The invoice that won't pay
What the user reports
Monday 2 November at Rockford. Orrin Motor Works calls accounts payable: their invoice for 20 motors (19,000.00) isn't in this week's payment run. Two weeks ago the buyer agreed 950.00 per motor with Orrin by phone so the motors would arrive in time; the motors arrived and were received.
The error: Payment run for CP10 found nothing to pay: Orrin's invoice is blocked for payment (price 900.00 above the purchase order, above the 250.00 tolerance).
What you'll do
- See the problem as the accounts payable accountant: On Payment run, pay company code CP10 items due by 2026-12-17.
- Find the cause: Orrin's invoice is 950.00 per motor; the purchase order says 905.00, and tolerances block anything above 5% or 250.00 per item. The price was agreed, but never written on the order. What is the right fix?
- Fix it as the accounts payable accountant.
- Prove it: run the step that failed again.
The drill runs in the lab on its own prepared copy of the fictional Calder Pumpworks, saved in this browser apart from your company. All codes and values are fictional course labels.
Answer and explanation (open after the drill)
The fix: Get the buyer's written confirmation that 950.00 was agreed for this order, then release the invoice.
The block did its job: the invoice differs from the purchase order by more than the tolerance, and nobody had recorded why. The difference is real and agreed, so the fix is to confirm it with the person who agreed it and release this one invoice. Raising the tolerance would let every supplier's overcharges through, the order's price can't change after goods receipt and invoice, and asking Orrin for a credit would break the deal the buyer made.
Why it broke
Three-way match compares the invoice with the purchase order and the goods receipt. The buyer changed the price in a phone call, not on the order, so the order kept the info record's 905.00. The invoice came in 900.00 higher, above the 250.00 per item limit, and was blocked. Nothing in the system was wrong; the agreement just never reached it.
How teams prevent it
Record agreed price changes on the purchase order before the goods arrive (the core's Procure stage does this as Record Orrin's expedite price), so receipt, invoice and order agree. Keep tolerances as a control, not a workaround, and give accounts payable a named contact in purchasing for each blocked invoice.
Across teams
The supplier called accounts payable, the block came from finance's tolerance rule, and the missing step was the buyer's. Releasing without asking purchasing would hide the gap; asking fixes this invoice and the habit.
Where AI fits
Invoice exception triage is a good fit: an assistant reads the block reason, finds the purchase order history and any emails about the price, and drafts a message to the buyer or a release proposal with the evidence (retrieve, then act with approval). It shouldn't release the invoice itself: releasing a payment block is a finance control with a named approver.
Learn more: Procure to pay end to end