How to Use Three-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.
What Is Three-Way Match?
A three-way match cross-references three documents:
Purchase Order (PO) - created in Ply when ordering from a supplier
Supplier Invoice - the bill sent by your supplier after the order
Goods Receipt / Packing Slip - confirmation of what was actually received
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.
Setting Up Three-Way Match
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.
2. Set Up Your Invoice Email Address You can point a custom domain (e.g., [email protected]) to Ply so that when suppliers email invoices to that address, Ply automatically ingests and processes them. This is the fastest way to keep invoices flowing into the system without manual uploads.
If you prefer, you can also upload invoices and packing slips manually directly in the Three-Way Match section.
Processing a Match
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:
Auto-Matched: everything is within tolerance and is accepted automatically
Needs Review: there are discrepancies that require your attention
Needs Additional Information: missing documents or data
Reviewing a Match
When you open a match that needs review, you'll see:
A line-by-line comparison of the PO, invoice, and receipt
Highlighted discrepancies (price variances, quantity differences, tax or shipping differences)
An AI-generated summary with recommended actions (e.g., approve lines 1, 2, 4, flag lines 3 and 5)
For each line item, you can:
Approve: accept the item as-is
Add an Exception: flag it with a reason (e.g., back order, known price change) and still approve
Edit: correct any data the AI may have misread from the document
Delete: remove an item if it shouldn't be part of the match
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.
Auto-Approval
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.
Supplier Performance & Risk Scores
Under the Suppliers tab within Three-Way Match, you can track how each supplier is performing over time. Key metrics include:
Auto-match rate: how often invoices match without issues
Warning rate and exception rate
Average price discrepancy
Risk score: automatically calculated based on exception rate and dollar variance
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.
Document Management
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.
Activity & Audit Trail
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.
Common Questions
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? If your custom email domain is configured, Ply will automatically detect and process the invoice, matching it to the correct PO by purchase order number.
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.
Need help getting set up? Reach out to our support team and we'll walk you through your first match.