Resolve a held invoice
An invoice that fails the three-way match is held rather than posted. This is the recipe for working out why, and either releasing it or correcting it.
- Find held invoices from the Reconciliation screen, which counts and values them per supplier alongside the supplier's other open positions — see reconciliation. You can also open one directly from Purchasing → Invoices.
- Open the invoice. Because its status is held, the builder is still open to you — the same screen you'd use to build a draft.
- Work out which of the three causes applies:
- Billed more than still uninvoiced — a line's billed quantity is above what's still uninvoiced against the goods receipt. Billing for less than has been received never causes this.
- Price outside tolerance — a line's unit price differs from the agreed order cost by more than the supplier's tolerance allows, in either direction. Tolerances default to zero for a supplier with none set, so out of the box any difference at all holds the invoice.
- A service line is present — any invoice carrying a service or freight line is held regardless of the amounts involved, because there's nothing physical behind that line to check it against.
- Choose a path:
- If you keyed the invoice wrong, correct it in the builder and save again.
- If the invoice is right as it stands, select Approve. It appears only on a held invoice. Approving moves the invoice to matched — it does not post it. From matched, post it the same way as any other invoice.
- Approving needs the same permission that approves a purchase order — see purchasing permissions. The Approve button can appear even for someone who doesn't hold that permission, and selecting it then fails with an error. If that happens, ask someone who holds it to approve the invoice instead.
Cancelling
Cancel is only available on a held invoice — not on a draft, matched or posted one. That's the opposite of a credit note, where Cancel is only available on a draft; see record a credit note.