Best Practices for Defining Match Rules

Follow best practices to improve the matches created by Transaction Matching.

• Start defining match rules with the most precise rules first, those likely to create the highest number of quality matches, and then work down to the rules that may be less certain in their results.
  • The most precise rules are 1 to 1 rules, followed by 1 to Many or Many to 1 rules, and then Many to Many rules.
  • Matches Exactly rules are more precise than Matches with Tolerance.
  • Rule conditions with more number of reference attributes, that can uniquely identify a match, are more precise than those with only the balancing attribute.
• Include additional matching criteria through rule conditions, groups, and filters to uniquely identify transactions. Consider reducing the tolerance limits used in rules, where appropriate.

  For example, for a 60-day payment term, payment is contractually due 60 days after the invoice date. It is recommended to set date tolerance around the expected payment date, not across the entire payment-term period. For 60-day terms, use Start: +60 and End: +65 rather than Start: 0 and End: +60. If payment may occur a few days late because of processing or non-business days, use a narrow window instead, such as +60 to +65.

• To improve the performance of Auto Match for subset rules:
  • Create one or more rules (except a subset rule) by using attributes that can uniquely identify a match and configure this rule to run before the subset rule
  • Include additional attributes in the rule condition of the subset rule to uniquely identify transactions that must be matched

• If you no longer need a rule, but there are existing matches that are matched using a rule, it is recommended that you deactivate the rule instead of deleting it. The rule can be deleted after the matches are purged for that rule.