Why Voucher Approval Controls Matter
For an accounting team in a manufacturing business, approving vouchers directly affects cash, cost, and vendor relationships. If vouchers are paid on incorrect or incomplete information, you risk overpaying suppliers, mis-stating costs, or losing visibility into which purchase orders and receipts a vendor invoice is tied to.
Cetec ERP supports a three way match between purchase order, receipt, and vendor invoice on each voucher. Understanding how that match works, and how to control voucher approval when there is no match, helps you protect your general ledger and keep payables aligned to real received inventory.
How the Three Way Match Works in Cetec ERP
When you enter a voucher in Cetec ERP, the system automatically checks the purchase order, the corresponding receipt, and the vendor invoice referenced on that voucher. It looks for a three way match on quantity and amount across those three objects to validate the voucher before payment.
If a three way match is found, the voucher is automatically unlocked and can move to the next stage in your workflow for payment. This lets your team pay routine, accurate invoices without extra manual review, while still keeping a documented match between what was ordered, what was received, and what is being paid.
The example below shows a voucher where all three objects match and the system records the matched amount for each one.
Config Setting: Voucher - Require Explicit Approval With No 3 Way Match
In Cetec ERP, you can control how vouchers behave when there is no three way match using the config setting "Voucher - Require Explicit Approval With No 3 Way Match". You will find this under ADMIN » Config Settings » Config Settings in the accounting-related settings.
When this setting is configured to require explicit approval, any voucher that does not achieve a three way match is held in workflow. The voucher remains locked until an authorized accounting user reviews the mismatch and approves the voucher at the next stage. Only after that approval can the voucher move forward to payment.
You can also configure this setting so that vouchers never require explicit approval, whether or not the system finds a three way match. In that mode, vouchers behave the same in workflow regardless of match status and your team will rely on other controls to decide when to pay.
Deciding When to Require Explicit Approval
Requiring explicit approval on unmatched vouchers is most useful when your manufacturing business wants tighter control on payables. If you regularly handle complex purchase orders, partial receipts, or price changes, holding unmatched vouchers for review can prevent incorrect payments and reduces the effort needed to fix errors later in the ledger.
If your purchasing and receiving processes are simple and you rarely see mismatches, you may choose to disable explicit approval and rely more on the automatic three way match. The important decision is to align the setting with how much tolerance your team has for manual review versus automated processing.
Key Takeaways
- Cetec ERP automatically checks each voucher for a three way match between purchase order, receipt, and vendor invoice.
- With the Voucher - Require Explicit Approval With No 3 Way Match setting enabled, unmatched vouchers are held until accounting management explicitly approves them.
- You can instead configure the system to never require explicit approval, even when the system does not find a three way match.
- Choosing the right option helps you balance automation with control over how and when vouchers are paid.
Conclusion
Three way matching gives your accounting team confidence that payables in Cetec ERP match real purchasing activity. By using the Voucher - Require Explicit Approval With No 3 Way Match setting, you decide whether unmatched vouchers move forward automatically or are held for review. That control helps protect cash, align costs to received inventory, and keep your voucher workflow consistent with how your manufacturing business manages risk.