Recording vendor invoices and 3-way match

Recording a vendor's invoice against its purchase order is the last step in the buying chain, and it is where Panzo enforces the rule that you only ever pay for what was ordered and actually received. This guide is for buyers and accounts payable staff who reconcile vendor bills before releasing payment.

The three-way match

A vendor invoice is what a vendor bills you against a purchase order. Panzo records it and reconciles it with a three-way match across three numbers you already hold:

Ordered (the PO) is greater than or equal to Received (the GRN) is greater than or equal to Billed (invoices).

That single rule is what makes recording a bill an accounts payable control rather than plain data entry. You can never bill for goods that were not received. You raise an invoice against an issued or closed PO, and the billable quantity on each line is simply received minus already billed. Panzo checks this when you post, against the live figure, so two invoices cannot quietly over bill the same line.

• A PO can take several invoices as the vendor bills in stages. Billed quantity accumulates and the PO's billing status moves through Unbilled, Partial and Billed.
• Each invoice line's price defaults to the ordered price but may differ. A price variance is recorded, not blocked, with both figures kept, so you can see where a vendor billed above the order. The match itself is enforced on quantity.
• The same vendor cannot record the same invoice number twice, which guards against a duplicate bill.

Recording an invoice in Panzo

1. Open the purchase order

   In Procurement, open the issued or closed PO the vendor is billing against, and start a vendor invoice from it.

2. Enter the vendor's invoice details

   Record the vendor's own invoice number and the quantities and prices billed. Panzo pre fills each line from the PO and caps the quantity at what has been received but not yet billed.

3. Post to commit the match

   A draft invoice has no effect. Posting writes the billed quantity onto the PO, recomputes the billing status and locks the match. A posted invoice is a financial record and cannot be edited.

Match status reference

The match view shows ordered, received, billed and billable quantities per line, with a status you can scan before releasing payment.

Once an invoice is posted you can record a vendor payment against it, allocated bill by bill. Panzo refuses to allocate more than a bill is worth, even under concurrent entry.

The Vendor Bill document

You can generate a Vendor Bill PDF from any recorded invoice. It carries the Panzo bill code, the vendor's own invoice number, the billed lines, tax and total, and the PO and project it belongs to.