Setting up Line Matching
As part of automatic matching, line matching is configured per template, so the matching rules you set up for a specific template will apply to all documents for which that template is used.
To set up line matching, follow these steps:
Activate automatic matching for a selected template by following the guide under Configuring Automatic Matching.
In the template card of the selected template, on the General FastTab, toggle the Recognize Lines switch to enable line recognition and line matching. This will make a number of Line Matching fields available for you to configure on the Purchase Documents FastTab (see step 3 below).
Under Line Matching, fill in the fields as needed. The following fields can be edited:
Field Description Match Order No. If you select Yes - always or Yes - if present for this field, Continia Document Capture will use the order numbers identified in each incoming invoice or credit memo to find matching lines in other documents. The matching lines can be found in receipts and orders (for invoices) or in return shipments and return orders (for credit memos).
Order numbers can be either ordinary order numbers (for invoices) or return order numbers (for credit memos), and they may appear in either the header or the lines of the invoice/credit memo:- In the header field Our Order No.: Document Capture will attempt to match all lines recognized in the invoice/credit memo to the order number specified in the header. This means that all invoice/credit memo lines will be matched with one and the same order/return order.
Note
It's possible to enter multiple order numbers in the header, separated by commas. In such cases, Document Capture will attempt to match each invoice/credit memo line against the specified order numbers.
- In the line field Our Order No.: Document Capture will attempt to match each line recognized in the invoice/credit memo to the order number specified for that individual line. Consequently, the recognized invoice/credit memo lines can be matched with multiple different documents.
Important
In order for Document Capture to be able to search for order numbers in the lines of the invoice/credit memo, you must add the Our Order No. field to the relevant template, under Line Fields. Once the field has been added to the template, the value in the equivalent header field will be disregarded – even if one or more lines have empty order number values. So if the Our Order No. line field is present but empty in an invoice/credit memo line, Document Capture will not search for the number specified in the header of the invoice/credit memo as a fallback. In such cases, line matching will be unsuccessful.
Match Item No. If you select Yes - always or Yes - if present for this field, Document Capture will attempt to find matching document lines by searching for, for example, item numbers in the lines of the invoice/credit memo. The identified vendor item numbers must be translated into internal numbers first, and these internal numbers (listed under Translate to No. on the Lines FastTab of the document card) are the ones that will be matched with related document lines.
Despite the name of the field, it doesn't relate specifically to item numbers. In fact, you can set up Document Capture to search for any of the following types of accounts: G/L accounts, items, resources, fixed assets, and item charges (listed under Translate to Type on the Lines FastTab of the document card).Note
You must set up line translations in order for this to work. This will map the vendor-specific numbers of the invoice/credit memo to internal numbers that can then be used for matching. The values you select under Translate to Type and Translate to No. when you set up line translations are the ones that Document Capture will use to find matching lines.
Match Quantity If you select Yes - always or Yes - if present for this field, Document Capture will attempt to find matching document lines by comparing the quantities of lines in the invoice/credit memo with the quantities of lines in other douments. Match Unit Cost If you select Yes - always or Yes - if present for this field, Document Capture will attempt to find matching document lines by comparing the unit costs of lines in the invoice/credit memo with the unit costs of lines in other douments. Tip
Selecting one of the above Yes options for this field will display two additional fields in the user interface – Unit Cost - Variance Amt (LCY) and Unit Cost - Variance % (see definitions below) – which allow you to define a variance amount or percentage within which lines will be accepted as useful matches. This means that the unit costs of the various lines don't have to match perfectly in order to be accepted, as long as they differ within the defined variance amount or percentage.
Unit Cost - Variance Amt (LCY) With this field, you can allow for unit cost variance expressed as a fixed amount in the local currency. This means that document lines can be successfully matched automatically even if their respective amounts don't match, provided that the discrepancy between them is within the variance amount you define here. Unit Cost - Variance % With this field, you can allow for unit cost variance expressed as a percentage of the line value recognized in the invoice or credit memo. This means that document lines can be successfully matched automatically even if their respective amounts don't match, provided that the discrepancy between them is within the variance percentage you define here. - In the header field Our Order No.: Document Capture will attempt to match all lines recognized in the invoice/credit memo to the order number specified in the header. This means that all invoice/credit memo lines will be matched with one and the same order/return order.
Note
As noted in the table above, you can allow for unit cost variance in two ways: expressed as a fixed amount or as a percentage of the recognized value. It's actually possible to use both methods at the same time. If you do so, the smaller of the two applies.
Tip
For all of the matching criteria mentioned in the table above, Document Capture will start at the top of the lines listed in each document and then select the first line whose criteria match the ones set up by you. Note that if you've only selected Yes - always or Yes - if present for one of the criteria, the first identified match may be incorrect. For example, if you've selected Yes - always for Match Order No. and Document Capture then identifies a potentially matching line in an invoice based on this one criterion, the identified line will indeed be from the correct order, but it may not be the right match if the invoice contains multiple lines from the same order. Enabling additional matching criteria would most likely solve this issue. For that reason, we generally recommend that you enable the three matching criteria Match Order No., Match Item No., and Match Unit Cost.
Yes - always or Yes - if present?
When you set up line matching as described above, you can choose between the following three options for each of the matching criteria:
- No
- Yes - always
- Yes - if present
Selecting No for one of them will leave that matching criterion disabled, meaning that it will be disregarded entirely in the matching process. By contrast, selecting one of the Yes options for a criterion will include it in the process in one of the following ways, depending on which option you choose:
- If you choose Yes - always, Document Capture will use any line value in the invoice/credit memo – even if it's empty – and that (empty) value must match perfectly with another document line's value. This means that if, for example, you choose this option under Match Unit Cost and the Unit Cost field of an invoice line is empty, Document Capture will be forced to use this empty value, but it will be unable to match it to anything.
- If you choose Yes - if present, Document Capture will use any line value that's present (i.e., not empty) in the invoice/credit memo, and that value must match with another document line's value. If a line has an empty value, Document Capture will disregard this and attempt to find matching lines based on the other matching criteria you've defined in the setup.
While Yes - always has the potential drawback of resulting in an unsuccessful match, it can also be a way to remind vendors that they must include certain specific details in their invoices and credit memos in order for the matching process to run smoothly. So whether or not to choose this option depends entirely on the needs and wants of your organization.
See also
Automatic Document Matching
Handling Discrepancies, Including Partial Matching