Three papers, and the person who compares them — transcript

Play this as a presentation — one slide per step, with the same narration. Every word of every step is on this page.

This presentation is for you if you book supplier bills at GadgetSphere and want to know what matching a supplier’s invoice actually involves in BigLedger. In about nine minutes you will know what each of the three papers proves, why no screen compares them for you, and who in your team is the control whether anyone planned it or not.

Step 1 — Name what each paper proves

After this step you will know which document answers which question. Matching a supplier’s invoice is three questions asked of three papers. The purchase order says what you agreed to buy and at what price. The goods received note, usually shortened to GRN, says what actually arrived at the branch, and its header is also where the supplier’s own delivery-order number and invoice number are recorded, in the external reference fields. The supplier’s invoice says what they want to be paid. At GadgetSphere a typical case is 200 pairs of wireless earbuds ordered at RM 128 each for branch GS-KV-01. The job is to confirm that all three tell the same story before anyone commits the company to paying it.

Reference: Purchase GRN (Internal) — Main Details

Step 2 — Keep the supplier’s delivery order where it belongs

After this step you will not look for the supplier’s delivery order in the wrong applet. The delivery order your supplier hands over with the boxes is a paper, and in BigLedger its number goes onto your goods received note; your administrator can make that field required on every receipt. There is also an applet called Supplier Delivery Order, and the name misleads. It lets a login linked to one of your suppliers raise an ordinary outbound delivery order inside your company, and that document moves no stock and posts nothing. For matching, the delivery order that counts is the number typed on the receipt, by whoever signed for the goods.

Reference: Supplier Delivery Order Applet — Overview

Step 3 — Know that no engine compares them

After this step you will stop waiting for a warning that never comes. BigLedger has no three-way matching engine: no tolerance setting, no variance report, no flag, and nothing that stops a supplier invoice being finalised because its price or quantity differs from the order or the receipt. What it does have is knock-off. When you draw the receipt into the invoice, the receipt’s real lines are copied onto your screen and linked back to it. That puts the evidence in front of you. Noticing that the supplier’s paper says something different is a person’s job, and the moment for it is before you click FINAL.

Reference: Core Concepts — 4. Matching is a person, not an engine

Step 4 — Know which paper moves your books

After this step you will know why a matching mistake is an accounting mistake. On the standard path the goods received note posts nothing: no stock, no journal, no accrual. It records that the boxes arrived. The purchase invoice is the document that books the stock in, posts the purchase and the input tax, and creates what you owe the supplier. Some companies use the other pair instead, where a GRN Stock In books the stock on arrival and a Purchase Invoice No Stock In books only the money. Either pair works. Mixing them counts the same goods twice or never, and silently. So whoever finalises the invoice is posting to the ledger, not filing paperwork.

Reference: Core Concepts — 3. The receiving pair, and where the accrual lives

Step 5 — Put the control in a named person’s hands

After this step you will know where your matching control actually lives. A purchase invoice has no approval step, because the approval engine covers purchase orders, purchase requisitions and stock requisitions only. So the control is whoever holds the right to finalise purchase invoices, and that person is your matching control whether anyone meant it or not. Decide it by name. Keep the person who orders apart from the person who receives and the person who books the bill: BigLedger records who did each, but it does not stop one person doing all three. Then write your tolerance down, for example query any price above the order, because the system will not hold that rule for you.

Reference: Best Practices — 3. Control with the finalise permission, because approval will not

Check yourself

Three to five questions on what you just heard. Every correct answer links to the page that makes it correct, so you can check the source, not just the mark.

Next: Pull the receipt onto the invoice, then check it against the paper · Back to the series · Play this as a presentation