Match a Bill to Its PO and Split It Across Funds

Every vendor bill has its own page. On it you check the bill against the purchase order and what was delivered, decide where the cost goes, and put the bill in the ledger.

When you’d use this

A bill arrived for an order you placed and you want to pay only for what came.
A bill pays for more than one program or grant.
A bill went to review and you need to decide what to do.
An auditor asks which journal entry a bill created.

Open the bill

Go to Smart Payments > Vendor Bills.
Click the bill’s row.

The line at the top of the page reads: “Check this bill against the order and the delivery, then charge it to the right funds.”

A review task in your Inbox opens the same page.

The Order and delivery panel

The Order and delivery panel compares each bill line with what was ordered and what was received. Columns: Description, Billed, Ordered, Received, Difference.

The panel shows one of these results:

Result	What it means
Matched	Bill, order and delivery agree.
Partial match	Some lines are outside your tolerance.
Does not match	The bill and the order disagree.
No purchase order	The bill is not linked to a purchase order.
Accepted with reason	Someone accepted the difference and wrote why.

Under Deliveries you see each receipt recorded on the purchase order. If nothing has arrived yet, the panel says “No delivery recorded yet. Record it from the PO.”

Match tolerance

Small differences match on their own.

The default is 2% of the purchase order amount for price and 5% for quantity.
You can add an amount cap, such as $5.00. A difference must then be within both the percent and the amount, whichever is smaller. For example, with 2% and $5.00 on a $1,000.00 line, the limit is $5.00, not $20.00.
Set it in Settings > Finance > Bill matching.
The field help reads: “Match tolerance: a bill line matches automatically when its difference is within both the percent and the amount (whichever is smaller).”
A new tolerance applies to new bills.

When a bill goes to review

A bill outside your tolerance gets a review task in the Inbox. The task names the vendor, the bill and the difference, for example “Bill INV-5521 from Acme Supply is $40.00 off PO PO-2026-0117.”

Other review tasks say the bill has no receipt recorded on its PO, or that it bills more than was received.

The bill page shows “A review task is open in the Inbox” while the task is open. The task closes once the bill matches.

Accept a difference

Use this when the difference is correct, such as an agreed price change.

Press Accept difference.
Write a reason of at least 10 characters.
Press Accept difference again to save.

The reason is saved on the bill and in the audit trail. The panel then shows who accepted it, the date and the reason.

Link a PO by hand

When a bill arrives without a PO number:

Press Link a PO.
Pick the order from that vendor’s open orders.
Press Link and match. The match runs again.

Muin suggests the order that fits best. It ranks the vendor’s open orders by whether the bill quotes the PO number, whether the bill amount equals what the order has left to bill, whether the line descriptions match, and how recent the order is. A strong match is selected for you with a short reason, such as “Suggested: PO-0123, amount matches remaining $400.00”. Nothing is linked until you press Link and match, and you can pick a different order first.

Split a bill across funds, programs and grants

Press Split, or Edit lines.
For each line, set the description, quantity, unit amount, and the Fund, Program or Grant it is charged to.
Press Save lines.

Rules for the lines:

Each line’s amount is quantity times unit amount.
The lines must add up to the bill.
A bill keeps at least one line.
You can split a pending or approved bill. A paid bill’s split is final.
On an approved bill, a change that moves a line onto a fund or grant is checked against that fund’s spending rules and the grant’s cost rules, the same checks approval runs.

If the bill is already in the ledger, saving a new split reverses the old entries and posts the new lines.

Post to the ledger

Approving a bill posts it to the ledger in the same step. If posting cannot happen, the bill is not approved.

Each bill line becomes one journal entry: the line’s expense account is debited and Accounts Payable is credited. Each entry carries the line’s fund, program and grant.

An approved bill that is not in the ledger yet shows Post to ledger. Press it to post.

Press View journal entry to open the entries in the journal. The Journal entries card on the bill lists each one: Bill posted, Payment, Early-pay discount or Reversal.

Void a bill

Press Void.
Write a reason of at least 10 characters.
Confirm.

Voiding reverses the bill’s journal entries and cancels any scheduled payment. The bill stays on record as voided. This cannot be undone.

When it goes wrong

“Resolve the match first.” The bill is approved but its match is not settled. Accept the difference with a reason, or link the right PO.

“Lines add up to $4,170.00, the bill is $4,180.00. Fix the lines or the bill amount.” Change a line amount so the total equals the bill.

“This bill is approved, so its lines must still pass its spending rules.” The message names the line you moved and the rule it breaks. Nothing was saved. Charge the line to a fund or grant that allows the cost.

“The bill could not be posted.” Nothing went to the ledger. Check that the bill is approved, has at least one line, and its lines add up to the bill, then press Post to ledger again.

“A paid bill cannot be voided. Record a refund instead.” The money already left. Record the vendor refund.

“No open orders from this vendor” when linking a PO. The vendor has no order that can be billed. Check the vendor on the bill, or create the purchase order in Procurement.

“The match did not load. Nothing is hidden; try again.” Reload the page.

Next step

Once the bill is posted, press Add to payment run. It opens Payment Runs with this bill already selected. Pay the vendor from your bank and record the payment there.