Airwallex gives you the flexibility to control how bills are matched to purchase orders, helping you maintain accurate spending records.
Enabling PO matching for bills
To start matching bills with POs, simply go to Bills, then navigate to Settings. Check the box next to "Purchase Order". Once enabled, a Purchase Order dropdown menu will appear when users create or edit bills, giving them the option to match bills to open POs in Airwallex. If your organization requires that all bills must be matched to a PO before being submitted, you can enable the Required Field toggle next to "Purchase Order". This will prevent users from submitting bills that aren't matched to a PO.
Configuring Purchase Order Matching Rules
You can fine-tune how POs and bills interact by setting specific rules under Purchase Orders, then Settings. We support the following configurations:
- Blocking Bills That Exceed the PO Total: You can choose to prevent a bill from being submitted if its total amount is greater than the associated PO. For example, if this setting is ON, and a user tries to submit a bill for $1,100 against a $1,000 PO, they won't be able to submit it. They'd need to match it to a different PO. If this setting is OFF, Airwallex will still flag that the bill exceeds the PO, but the user can proceed with submitting it for approval. If approved, the bill remains matched and can be paid; if rejected, it will become unmatched from the PO.
- Requiring All Bill Line Items to Match the PO: This rule ensures every line item on a bill perfectly matches its corresponding PO line item before the bill can be submitted. For instance, if this is ON and a bill has Line Item 1 ($100) and Line Item 2 ($205), but Line Item 2 is matched to a PO line item for only $200, the bill can't be submitted. If this setting is OFF, Airwallex will flag the discrepancy, but the user can still submit the bill for approval.
- Setting a Tolerance for Amount Differences: To add flexibility, you can set a tolerance level. This allows users to submit bills even if there's a minor difference between the bill and PO amounts. For example, if you set a 10% tolerance, the $1,100 bill (vs. $1,000 PO) or the $205 bill line item (vs. $200 PO) would now be submittable. In these cases, Airwallex will still flag that the bill exceeds the PO, but the user can submit it for approval.
For recurring purchase orders (POs), the system matches amounts on a per-period basis. This means bills are compared against the expected cost for each defined period. For example, if a PO is set for $500 per month, the bill for that month must also be $500. Similarly, if a PO line item is for $100 per month, the bill's line item must match that $100 for the period.
Note that Airwallex compares bill amounts against PO amounts on a tax-exclusive basis (before taxes are applied).