Invoice Reconciliation Workspace
Design a finance operations workspace for matching invoices to purchase orders, receipts, payments, and explainable exceptions.
The brief
Understand the problem
Background
A wholesale business receives invoices through several channels. Most can be matched to purchase orders and received goods, but price differences, split deliveries, duplicates, and missing tax details require review.
User context
Lin closes accounts for the month with 312 invoices still open. She needs to resolve high-value discrepancies first and send precise questions to buyers or suppliers.
Product problem
The reconciliation team needs a dense but traceable workspace that connects source documents, matching rationale, ownership, and payment deadlines.
Objective
Create queue, comparison, exception resolution, and approval states for invoice reconciliation.
What to design
Define the experience
Required experience
- Prioritize invoices by value, due date, confidence, and exception type
- Compare invoice, order, receipt, and prior payment data
- Resolve or route a discrepancy with evidence
- Approve a verified invoice and retain the decision trail
Screens and states
- Reconciliation overview and queue
- Four-way document comparison
- Exception resolution
- Approval and audit history
Core user flow
Follow the critical path
- 01
Lin filters for high-value invoices due within three days
- 02
She opens an invoice with a quantity mismatch caused by a split delivery
- 03
The second goods receipt confirms the remaining units
- 04
Lin links the receipt, documents the match, and approves payment
Product rules
Requirements and constraints
Requirements
- Keep original document values visible beside normalized fields
- Explain exact, suggested, partial, and failed matches
- Support field-level comparison and linked source evidence
- Assign exceptions with due dates and structured questions
- Require a reason for overrides and payment release
Constraints
- Suggested matches need accountable human confirmation
- Financial records must retain a tamper-evident history
- The interface must support large tables at 200 percent zoom
Reality check
States worth considering
Ready-to-use content
Mock data
Use this content to test hierarchy and realistic data states. You can expand it when the concept needs more depth.
Invoice exception
- Invoice INV-8842: $18,420 due 27 August
- Purchase order PO-1907: 500 units
- Receipt GR-551: 320 units
- Receipt GR-568: 180 units
- Price variance: $0
Finish line
What to deliver
- Four desktop screens showing a split-delivery resolution
- A component inventory for match status, evidence, and approval controls
If you want more
Optional extensions
Optional direction
Visual resources
Use these as a starting constraint if you want one. They are not part of the required solution.