4 Common Data Matching Issues on your ERP systems
Is there anything more frustrating than footing the bill for a fraudulent or inaccurate invoice? For years, business owners have struggled with data matching issues in their Accounts Payable (AP) departments—problems caused by manual data entry errors, duplicate invoices, and faulty exception handling—and it’s taking a toll on industries across the board.
According to Infor, “approximately 0.1% to 0.05% of invoices paid are typically duplicate payments.” In other words, a business that grosses $150 million per year could lose as much as $750,000 to duplicate payments over five years. This “lost” money could have been invested in training, bonuses, infrastructure, and virtually anything else businesses need to succeed. For most businesses, utilizing a 3-way matching process is a reliable way to reduce matching errors, but it can also lead to additional Accounts Payable challenges.
In theory, a true 3-way matching process matches not only the invoice and purchase order but also their corresponding receiving information, thereby eliminating the chance for duplicate payments and counterfeit invoices. Unfortunately, this process can be a hindrance for businesses that aren’t equipped with the tools to process invoices quickly and accurately. For instance, some enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems require the processor to manually check to ensure that all related documents have been received to approve the 3-way match and complete the AP process. Another common ERP-related issue is a system’s inability to read purchase orders (POs) and receipt tables, rendering automatic voucher creation an impossibility.
IntelliChief was built to overcome these limitations with unparalleled workflow automation and invoice-matching capabilities. Unlock your team’s true potential by eliminating pitfalls in your existing AP process and watch productivity soar as you reduce manual exception handling by as much as 50% or more.
Key Takeaways
- Data Matching Issues cause costly errors, duplicate payments, and inefficiencies in Accounts Payable (AP) processes.
- Manual invoice processing increases error rates, leads to delayed approvals, and negatively impacts cash flow and ERP reliability.
- Automating data matching significantly reduces manual interventions, improving accuracy, speed, and financial outcomes.
- IntelliChief integrates directly into major ERP systems (SAP ECC, SAP S/4HANA, Oracle EBS, JD Edwards, Infor), streamlining real-time data matching and exception handling.
- By addressing common ERP-related matching issues, IntelliChief enables businesses to reclaim productivity, minimize errors, and optimize financial performance.
What is Data Matching?
Data matching compares information across documents—like invoices, purchase orders, and receipts—to ensure everything lines up before approval. In ERP systems, it’s essential for validating transactions and avoiding errors like duplicate payments or fraud.
A data matching issue occurs when those documents don’t align. For example, a mismatched quantity or missing receipt can delay processing and require manual review. This slows down accounts payable and disrupts cash flow.
Modern platforms like IntelliChief automate this process. By integrating directly with ERP systems (SAP ECC, SAP S/4HANA, Oracle EBS, JD Edwards, Infor), IntelliChief matches documents in real-time, reduces exceptions, and accelerates approvals—without needing users to log into the ERP.
Why is Data Matching Important?
When data doesn’t match, your ERP system grinds to a halt. A single mismatch—wrong quantity, missing receipt, or duplicate invoice—can trigger delays, disrupt workflows, and inflate costs. These data-matching issues often lead to payment errors, strained supplier relationships, and audit risk.
For AP, every exception demands manual time. For finance, it distorts reporting. For IT, it creates unnecessary ERP system issues that automation could easily prevent.
That’s why accurate, automated data matching isn’t just helpful—it’s essential. It ensures transaction integrity, keeps your ERP data clean, and frees up your team for higher-value work. And when IntelliChief does the matching, it happens in real-time, within your existing ERP environment.
What are the Benefits of Data Matching?
Automated data matching delivers measurable results across finance, operations, and IT. Here’s what you gain:
- Fewer errors – Avoid duplicate payments, incorrect amounts, and approval delays.
- Faster processing – Straight-through invoice processing means no bottlenecks.
- Lower costs – Reduce manual exception handling and reclaim lost early payment discounts.
- Cleaner ERP data – Consistent, accurate records improve forecasting and audit readiness.
- Scalability – Automate matching as your volume grows—without adding headcount.
With IntelliChief, these benefits are built in. The platform learns your business rules, handles mismatches automatically, and keeps your ERP system running efficiently—no more chasing down every data-matching issue.
How Does Data Matching Work?
Data matching compares three key documents: the invoice, purchase order, and receipt of goods. This 3-way match ensures that what was ordered, received, and billed all align. When they don’t, a data matching issue occurs—and approval is stalled.
Matching can involve:
- Part number variations
- Unit of measure mismatches
- Missing or late receiving data
- Supplier naming inconsistencies
Without automation, these issues lead to ERP slowdowns, manual interventions, and late payments.
IntelliChief solves this by matching documents in real-time—directly inside ERP systems like SAP ECC, SAP S/4HANA, Oracle EBS, JD Edwards, and Infor. It uses confidence scoring and cross-referencing to clear exceptions automatically, only routing real mismatches to your team.
The 4 Common Data Matching Issues
Workflow-Restrictive Implementation
Too often we find that enterprise-class software wants your business to play by its rules—leading to ERP implementation issues when systems can’t adapt to your processes. Whether you’ve been in business for one, ten, or one hundred years, your existing business processes should be respected and considered whenever new technology is introduced. A lack of flexibility is one of the major drawbacks of point solutions that only solve one problem. You can’t scale them to other departments or workflows, and you’re forced to reshape your operations to fit their system.
IntelliChief is different. As a business process automation platform, it integrates directly with your ERP and adapts to the way your organization already works. Whether you use a 2-, 3-, or 4-way matching process, IntelliChief is built to support it—minimizing AP lag and reducing matching errors without forcing you to compromise on process integrity.
Queued Matching
How do you streamline a process that grinds to a halt every time something unfamiliar enters your queue? On top of that, how do you ensure that easily processed documents aren’t trapped behind a wall of exceptions? Realistically, utilizing any sort of queue in your process will lead to slowdowns and additional Accounts Payable challenges. For example, if your team members must enter an invoice to see if the receiving has been completed, it’s only a matter of time before your entire system is bogged down.
As an Infor Solution Partner and Oracle Gold Partner, IntelliChief matches invoices in real-time to help businesses avoid late fees while capitalizing on opportunities for early payment discounts. Exceptions are routed into workflow and automatically processed once the system has enough confidence in a match or recognizes that it’s within your tolerances. Any exceptions that fail the confidence test are then routed to a user for manual approval, leaving only your most pressing (and real) exceptions to be handled by your AP department.
No Unit of Measure Conversion Capabilities
Reducing the number of exceptions in your AP process is a surefire way to increase productivity. Whenever your processors are forced to deal with an exception, they are committing extra time to a particular transaction regardless of its value. Whether a transaction is worth $1 or $1 million, every additional second your team requires to process it is being siphoned directly from your bottom line.
IntelliChief finds the match even when item numbers, quantities, and unit prices don’t!
Therefore, if you can reduce the amount of time spent handling exceptions, you can realize significant cost savings. IntelliChief can automatically perform unit of measure and part number conversions to reduce exceptions. For example:
- Lithium grease can be purchased in a drum or a 5-gallon bucket. There are 55 gallons in a drum, which means there are 11 buckets in a single drum. If the invoice and purchase order express this amount (i.e. one drum) in different terms (i.e. one drum vs. eleven buckets) it will result in an exception and require manual intervention to process. IntelliChief utilizes a cross-reference matrix to automate these conversions, eliminating the need for manual approval.
- Steel is often purchased in coils while copper tubing is more commonly purchased by the 20-foot section. Similarly, steel pipe is regularly purchased in 44-foot rail lengths but used by the inch or square inch. When suppliers and purchasers have different expectations about how a material will be utilized, it can lead to unit of measure normalization issues. The final product is ultimately the same, but your AP processors can’t be certain without checking manually. IntelliChief eases the burden of this complicated process by handling the conversions for you and eliminating this step altogether.
Issue #4: Lack of Support for Workflow Automation
By addressing the above concerns with an industry-leading ECM solution like IntelliChief, your business can take advantage of faster processing times and fewer exceptions. It allows businesses to accelerate invoice or customer purchase order processing by eliminating manual intervention and automating your workflow. Even complex matching procedures, such as those involving blanket POs, are no problem for IntelliChief.
As soon as your information enters the system, a 2-, 3-, or 4-way match is performed automatically. With normalization and cross-referencing, the number of transactions that require manual intervention is reduced even further. IntelliChief Capture Enterprise users can even unlock the ability to use straight-through processing, which allows invoices to be processed without any manual entry or intervention from the beginning. As the statistics below prove, the leap in productivity is nothing short of alarming:
Without Normalization/Cross-Reference
- 260 Total Invoices
- 141 Processed Straight Through
- 119 Required Manual Intervention
- 54% Straight to Voucher
With Normalization and Cross-Reference
- 260 Total Invoices
- 254 Processed Straight Through
- 6 Required Manual Intervention
- 97% Straight to Voucher
With IntelliChief, you can reduce the burden of exception handling on your AP team, reach unprecedented processing speeds, and decrease the number of errors in your process by a wide margin. Even when your team is out of the office or unavailable, IntelliChief continues to process transactions in real-time from start to finish.
Overcome Your Accounts Payable Challenges With IntelliChief
There are many benefits for businesses that rely on 3-way matching, including stronger supplier relationships, increased profitability, and superior preparedness for financial audits. However, businesses that don’t automate this process are often overwhelmed with the time- and labor-intensive nature of manually performing 3-way matches. To scale this process as you grow your business, automation is critical. With IntelliChief, there’s no limit to how many documents you can process — even when the office is closed — thanks to robust automation capabilities that learn (and master) your business-critical processes.