Field notes
What three-way match actually catches in a Kaohsiung AP desk
When an accounts payable desk in southern Taiwan is clearing fifty invoices before lunch, the three-way match often becomes a glance rather than a check. Reviewers who later reopen those packets find the same few patterns again and again.
Quantity mismatches sit near the top. A purchase order calls for twenty units; receiving notes eighteen; the invoice bills twenty and still receives an approval stamp because the unit price looked familiar. The difference is small on one line and material across a quarter.
Price variances hide in freight and currency lines. Domestic suppliers sometimes add a delivery surcharge that never appeared on the PO. Approvers sign the face amount without reading the attachment that explains the gap.
Goods-received-not-invoiced items create the opposite problem: the warehouse has stock, but AP has nothing to post, so cut-off at month-end leans on estimates. A posting accuracy pass after close often finds those estimates still sitting in suspense.
A useful review habit is to sort exceptions by vendor concentration first. If three suppliers account for most mismatches, remediation is a conversation with those relationships — not a generic policy rewrite.