# Matching purchase orders to invoices

This is where purchase orders really start paying off. When an invoice arrives and there's already an approved PO behind it, You can link the two together. That makes it much easier to verify that what You're being invoiced for is actually what was ordered, right supplier, right quantities, right prices.

### **Why match?**

You've probably been in a situation where an invoice comes in and someone has to dig through emails or spreadsheets to figure out if the amounts are correct, or whether this was even approved. Matching solves that. When a PO is linked to an invoice, the history is right there, who ordered it, who approved it, and what was originally agreed.

The main benefits:

* **Faster approvals:** if the invoice matches an approved PO, there's less back-and-forth. The approver can see immediately that this was already signed off at the order stage.
* **Price and quantity verification:** You can compare what was ordered vs. what's being invoiced. If there's a difference, it's visible right away.
* **Stronger audit trail:** the full chain is documented: who created the PO, who approved it, when the invoice arrived, and how they're connected.

### **How matching works**

When You receive an invoice in Fitek, You can link it to an existing purchase order. You can also link invoice and PO directly from Purchase order. This connects the two documents so the information flows between them. 

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You can use purchase orders and invoices independently, not every invoice needs a PO behind it, and not every PO needs to result in an invoice. But when they're combined, the verification and approval process gets significantly smoother.

### **What to keep in mind**

Cost objective settings can be configured differently for purchase orders and invoices. So a dimension that was optional when the PO was created might be mandatory on the invoice, or the other way around. [Read more](/fitek-learning-space/copy-of-english/purchase-orders/creating-a-purchase-order.md#adding-cost-objectives) on cost objectives on Purchase orders.


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