Parts ordered through an ordering platform often arrive on the vendor invoice with a part number formatted differently from the one on the repair order. This article explains why the formats differ, how WickedFile matches the lines anyway, and what to do when one still does not match.
Parts ordered through PartsTech reconcile normally. Matching does not depend on the part number alone, which is what allows the two formats to line up.
Why the numbers differ
An ordering platform sits between the shop and the supplier, and part numbers are reformatted along the way. Prefixes are added or dropped, spaces and dashes move, and a manufacturer number can arrive as a distributor number.
So the same physical part can appear as one string on the repair order and a slightly different string on the vendor's invoice. Compared character by character, that is a mismatch, and the part would look unaccounted for.
How matching works
Several signals are considered together rather than any single one: the part number in whatever form it takes, the description, the amount, the vendor, the date, and the PO number tying the invoice to a repair order.
That combination is usually sufficient even when the numbers are formatted differently. A part costing the same amount, described the same way, from the same vendor, on an invoice whose PO number points at a job that sold a part like it, is that part.
The PO number still matters most
Reformatted part numbers are handled. A missing PO number is not, because without one there is no repair order to compare against and nothing for the other signals to corroborate.
So ordering through PartsTech does not change the guidance at the counter: the repair order number still belongs in the PO field. Everything in PO numbers applies unchanged.
When a line still does not match
A line occasionally will not match, and the reasons are usually straightforward.
The part was ordered for one job and fitted to another.
The quantity on the invoice differs from the quantity sold.
The order was placed before the repair order existed, so the PO number was a placeholder.
The part genuinely was not sold, which is the case the product is designed to surface.
For a part you know went on a job, pair it by hand: match an invoice line to a repair order part.
Editing part numbers is not the fix
Changing a part number on an invoice so that it matches the repair order makes the stored document disagree with the paper it came from.
Where a line should match and does not, pairing it explicitly keeps the document accurate and records the link. The editing rules are in fix a line item on an invoice.
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