Xero is very good at recording bills and paying them. What it doesn’t do on its own is everything that has to happen before a bill is ready to pay. Someone has to collect it, key it in, code it, check it against what was ordered, and get it approved by the right person.

In most small and mid-sized businesses, that work is still manual. Bills arrive in five different inboxes, get printed, sit on someone’s desk, and are entered into Xero the week before the payment run. That’s where errors, late fees, and duplicate payments come from.

Every accounts payable team has to answer one question before paying a supplier: should we pay this bill, and for this amount?

Invoice matching is how you answer it. Instead of trusting the invoice on its own, you compare it against other records of what was agreed and what actually happened. The two most common methods are 2-way and 3-way matching.

What is 2-way matching?

2-way matching compares two documents:

Most approval delays aren’t caused by bad people or bad intentions. They’re caused by the process. A bill sits for nine days, not because the approver disagreed with it, but because they didn’t know it was waiting, didn’t have enough information to decide, or were on leave.

The result is the same either way: late payments, unhappy suppliers, missed early-payment discounts, and a month-end close that drags.

Here’s how to fix it.

Typing invoice details into Xero by hand is slow and easy to get wrong. ApprovalPro.ai does it for you.

How it works

Upload a bill, or just forward it by email like you already do. ApprovalPro.ai reads the invoice and pulls out:

• Vendor name
• Invoice number
• Invoice date and due date
• Total amount

It’s ready to route for approval within seconds — no typing required.