Input, Output and Authority
Bring together one order or contract line, acceptance evidence, its invoices, credits and payment records. Retain actual document locators. The output is a balance walk with matched payments, unverified claims and a specific evidence question. The authorized finance or contract owner decides corrections and payment separately.
This task does not reconcile a supplier's whole statement or settle a delivery dispute. Work only within permitted records; use reference codes in shared summaries.
Trace the Document Chain
- Establish the obligation's identity and amount from its actual terms.
- Find the accepted receipt or other required performance evidence. Keep any missing evidence visible.
- Match each distinct invoice to its part of that obligation; avoid treating separate valid invoices as a duplicate merely because they share an order.
- Attach each approved credit to the invoice it changes. Do not apply the same credit twice.
- Match payments using execution and invoice-allocation evidence. Keep instructions, remittance claims and unverified allocations separate.
- Show the document total, matched paid amount and residual, then state exactly which evidence would change the result.
- Send the working and question to the authorized owner. Record any later decision, correction or payment as a separate event.
Completed Fictional Balance Walk
All amounts are invented USD. PO203 orders 500 units at 20, total 10,000. The supplied receipt confirms full acceptance, with no quantity or quality dispute and no fees or tax.
| Document | Evidence and effect | Running residual |
|---|---|---|
| I17 | Distinct accepted invoice: 300 units x 20 | 6,000 |
| I18 | Distinct accepted invoice: 200 units x 20 | 10,000 |
| CN12 | Approved price credit of 300 against I18 | 9,700 |
| PAY77 | Executed payment, 6,000 matched to I17 | 3,700 |
| PAY78 claim | Remittance email claims 1,000 for I18; execution/allocation absent | Still 3,700 pending evidence |
The net document amount is 6,000 + 4,000 - 300 = 9,700. Matched paid is 6,000, so 9,700 - 6,000 = 3,700 is not explained by matched payments. I17's matched balance is zero; I18's net amount is 4,000 - 300 = 3,700.
Exception: A Claimed Payment
Ask for PAY78's execution evidence and allocation to I18 through approved records. Do not subtract its claimed 1,000 as proven, and do not pay it again simply because the current evidence is incomplete.
Only if both execution and allocation of that 1,000 are verified would the traced residual become 3,700 - 1,000 = 2,700. This conditional calculation neither authorizes 2,700 nor establishes that 3,700 is currently payable. Actual terms, holds and authority still need checking.
Human Decision and Boundaries
Preserve the original evidence and the distinction between document totals and verified payments. The delegated owner decides the accounting or payment action. A records preparer cannot convert an unresolved remittance into a completed payment or an automatic second transfer. Use the statement reconciliation for a different, two-record comparison.
Sources and Scope
CC8 section 6.1 (November 27, 2024, England and Wales) informs invoice/order/receipt checks. HMRC's July 27, 2026 procure-to-pay controls and undated VAT-records guidance support adjustment trails and links to original invoices within UK VAT scope. ACNC's undated Australian records guidance lists contracts and creditor records. World Bank Contract Management (first edition September 2018, printed pages 83-84) supplies supporting-payment-record examples. This original balance walk is editorial practice, without borrowed tax treatment, payment thresholds or present-day procurement-law claims. Checked November 1, 2026.