Employee transport glossary
Three-way match
Also called: 3-way match · invoice reconciliation
In transport billing, a three-way match reconciles three records before an invoice is paid: the trip that actually ran, the contracted rate card, and the vendor’s invoice line. A line that disagrees with either of the other two is flagged rather than paid.
In practice
- The trip record comes from GPS and trip lifecycle events, not from the vendor’s own claim
- The rate card supplies the expected amount for that vehicle class, distance slab and city
- Differences — wrong vehicle class, duplicate trips, tolls billed twice, trips billed for cancelled shifts — surface as exceptions
- Disputes are settled against the record rather than by negotiation
Why it matters
The gap between the rate card a programme agreed and the amount it is invoiced is usually the largest single recoverable line in ground transport, and it is invisible when invoices are checked by hand.