By Safock Procurement Research Team8 min read
You delivered on time, the kitchen signed for it, and the invoice went out the same afternoon. A month later it still hasn't been paid. In the customer's accounts payable team, it is waiting in an exception queue, because the PO number on it reads DTN-001 and the purchase order is DTN-0001.
Large customers with many sites pay invoices that match three things: a purchase order, a goods receipt, and their own records of who they are. One detail that doesn't match is enough to stop the whole invoice.
When your invoice reaches a customer with dozens of sites, it goes through roughly these steps before anyone pays it:
Many organisations make the first step a formal rule. The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead's policy says: "Invoices received after this date without a valid PO number will be rejected and returned to you unpaid." It also says when payment terms start: "The 30-day payment clock will only commence once a valid and compliant invoice is received" (RBWM No Purchase Order, No Pay policy). An invoice that has to be corrected and resent starts its 30 days again.
The PO invoice generator scores an invoice against the checks a customer's accounts payable team makes. Six are critical: miss one and the invoice is usually held or returned. Four are helpful: they don't stop payment, but they speed it up.
| Check | Critical | Why the customer needs it |
|---|---|---|
| PO number quoted | Yes | It is how they find the order |
| Invoice number | Yes | Every invoice needs a unique reference for payment and duplicate checks |
| Customer's legal name and bill-to address | Yes | The invoice has to be booked to the right company, often not the site's trading name |
| Invoice date and payment terms | Yes | They set the due date |
| Remit-to / bank details | Yes | Without them, nobody can pay you |
| Every line has a description, quantity and price | Yes | Each line has to be matched |
| Ship-to site named | Lets AP route the invoice to the right site for approval | |
| Your tax ID | Required on invoices in many places | |
| Sent to the customer's AP inbox | An invoice sent to the chef sits in the chef's inbox | |
| Delivery note / packing slip referenced | Helps AP match the invoice to the receipt |
If the customer loads your invoice against their PO, four more critical checks run on the lines. These are the ones suppliers rarely know about until an invoice is held:
The receipt matters as much as the order. If the customer refused a case of chicken at the door, their goods received note shows three cases accepted, not four. Invoice the three, and send a separate credit or invoice for anything still to come.
The generator weights critical checks three times as heavily as helpful ones and scores out of 100. Its built-in example, invoice CFS-48213 for $826.13 against PO DTN-0001, scores 100. Here is what single mistakes do to it:
| Mistake | Score | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| None | 100 | Ready for AP |
| No ship-to site, no AP email, or no delivery note number (any one) | 97 | Ready for AP |
| PO number mistyped as DTN-001 | 91 | Likely to be returned or held |
| Bill-to missing the customer's legal entity | 91 | Likely to be returned or held |
| No bank or remit-to details | 91 | Likely to be returned or held |
| One line 5% above the PO price | 91 | Likely to be returned or held |
| One line above the PO quantity | 91 | Likely to be returned or held |
| A fuel surcharge that isn't on the PO | 91 | Likely to be returned or held |
| No PO number at all | 82 | Likely to be returned or held |
A score of 91 looks healthy. The verdict is what matters: any single critical failure is enough to hold the invoice, and the fix is usually small.
Start from the clean example invoice and add the mistakes suppliers make. One is ticked to start: olive oil billed 5% above the PO.
Start from a clean invoice, then add mistakes
Will this get paid?
91/ 100
Likely to be returned or held
Free tool
PO Invoice Generator
Load your customer's PO from a CSV, or one saved by the Bollard PO generator, and the lines are copied onto the invoice and checked against it. Score it before you send it, and download a PDF with the PO number where accounts payable looks first.
Runs in your browser. No sign-up.
If you're billing a customer who didn't issue a purchase order, use the general invoice generator instead; it leaves the PO fields out.
If the customer gave you one, yes. Many larger organisations won’t pay an invoice without a valid PO number, and some return it unpaid. Copy the number exactly as it appears on the purchase order.
Your company details and tax ID, a unique invoice number, the invoice date and payment terms, the customer’s PO number, their legal name and bill-to address, the ship-to site, a line for each item with quantity and price matching the PO, tax and totals, the delivery note number, and your bank or remit-to details.
Usually because it couldn’t be matched: a missing or mistyped PO number, a price or quantity that differs from the PO or the goods receipt, an item that wasn’t on the PO, or the wrong legal entity in the bill-to. Ask the customer’s accounts payable team which check failed, then correct and resubmit.
Tell the customer before you invoice and ask them to amend the PO. An invoice above the PO price will usually fail the customer’s match and wait for someone to approve the difference, which delays payment of the whole invoice.
Only if the PO or your contract with the customer includes it. A charge that isn’t on the PO fails the customer’s “item is on the PO” check and holds the invoice. If you need to add one, agree it first and ask for the PO to be updated.