Goods Vs. Service Lines: Strategies to Avoid Match Exceptions

Dealing with the dreaded Match Exception

Contributed by Addie Coe 

Match Exceptions can occur for many reasons, some of which can be avoided: 

• Price / Quantity Flip (aka Blanket Orders): The Price/Quantity flip is an outdated practice from our Oracle System, carried into initial Workday use. It involves reversing price and quantity on purchase order lines to allow multiple invoices to match against a single line. However, suppliers typically don’t invoice this way, leading to manual intervention to avoid match exceptions.
• How to Fix This:  Utilize Service Lines in Workday (for services)
• Unknown Costs / Change in Scope: Sometimes, unexpected costs or increases to scope happen. Once you are aware that new costs are likely coming for your order, ask for a proforma invoice from the supplier and use that to update or add these new costs to the purchase order.
• How to fix this: Make proactive PO updates.
• Quote / PO Mismatch: When you receive a quote from the supplier, try to enter the PO lines in a way that matches the quote exactly. Their invoice will likely match their quotation exactly.
• How to fix this:   Enter the PO lines in a way that matches the quote exactly.  The supplier invoice will likely match the quote exactly. 
• Mistakes: Mistakes happen – both on our side and the supplier’s side.  
• Next Step:  If you find that a supplier continues to make the same mistakes, even after a discussion, escalating this to AskFinance attn: Invoice Processors is the next step.

Let's take a closer look at Goods vs. Service lines.  As mentioned above, using Service Lines is a good strategy to avoid Match Exceptions on blanket orders.  Service lines will never trigger quantity Match Exceptions. 

Here's how it works: 

• Service lines only have an amount field. This is where you will enter the total amount of money you intend to spend. You may have more than one service line if needed. 
• When an invoice is matched against a service line, Workday will only look at the total amount remaining on that service line and match it against the invoice. If the service line has enough money, the invoice will pay.

Remember, central finance does not override match exceptions.  Addressing match exceptions is the responsibility of the department and the requisitioner.  We are always happy to help navigate any necessary changes, but we can't make decisions on behalf of the requisitioner.

Read more about Match Exceptions and the use of Service Lines in this presentation from the May 1 Fiscal Administrators' Meeting.

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Related Information:  Procurement Operations Updates