What to Check Before Routing a Non-PO Invoice

1. No-PO confirmation: the spend is genuinely non-PO, not an invoice missing its PO. 2. Vendor validity: the vendor is active, approved, and correctly identified. 3. Business purpose: the reason for the charge and its owner are clear. 4. Full coding: GL account, dimensions, entity, and posting period are assigned and correct. 5. Approver determination: the right approver is set by coding, amount, and authority matrix. 6. Reasonableness: the amount aligns with a contract, agreement, or budget. 7. Tax treatment: tax or exemption status is applied correctly. 8. Duplicate check: the invoice number has not already been received or paid. 9. Documentation: contract, agreement, or approval evidence is attached. 10. Compliance: vendor documents are current and the spend sits within policy.

The first step is confirming that the invoice should follow the non-PO path. Some invoices arrive without a PO reference because the purchase genuinely did not use one, and others arrive without a PO because the PO was never created or the reference was lost.

This matters because the non-PO path skips matching. If a purchase should have had a PO, routing it as non-PO can let spend bypass the commitment controls the organization put in place. When in doubt, the reviewer confirms with the requester rather than defaulting to non-PO.

With no PO to anchor the transaction, vendor validation carries more weight. The reviewer confirms the vendor is active and approved, that the remit-to details match the trusted record, and that the payee is correctly identified.

The reviewer also establishes the business purpose and owner. Knowing who requested the spend and why is what makes it possible to code the invoice correctly and route it to an approver who can actually vouch for the charge.

A PO invoice inherits much of its coding. A non-PO invoice does not, so the reviewer assigns the full coding, including GL account, dimensions such as department, location, or project, the correct legal entity, and an open posting period.

Approver determination follows from the coding and the amount. Because no PO owner exists, the reviewer relies on the authority matrix to send the invoice to the person with the right approval level for that department, entity, and dollar amount, while preserving segregation of duties.

Stampli supports non-PO invoice routing by capturing invoices through email, drag and drop, a vendor portal, or CSV upload and routing them automatically with Trays. Stampli AI suggests the full coding using ERP logic and validation and predicts the appropriate approver, while all suggested entries remain subject to human review and approval before posting to the ERP.

Because there is no PO to validate against, the upstream context Stampli carries matters more. Approvers see the business reason, budget impact, GL and dimension context, vendor details, policy requirements, and supporting documents in one place, which turns a non-PO approval into an informed control point.

Stampli vendor management adds a compliance layer. Organizations can define what makes a vendor payable, and when mandatory documents such as a W-9 or proof of insurance are missing or expired, invoices or payments can be blocked. Every action is captured in an immutable audit trail with full context.