fuel surcharge. The receiving record shows a short shipment worth $180. Every figure links to its page.
| Line | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase order | $4,502.00 | PO-1884 |
| Fuel surcharge | +$240.00 | Amendment A2, signed 28 June |
| Short shipment | −$180.00 | Receiving record |
| Match | $4,562.00 | Invoice, re-added and traced |
| Accrue | $250.00 | Balances the invoice; reverses on settlement |
Journal drafts the entry: match $4,562 and accrue $250, an accrual that reverses on settlement. The $310 reads line by line: $240 of surcharge, less the $180 short shipment, plus the $250 accrual. A staff accountant would have built it by hand; here the accountant reviews it.
The reviewer's work
The finding reaches the controller's Inbox with its documents and its financial significance. Journal prepared the entry and cannot approve it, and Investigator cannot approve its own resolution. Above the materiality you set, dual approval applies. Sentinel tests approval authority and conflicting preparer and approver roles. A note to FreightCo would wait for Inbox approval before it left the company.
Your approval releases the entry: it comes back as an import file your team loads, and Journal checks the result in the ERP. The Inbox keeps the decision and what happened next, the record your auditor will ask for.
When the pattern recurs
Investigator closes the case with a recommendation that addresses the cause, such as a purchase order that carries the amended rate. If FreightCo bills a fuel surcharge every month, Eve can propose a change to the AP procedure. She publishes it only after your approval, and the previous version stays on record.
The $310 and the close
The amount is small, and the same work handles the items that reopen a period, such as an accrual that should have reversed and did not. Close Orchestrator verifies opening reversals, and sign-off waits for you with any remaining exceptions in view.
Two-way, three-way and four-way matching
| Match | Documents compared | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Two-way | Purchase order and invoice | Services and purchases with nothing to receive |
| Three-way | Purchase order, receiving record and invoice | Goods a warehouse or site receives |
| Four-way | Purchase order, receiving record, inspection record and invoice | Goods that must pass inspection before you accept them |
A two-way match leaves out the receiving record, and in the freight case that record held the $180 short shipment.
Three-way match exceptions on your own invoices
The zero-day scan checks open and paid invoices against their documents across the in-scope population, with price drift and duplicate checks alongside. In a free Proof of Value it runs on a limited period of your data. Bring the vendor whose invoices never match.