How to Use 3-Way Match in Ply

Three-way match is a feature that automatically compares your Purchase Orders, supplier invoices, and goods receipts to catch price discrepancies, quantity differences, and billing errors, saving your team hours of manual reconciliation.

3-Way Match is a paid add-on, priced separately from your base Ply plan:

A three-way match cross-references three documents:

The goal is to make sure what was ordered, what was billed, and what was received all match. When they don't, Ply flags the discrepancy so you can take action before making a payment.

Go to Settings & Automation in Ply to configure the feature.

1. Set Your Tolerance Limits

Define the variance percentage you're comfortable with. Any match within that threshold will be auto-approved, no manual review needed. There are three tolerance levels you can configure independently, quantity discrepancy, price discrepancy, and a line value threshold. See How to Set Up Auto-Approval for 3-Way Match for the full breakdown of each and how to turn it on.

2. Set Up Inbound Invoice Parsing

Go to Settings → Automation → Three Way Match → Inbound Invoice Parsing to configure how Ply receives and processes supplier invoices automatically. Incoming invoices are picked up, parsed, and matched to the right purchase order.

By default, suppliers can send invoices straight to your Ply-generated Invoice inbox address. If you leave that field empty, Ply uses your default sending address, no setup required.

Using a custom domain is optional. If you'd rather receive invoices on your own domain, set it up under custom domain settings and add the MX record shown there.

Auto-created matches from parsed invoices appear in your matches list for review and acceptance, just like manually uploaded ones. If Ply can't read an invoice or find a matching PO, the match is flagged as Failed so you can review it.

Your purchasing inbox stays exactly as it is today. For the full setup walkthrough, see Setting Up Inbound Invoice Parsing.

If you prefer, you can also upload invoices and packing slips manually directly in the Three-Way Match section.

Once a PO is sent and an invoice or receipt is received, Ply will automatically process the match. Each match will appear with one of the following statuses:

When you open a match that needs review, you'll see:

For each line item, you can:

Once all items are reviewed, you can approve the full match, which signals that the invoice is ready for payment.

Note: AI extraction is very accurate but not perfect. Always do a final visual check, especially if the original invoice was a low-quality scan or fax.

If a match falls within your configured tolerance limits, it will be auto-approved without requiring manual review. This is ideal for routine, low-variance orders and helps your team focus only on what actually needs attention. See How to Set Up Auto-Approval for 3-Way Match to configure this.

Under the Suppliers tab within Three-Way Match, you can track how each supplier is performing over time. Key metrics include:

You can filter by 7-day, 30-day, or 90-day windows to identify patterns and trends. This data can be used to have informed conversations with suppliers about pricing accuracy and reliability.

A Matching Report is also available for a deeper breakdown by supplier.

All documents tied to a match (PO, invoice, receipt) are stored and accessible under the Documents tab of each match. You can view them at any time, replace a document if you uploaded the wrong one, and maintain a full audit trail of every action taken on the match.

Every action taken on a match is logged, who approved it, who added an exception, and what changes were made, giving your team full accountability and making it easy to review decisions after the fact.

Every action taken on a match is logged — who approved it, who added an exception, and what changes were made. This gives your team full accountability and makes it easy to review decisions after the fact.

Can I upload more than one packing slip per match? Yes, you can upload multiple documents as long as they're tagged correctly for what they represent.

Do I need to create POs in Ply to use Three-Way Match? No, you can upload external POs directly into the tool. However, creating POs in Ply gives you the best experience since the data is already in the system and mapped automatically.

What happens if the invoice is emailed instead of uploaded?
Ply will automatically detect and process the invoice, matching it to the correct PO by purchase order number. No custom email domain setup required, see Setting Up Inbound Invoice Parsing for details.

Is the invoice automatically sent to my accounting software? Not yet, automatic bill creation in QuickBooks Online and Sage is coming soon. In the meantime, once a match is approved you can manually create the bill in your accounting software as usual.

✅ Recreate a deleted PO before re-uploading its invoice.

3-Way Match matches an invoice to a PO by PO number, if that PO no longer exists in your account, the invoice has nothing to match against. See Common issues & fixes below.

✅ Set up inbound invoice parsing early.

Getting invoices flowing in automatically (rather than manual upload) is the biggest time-saver this feature offers, worth configuring on day one via Settings → Automation → Three Way Match.

✅ Start with conservative tolerance thresholds, then loosen them.

It's easier to widen your auto-approval tolerance once you trust the data than to tighten it after too many discrepancies slipped through unnoticed.

✅ Review your Supplier Performance tab periodically, not just when something goes wrong, spotting a supplier's rising exception rate early gives you leverage in that pricing conversation before it becomes a bigger issue.

"I'm getting a 'Purchase order not found' error when uploading an invoice."

This happens when the invoice references a PO number that no longer exists in your Ply account, usually because that PO was deleted at some point after being referenced. 3-Way Match works by matching the invoice to a PO using the PO number, so if there's no PO to match against, this error is triggered. To fix it: recreate the PO in Ply (so it exists again with the same number/details), then upload the invoice again — it should match through once the PO is back in place.

"A match is stuck as 'Needs Additional Information.'"

This means Ply is missing one of the three documents needed to complete the match (PO, invoice, or receipt), or couldn't confidently extract the data it needed. Check the Documents tab on that match to confirm all three are present and legible, and upload anything that's missing.

"Is my invoice automatically sent to my accounting software?"

Not yet, automatic bill creation in QuickBooks Online and Sage is planned but not live. In the meantime, once a match is approved you can manually create the bill in your accounting software as usual.

Need help getting set up?

Reach out to our support team and we'll walk you through your first match.