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Manufacturing

Accounts payable automation for manufacturers

Each supplier invoice is checked line by line against the PO and goods receipt, and creeping unit prices are flagged before you pay.

Workers operating machinery on a factory floor

Smartbills records the commitment when the purchase order is raised and checks every invoice line against it before anything is approved for payment.

Every invoice line checked against the PO

The purchase order, goods receipt and invoice are compared on quantity, unit price and total. When all three agree the invoice clears, and when they don't, the approver sees which line is off and by how much.

  • Line-level comparison, including unit price
  • Tolerances you set, with rounding kept out of the queue
  • Variances flagged before payment goes out

Materials cost charged to the right plant

Plant, cost centre and project carry from the purchase order to the invoice and on to the ledger. Each plant's materials cost reflects what it actually consumed.

  • Plant and cost centre carried through every step
  • Committed spend includes open purchase orders
  • Posts to your ledger already allocated

Plant card spend and travel coded to the right plant

An emergency part from the local supplier, a technician's trip to a customer site, safety gear for a new hire. Each receipt is matched to its card charge and coded to the plant that spent it.

Why teams switch

Small supplier errors hide in the margin for months.

A supplier raises a unit price by a few cents and we carry it for two quarters before anyone spots it in the margin.

Each invoice line is compared with the order it came from, and a price that moved goes to someone for review instead of disappearing into cost of goods sold.

At month-end somebody allocates materials cost across the plants from memory and a spreadsheet.

The plant and cost centre are set on the purchase order and follow the cost from there. The allocation is already correct when the invoice posts.

A supplier ships short, invoices the full quantity, and we pay for the full quantity.

Quantities are checked against the goods receipt before the invoice can be approved. You pay for what arrived on the dock.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What people ask us before they sign up.

Three-way matching confirms that the purchase order, the goods receipt and the supplier invoice agree on items, quantities and price before payment is released. In manufacturing it's what catches unit-price creep and short shipments, neither of which shows up on an invoice total.

Yes, and you should. A two-cent rounding difference shouldn't become an exception someone has to clear. Tolerances can be set by amount or percentage and the flags that remain are the ones worth a look.

Yes. Quantities are matched against what was received rather than what was ordered. An invoice for more than arrived is flagged and a partial receipt leaves the balance open on the purchase order.

No. Smartbills handles invoice intake, approval, matching and coding, then posts to the ledger you already use. MRP and production planning stay in your ERP.

Card purchases and out-of-pocket buys go through expense management: the receipt is captured, matched to the charge, checked against your rules and coded to the plant. They report alongside your PO spend.

Get started

See what a month of supplier invoices is hiding

Run one month through three-way matching and look at the price variances that surface.