Where three-way matching quietly drifts
· Clara Hughes
Three-way matching fails rarely because someone deleted the control. It fails because tolerances widen for ‘trusted’ suppliers, quantity variances are waved through verbally, and price overrides land without a second signature. Over a few closes, the exception queue becomes the real process.
Start by asking which matches completed automatically last month versus which needed a human override. If overrides cluster on the same suppliers or the same clerks, you have a design problem, not a staffing shortage. Document the override reason codes you actually use — not the ones in the policy PDF.
Next, sample ten cleared exceptions. Can someone reconstruct why the invoice was paid without hunting through chat threads? If not, your audit trail is informal, and that is what external reviewers will notice first.
A focused reconciliation review does not rebuild your ERP. It makes the drift visible, names the owners, and sets tolerances you can defend when the next payment run is under pressure.