Purchase Invoice

Last updated: June 20, 2026

e-Invoice training
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The purchase invoice is the vendor's bill, the proof you owe them. Before it is approved and sent to Finance for payment it is matched against the order you placed and the goods you received. That check, order against receipt against invoice, is the heart of controlled buying, and the reason a supplier cannot quietly bill you for more than you agreed or received.

What you will learn
  • What the three-way match is, and what enforces it
  • What the invoice screen captures
  • How it posts and tracks payment
  • How it relates to the sales invoice
Purchase Orderordered 500Goods Receivereceived 480Purchase Invoicebilled 500Three-way matchdo they agree?Ordered vs received vs billed: the gap of 20 is the question to settle
The control of buying: what you ordered, what arrived, and what you were billed should agree simplified mockup

The three-way match

The invoice carries the same lines as the purchase order, and the goods receive recorded what actually turned up. Lining the three up, what you ordered, what you received, and what you are billed, is how you catch a vendor billing for undelivered goods or at a price you did not agree. The order is the shared parent, so all three quantities are tracked against it and can be read together.

How strict is it? The system surfaces the match by tracking ordered, received and invoiced quantities against the order; it does not hard-block a mismatch. The three-way match is therefore a discipline you apply with the numbers in front of you, not an automatic gate, so approving an invoice means confirming it agrees with the order and the receipt.

Anatomy of the screen

  • Order link and vendor – the purchase order this bills against, and the supplier.
  • Document – your invoice number, the vendor invoice code (their own reference), date, currency and project.
  • Line items – billed quantities, prices, tax and discount, totalled as usual.
  • Payment progress and due date, with notes and attachments. From a posted invoice you can make payment or raise a debit note.

How it behaves

Lifecycle and payment status

The invoice runs Draft, Verify, an optional Acceptance stage where MyInvois applies, then Posted, with Cancel available, exactly as the sales invoice does. A separate payment status of pending, partial or complete tracks how much has been paid, so a posted invoice can still be unpaid or part-paid.

What it posts

Confirming a purchase invoice debits the expense or the inventory it relates to, plus input tax, and credits payables; cancelling reverses it. From there it flows to Finance, where issuing a payment settles the balance.

Worked example

Your order was for 500 units at 2.00, but the goods receive shows only 480 arrived. The vendor's invoice bills for 500. With all three numbers against the order, the 20-unit gap is obvious; you query it, the vendor reissues for 480, and you post and pay the corrected bill.

Edge cases and good practice

  • Match before you post. Treat the three numbers as an approval checklist, since nothing forces it for you.
  • Record the vendor invoice code so their reference and yours stay linked.
  • Partial billing is normal against a part-received order; the tallies keep the balance straight.

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