What ProcureTrace checks across a procurement file
A purchase leaves records in several places: the order, approved changes, one or more invoices, a payment, and the paperwork that connects them. ProcureTrace reads those records together and reports what they do and do not establish.
Does the bill match what was ordered?
ProcureTrace reads the purchase order and the invoice, links them on the order number both documents print, and compares the invoiced amount against what the order authorises.
The reviewer sees the two amounts, the difference, and the page each figure was read from.
- Purchase order CAD 42,000
- Invoice CAD 44,500
- Result Differences Found Difference of CAD 2,500
The same invoice, with the approved change on file
Orders move. When an approved change is in the file, ProcureTrace folds it into what the order now authorises before comparing anything against it.
The invoice above has not changed. What changed is that the file now explains it, so nothing is reported as a difference.
- Purchase order CAD 42,000
- Approved change CAD 2,500
- Authorised now CAD 44,500
- Result Records Match The change accounts for it
Billed in stages, reviewed together
Long orders are rarely invoiced once. ProcureTrace takes every invoice against an order as one set and compares the total billed so far against what the order authorises.
An order that has only been partly invoiced is not a shortfall. Nothing in the file says whether more invoices are still coming, so the review says exactly that instead of reporting the remainder as a difference.
- Invoice 1 of 2 received Part of the order
- Remaining on the order Not yet invoiced
- Result Insufficient Evidence Not reported as a difference
A bill and the money that settles it are different records
An invoice is a supplier asking to be paid. A payment record is money moving. ProcureTrace keeps them apart and compares each against the order on its own.
Treating them as one number would read an order billed once and paid once as though it had been claimed twice.
- Invoice A claim for payment
- Payment record A settlement
- Result Compared separately Never summed into one figure
One invoice number, twice in the file
A re-sent invoice and a genuine second invoice can arrive carrying the same number. ProcureTrace cannot tell them apart from the documents, and does not try.
It declines to add them together, which is what would turn one bill into an apparent overcharge, and puts the question in front of the reviewer instead.
- Invoice INV-2231
- Invoice INV-2231
- Result Insufficient Evidence Not counted twice
Which order does this invoice belong to?
Records are connected on the identifiers the documents actually print, matched exactly. Nothing is guessed from a supplier name, a nearby date, or the closest amount.
Sometimes two documents both answer to the order an invoice names. Sometimes none does. Either way, the comparison does not quietly go ahead. The review reports that it could not be completed.
- Invoice names Order 4471
- Orders on file Two answer to 4471
- Result Insufficient Evidence Neither order is assumed
The numbers agree, but the evidence does not carry them
A record the comparison needs may not be in the file. A document may be in the file and unreadable. Something may be legible and still impossible to place against the order without guessing.
Each of those is reported as what it is. A review does not come back as agreement because something relevant was quietly left out of it.
- Required record absent Missing Required Information
- Read, but cannot be placed Insufficient Evidence
- What is never done Reported as agreement An unread record is not a clean one
Within the documents themselves
Some checks never leave a single record. They run whenever the file supplies what they need.
- Total vs. line items
- Whether the line amounts printed on an order add up to the total printed on it.
- Line-item calculation
- Whether a line's quantity and unit rate account for the line amount as printed.
- Contract total after amendment
- Whether the original value plus every recorded change equals the revised total the document states.
- Order within agreement limit
- Whether orders placed under a standing agreement stay within the limit that agreement sets.
Four answers, and no fifth one
Every check returns one of these. Each one carries the records and pages behind it.
- Records Match The records compared agree on the values checked.
- Differences Found They disagree, and the review shows by how much and where.
- Missing Required Information A record the comparison needs is not in the file.
- Insufficient Evidence The file cannot settle the question without assuming something it does not state.
Amounts on this page are illustrative. A review runs on the records you supply, and a reviewer confirms, dismisses or accepts each result.
See what one of these reviews actually looks like.
Walk through a complete example: the file it started from, the results it returned, and one finding opened up.