DEFINITION
Three-Way Match
A three-way match is the control that compares a purchase order, a goods receipt, and a supplier invoice before payment is released. It confirms that what was ordered, what was received, and what is being billed agree on quantity and value.
The control fails in practice more often through tolerance and override than through absence. Quantity tolerances absorb genuine differences, goods receipts are posted after the invoice has already cleared, and matches are forced manually to close a period.
A three-way match exception is any transaction where those three documents disagree beyond tolerance, or where the match was satisfied by override rather than by agreement. Testing exceptions across the full population — rather than confirming the control exists — is what identifies leakage.