Included in ERPClaw, free
The bill, the order, and the delivery have to agree
Three-way matching is the oldest trick in good bookkeeping: never pay a bill until it matches what you ordered and what actually showed up. ERPClaw does it on every purchase, automatically, so the expensive little mistakes get caught while they are still cheap.
Three documents, one truth
1. What you ordered
"Order 100 steel brackets from Acme at 10 dollars each." The purchase order records the deal as agreed.
2. What arrived
"The Acme delivery is here, 95 brackets, 5 short." The receipt records reality at the dock, not the paperwork's version of it.
3. What they billed
The supplier's invoice lands and is checked against both. Ninety-five brackets arrived; a bill for 100 does not get paid quietly.
When all three agree, payment proceeds and the books record the whole chain. When they do not, a person decides, and the decision is on the record. That is the difference between a control and a habit.
Common questions
What is three-way matching, in plain terms?
Before a supplier bill gets paid, three documents have to agree: what you ordered, what actually arrived, and what the supplier billed. If the bill says 120 units at 11 dollars and the order said 100 at 10, that gap is caught before the payment, not after.
What kinds of mistakes does it catch?
The classics: paying for goods that never arrived, quantities that grew between order and invoice, prices that drifted from what was agreed, and the same bill showing up twice. Individually small, together they are real money every year.
Do I have to set it up?
No. It is how ERPClaw's purchasing flow works: order, receipt, bill, each recorded as its own step and checked against the others. You just run purchasing normally, in plain language.
What happens when something does not match?
The mismatch is surfaced for a human decision instead of sliding through. Sometimes the price really did change; the point is that someone chose to accept it, and that choice is on the record.
Is this a paid add-on?
No. ERPClaw is free forever, self-hosted, open source, and matching is part of the purchasing flow, not a tier.
Related: audit-ready books · bank statement matching · the supply chain features