Procurement & finance
Three-Way Match
Reconciling the purchase order, the goods received note and the invoice before payment. Ordered, received, billed — and all three must agree. It is the single most effective control against paying for what never arrived.
The variants matter. A two-way match (PO against invoice) does not check that anything was delivered. A four-way match adds the inspection result, so you are not paying for material that arrived and failed.
On services there is no delivery to check, so the certificate replaces the GRN — the engineer certifying the milestone is doing the gate’s job, on judgement rather than on a count. Which makes certifier discipline every bit as important as gate discipline, and rather harder.