Understanding document type matching

  • 05/11/2025
  • 3 minutes to read

By setting up payment reference rules, you can define how payment references are validated, matched, and processed within your system. These rules help automate reconciliation by identifying key elements within payment references, such as document numbers, amounts, or document type indicators.

As part of this setup, you can configure optional matching settings such as document type mapping to handle more advanced scenarios. Document type matching allows you to extract and map document type indicators (for example, “INV” for invoices or “CM” for credit memos) from payment references. This enables more precise matching between payments and their related documents, reducing manual effort and improving reconciliation accuracy.

Tip

Always link at least one document type mapping when enabling Match Document Type, keep mappings current for all possible indicators, and test your rule configuration before applying it in production.

To enable document type matching:

  1. Open your Payment Reference Rule and on the Matching FastTab, enable Match Document Type to activate document type extraction.
  2. Specify the following:
    • Document Type Start Position - the position where the indicator begins in the payment reference (1-based).
    • Document Type Length - the number of characters in the indicator (up to 10).
  3. Search (Search) for and select Document Type Mappings.
  4. Add mappings for your document type indicators. Enter:
    • Code
    • Description
    • Document Type Indicator - for example, INV, CM
    • Document Type - for example, Invoice, Credit Memo
  5. Return to the Payment Reference Rule page, and on the action bar, click Related Document Types to link one or more mappings to the rule.
  6. Test the rule.

Example: Invoice and credit memo matching

If payment references follow a pattern such as INV-2024001 for invoices and CRM-2024001 for credit memos:

  • Set Document Type Start Position to 1 and Document Type Length to 3.
  • Create two mappings:
    • INV - Invoice
    • CRM - Credit Memo
  • Link both mappings to the rule.

When a payment reference is processed, the system extracts the first three characters and matches them to the appropriate document type. If no mapping exists for a given indicator, the document type field remains blank.