This article explains how invoice matching works, what each status means, and the things that trip people up most often.
The three documents
Purchase order (PO) - what you ordered, at the prices you have in Nory
Goods received note (GRN) - what actually showed up at the door
Invoice - what the supplier is charging you for
When all three are present, Nory does a 3-way match. When you only have a GRN and an invoice (no PO), it falls back to a 2-way match.
What gets checked
For each item on the invoice, Nory runs two checks:
Quantity check - did the invoice charge you for the same amount that was received? (GRN vs Invoice)
Price check - did the invoice total for this item match what you agreed on the PO? (PO vs Invoice)
At the moment, we have a 0 tolerance so even small differences will be flagged.
The statuses you'll see
Pending - Nory hasn't checked the invoice yet, usually because it's waiting on a GRN.
3WR approved - PO, GRN and invoice all line up. Clean invoice.
2WR approved - No PO on file, but the invoice quantities match the delivery.
Price issue - You were charged a different amount per item than what was agreed.
Quantity issue - You were charged for a different quantity than what was delivered.
Price and quantity issue - Both are off.
Pre-check failed -pre-check failed will land in a Review section, it’s down to the user to investigate the root cause
Manually approved - Someone in your team approved the invoice by hand, overriding the engine.
Gotchas worth knowing
No PO means no price check. Without a purchase order, Nory has nothing to compare the invoice price against. A 2WR approved invoice could still be overpriced - it just means the quantities were right.
Items are matched by code, not by name. If the supplier's invoice uses a different item code than your PO, Nory will think they're different items and may flag one as missing. If items are getting flagged that you think shouldn't be, this is usually why.
Pre-checks come first and stop everything. If the engine fails a pre-check (duplicate invoice, missing required document), it won't tell you whether the prices or quantities matched. Fix the basic issue and it'll re-run.
The engine doesn't catch every kind of error. It compares totals per item. It won't catch VAT calculation mistakes, currency mismatches, wrong units of measure (e.g. a case priced as if it were a single unit), or missing line-level discounts. Always spot-check unusual invoices.
Manual approval sticks. Once an invoice is manually approved, the engine won't re-evaluate it - even if a corrected PO or GRN arrives later. If you fix the underlying docs, you may need to revisit the invoice manually.
FAQs
Why is my invoice stuck on "pending"? Pending usually means Nory is waiting for one of the other documents - most often the GRN. Once the delivery is logged, the engine runs and the status updates. If a GRN is logged and the status is still pending after a few minutes, contact support.
The invoice was approved, but I think the price is wrong. What happened? The most common cause is that there was no PO on file, so Nory ran a 2-way match - which only checks quantity. A "2WR approved" status means the invoice quantity matched the delivery, but the price wasn't compared against anything. Always spot-check 2WR approvals if the supplier is known to drift on pricing.
An invoice line is flagged, but I'm sure that item is on the PO. Nory matches lines using the item code, not the item name. If the supplier sent the invoice with a different code than your PO uses, Nory sees them as two different items. Check the codes side-by-side - that's almost always the cause.
I accepted a price change. Will the matching status update? No, this is because there is still a discrepancy between your ordered price (price in Nory at the time of ordering) and Invoiced price. However, you can still approve and export that invoice. Next time that item is ordered, Order Price and Invoice price will match.
What's the difference between "2WR approved" and "3WR approved"? 3WR means all three documents matched (PO, GRN, invoice). 2WR means there was no PO, so only quantity could be checked - price was not verified.
Can I override the engine if I disagree with the status? Yes - you can manually approve a flagged invoice. Once manually approved, the engine treats the invoice as settled and won't re-evaluate it later. Use this when you've reviewed and accepted the discrepancy, not as a shortcut around recurring issues.
An updated PO or corrected GRN arrived after I manually approved the invoice. Will the engine re-check? No. Manual approval is sticky. If you fix the underlying documents and want the engine to take another look, you'll need to revisit the invoice manually.
Will the engine catch tax / VAT errors? No. The engine compares item totals (quantity × unit price). It doesn't check VAT calculations, currency mismatches, or line-level discounts. Treat these as separate review steps.
Does the engine run automatically or do I have to trigger it? Automatic. It runs in the background when invoices or GRNs are received. You don't need to kick it off.
What happens if for a supplier I have “smart-approve price changes on”? For this version, this setting doesn’t change the matching behaviour. If you have feedback on this, feel free to reach out.