Overview
Invoice Matching checks what your supplier has billed you for against what you ordered and what you received. This is called a three-way match.
Edify reads each invoice, routes it to the right site and matches it against your purchase orders and deliveries. You only need to look at the lines that don't agree. Approving an invoice makes the bill ready to send to Xero.
You'll find the matching table in Invoices section of Edify, which has three tabs: Review, Approved and Pass-through.
Invoice Matching relies on your orders and deliveries being recorded in Edify, and on Xero being connected. See Placing Orders, Accepting Deliveries and Setting up a Xero integration first.
How the three-way match works
Each invoice is checked against two records Edify already holds.
Record | What it represents | When it's created |
PO (Purchase Order) | What you asked the supplier for. | When a user places an order in Edify. |
GRN (Goods Received Note) | What actually arrived. | When a user accepts a delivery or manually adds a delivery. |
Invoice | What the supplier is charging you for. | When the supplier emails it to your Edify invoice address. |
You don't see GRNs anywhere in Edify - you see the accepted delivery. Edify creates the GRN behind the scenes so the invoice has something to match against.
A few things follow from this:
A partial acceptance creates two GRNs. If you accept some lines today and the rest tomorrow, that one delivery produces two GRNs, and both can be matched.
Editing an accepted delivery updates the GRN. Changing the accepted date, the quantity received or a price on an accepted delivery feeds straight through to the GRN, so the invoice is matched against your corrected figures.
The PO never changes. Everything that changes at the door - a short delivery, a substitution, a price correction - lives on the GRN.
Received quantities are compared exactly as they're written on the delivery. Edify doesn't convert between units, so a delivery recorded in cases and an invoice billed in units will show as a quantity variance.
⚠️ Once an invoice match has been approved, the delivery behind it is locked and can no longer be edited. Make any corrections to a delivery before you approve its invoice.
Getting invoices into Edify
Edify accepts invoices as PDFs, images and Word documents (.doc and .docx). Word documents are converted and show in review as a PDF, like any other invoice. You can get invoices into Edify in two ways.
By email - Each company has its own Edify invoices email address, which you'll find on the company page in Settings. Give that address to your suppliers and ask them to send their invoices there.
By upload - If you've received an invoice another way, you can upload it from the Invoices section.
Open Invoices from the left-hand menu.
Select Upload invoice.
Choose the file and confirm.
Edify uses the delivery address printed on the invoice to work out which site the invoice belongs to, so keep each site's name and postal address up to date in Settings.
⚠️ Suppliers must invoice each site separately. Edify matches an invoice to one site, so a single invoice covering deliveries to several sites can't be routed or split. If a supplier currently bills you at company level, ask them to issue one invoice per delivery address.
Assigning an invoice to a site
If Edify can't tell which site an invoice is for, for example because the address is missing or the invoice is addressed to your head office, the invoice shows as Unassigned. Matching can't start until the invoice has a site, so the rest of the review page stays locked until you assign it.
Open the invoice from the Review tab.
Select View PDF to check who the invoice is from and where it was delivered.
Choose the Supplier. If the invoice is from a supplier you don't hold in Edify, choose No supplier (pass-through) and it will go to the Pass-through tab.
Choose the Site. You can search the list by name.
Select Assign invoice.
Once it's assigned, Edify matches the invoice against that site's deliveries in the usual way.
The Review tab
Every invoice that needs a decision sits on the Review tab. The list shows the invoice number, supplier, site, invoice date and total, along with the POs and GRNs Edify has matched it to, the invoice attachment and a status.
Status | What it means |
Matched | Every line item on the invoice is present, and the quantities and prices match the GRN. Review it and approve. |
Variance | A GRN was matched, but something doesn't agree - a price, a quantity, or more billed than was ordered. |
Needs GRN match | Edify couldn't find a GRN for the invoice's lines. You'll need to link them yourself. |
Select View on any row to open it.
Reviewing an invoice
The summary cards give you the headline numbers:
Card | Explainer |
Invoice total | The total per the supplier's invoice, including VAT. |
Matched total | The value of what's been matched, and how many GRNs it covers. |
VAT | The total VAT on the invoice. |
Variance | The difference between the GRNs and the invoice. |
Items matched | How many invoice lines have been matched, and how many are outstanding. |
The header of the table shows the invoice number, PO number and GRN number that have been matched, so you can confirm at a glance that the PO on the invoice is the one Edify has used.
Within the table, the left-hand side is the invoice as billed by the supplier. The right-hand side shows the ordered quantity from the PO, the received quantity from the GRN, and the price.
💡 Items matched can read as less than the full count without anything being wrong. A zero-cost line such as a shipping method has nothing to match against, so an invoice with three products and a free delivery line shows 3/4 with no variance.
To check a matched invoice and approve it:
Open the invoice from the Review tab.
Check the summary cards across the top.
Select View PDF to read the supplier's original invoice. You can drag the pop-out window left or right and zoom in and out.
Compare the invoice lines on the left against the ordered and received figures on the right.
Select Approve.
Invoices matched to more than one PO or GRN
partial deliveries, and suppliers who send one invoice for several deliveries. Edify matches each invoice line to the right PO and GRN.
In the invoice list, the PO and GRN columns show a count (for example 5 POs and 5 GRNs) and list every reference. Open the invoice to see the GRN and PO that each line has been matched to.
Correcting an invoice
If Edify has read an invoice incorrectly, you can correct it while it's in review, without asking the supplier to send it again. You can change a line's quantity, price and totals, or remove a line completely.
Open the invoice from the Review tab.
Select Edit.
Change the quantity, price or total on the line, or remove the line.
Select Save.
You can also edit the invoice date from the review header. An invoice can't be approved without an invoice date, and Approve stays disabled until one is entered.
Resolving variances
A variance can come from a price difference, a quantity difference, or both. Some variances are accepted automatically by your company's invoice rules. These lines are marked with the wording of the rule that accepted them, and you can still change the decision. See Invoice Rules for more information.
Price variances
When the price on the invoice doesn't agree with the GRN, the invoice gets the Variance status and the affected lines are highlighted in yellow when you open it. The badge on the right of each line shows the difference in unit cost, not the line total.
Select the amber badge on a highlighted line to open the resolution options.
Read the explanation underneath the line - for example "Invoiced at £1.64, ordered at £1.67".
Choose how to resolve it.
Resolution option | Explainer |
Accept & update cost | Updates the price on the GRN to match the invoice, and updates the default price of the supplier product so future orders use it. |
Accept for this invoice | Updates the price on the GRN to match the invoice, and leaves the supplier product price alone. |
Ignore variance | Settles the line without changing any price. |
Dispute | Pauses the invoice while you investigate. |
Once a line is resolved, its badge changes to Price Updated or Accepted, and a note underneath shows the date and time. Select Undo if you change your mind. A counter at the bottom of the invoice tracks your progress, for example "1 of 2 variances resolved".
⚠️ Choosing an option records your decision but doesn't change any prices yet. Every price change is written when you approve the invoice.
Quantity variances
Where the invoiced quantity doesn't match what was received, the badge on the right-hand side shows the difference in units, for example +16 units. Open it the same way and you'll see what happened spelled out - "Invoiced 4, received 2. 2 billed over the order of 2."
Resolution option | Explainer |
Accept short delivery | Settles the line, accepting that you've been billed for more than arrived. Nothing on the GRN changes. |
Ignore variance | Settles the line without changing anything. Useful where the invoice and the order use different units and the prices are correct. |
Dispute | Pauses the invoice while you take it up with the supplier. |
Over-deliveries are matched too. If more arrived than was billed (for example, 42 received against 40 invoiced), the receipt line can still be linked to the invoice line, and it shows as a quantity variance.
If a line has both a quantity and a price difference, the resolution options cover both together.
Disputing a line
Dispute puts a hold on the invoice. The line is highlighted in red, and the invoice can't be approved while anything on it is disputed. It gives you time to investigate a price difference or raise it with the supplier before you commit to a decision.
When you've settled it, select Undo on the disputed line and choose one of the accept options.
Linking a GRN yourself
If Edify can't find a GRN for an invoice, it gets the Needs GRN match status and every line shows + Link GRN.
Open the invoice and select + Link GRN on a line.
Edify shows the GRNs it thinks are most likely under Best matches, followed by everything Not yet matched from this supplier. Each one lists its GRN and PO reference, the date, and the line items on it with the quantity received.
Find the line item in the right GRN and select Link.
Repeat for each remaining line.
You link line by line rather than a whole GRN at once, so each invoice line is linked to the exact receipt it belongs to. The unit price helps you tell similar lines apart.
💡 The most common reason an invoice has no GRN is that the delivery hasn't been accepted yet. Accept the delivery first, then come back and link the GRN.
Approving an invoice
When every line is matched or resolved, select Approve. Approving an invoice:
Writes the price changes you accepted to the delivery and to your supplier products.
Locks the deliveries behind it so they can't be edited.
Moves the invoice to the Approved tab.
You can't approve an invoice while a line is disputed or a variance is unresolved, or while it has no invoice date.
Approving with unmatched lines
You can approve an invoice even if some of its lines aren't matched to a delivery, for example a line for something that was never ordered through Edify. When you select Approve, Edify asks you to confirm that you accept those lines as invoiced.
⚠️ If a supplier sends the same invoice more than once, you can approve only one copy. Approving any other copy is refused. Void the duplicates instead.
Voiding an invoice
Void an invoice that shouldn't be paid, such as a duplicate or an invoice sent to you by mistake. You can void an invoice that's still in review.
Open the invoice from the Review tab.
Select Void.
Confirm.
Credit notes
Credit notes from your suppliers come into the Review tab like any other invoice. Mark them as credit notes so they're handled correctly.
Open the credit note from the Review tab.
Check it's marked as a credit note. If Edify hasn't marked it, select Mark as credit note. If something has been marked by mistake, select Unmark.
Link the credit requests it settles. Edify shows the credit requests raised against the related delivery, and you can link each one to the matching line on the credit note.
Approve the credit note.
When you open an invoice, each line also shows any credit requests raised against that delivery, so you can see what's outstanding before you approve.
When it's synced, the credit note posts to Xero as a supplier credit and is allocated against the bills it relates to. For more information on raising credit requests, see Raising Credit Requests.
Approved invoices and Xero
The Approved tab lists everything you've approved, who approved it and when, alongside a Xero status.
Xero Status | Required action |
Ready to sync | The invoice can be sent to Xero |
Account codes required | At least one item has no Xero account code. Open the invoice and set them. |
Sync failed | The invoice couldn't be posted to Xero. Check the supplier is linked to a Xero contact and the invoice has a date. |
To set missing account codes, select View on the invoice and use the Xero Account Code dropdown against each item that needs one. You can search the dropdown by code or name.
You can also choose the VAT code that each line posts to Xero with: 20%, 5%, Zero rated, Exempt or No VAT. Check this on any invoice with mixed VAT rates, so that a 5% line doesn't post to Xero as 20%.
When the invoices you want show Ready to sync, select them using the checkboxes on the left and select Sync to Xero. The checkbox in the header row selects everything on the tab.
💡 Edify reads account codes when it syncs, so coding a product now also fixes approved invoices that haven't been synced yet.
Pass-through invoices
Invoices from suppliers you don't hold in Edify, such as electricity, rent or cleaning, appear on the Pass-through tab. There's nothing to match them against, so they skip the matching step.
Open the Pass-through tab and select View on an invoice.
Set the account code for every item.
Select the invoices you want and select Sync to Xero.
You can also edit a pass-through invoice, void it, or mark it as a credit note, in the same way as a matched invoice. If a line has no tax rate, Edify sends it to Xero without VAT rather than assuming 20%.
Voiding Documents
Any document sent to your inbox that isn't detected as an invoice or credit note will appear in the Other Documents tab.
To decide what happens to a document that wasn't detected as an invoice:
Go to the Other Documents tab.
Click the document to open it in the right-hand panel.
Choose one of the following options:
Void: Use this if the document is not an invoice or credit note. It will be removed from all tabs.
Invoice or Credit Note: Use this if the document should go through to Xero.
If the supplier exists in Edify, the document moves to your Review tab.
If no supplier is detected, the document moves to your Pass Through tab.
Things Invoice Matching doesn't handle yet
An invoice routed to the wrong site can't be moved. Contact us and we'll reassign it.
One invoice can't be split across several sites. Ask suppliers to invoice each site separately.