How invoice matching works

Matching starts after an invoice is processed with an analyzer that has matching enabled.

Normal Matching Flow

From the user perspective, the flow is:

1. an invoice is processed with an analyzer that has matching turned on
2. Sifterra looks for an open purchase order for the same supplier using the reference number captured from the invoice
3. if a purchase order is found, Sifterra creates a header-level result that compares the invoice total with the order total
4. if line matching is enabled, Sifterra also compares each extracted invoice line with a purchase order line
5. each result is checked for price, quantity, and amount differences
6. the results are saved so you can review what matched cleanly and what needs attention

How The System Finds The Expected Order

The matcher first tries the reference number captured on the invoice against purchase order reference fields.

If that does not find a match, it can try an alternate reference lookup if that option is enabled in setup.

Matching only checks open purchase orders. If the invoice does not include a usable supplier and reference combination, the system cannot find the expected order automatically.

Header Checks And Line Checks

Invoice matching can work at two levels:

• header check, which compares the invoice total with the purchase order total
• line check, which compares each invoice line with a purchase order line

For line matching, the setup can look for the corresponding order line by:

• item number
• description
• item number first, then description
• supplier item number

If the invoice does not include line details that line up with the selected method, you may see unmatched lines even when the correct order was found.

Partial Matching

Partial matching is helpful when an invoice covers only part of an order. When it is enabled, the document can still continue even if not every order line appears on the invoice.

Because of that, users should still review the Match Results page for line-level exceptions instead of relying only on the overall document status.