Adding a quality check before paying for parts
When a dealership or workshop should inspect parts before paying the supplier, and how to record the inspection alongside the order, delivery and invoice.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Automotive businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
The box from the supplier contains the right part numbers in the right quantities. The delivery note is signed, the invoice matches the order, and the bill is paid. Three weeks later a technician opens one of the boxes and finds a clutch kit for the wrong variant, or a windscreen with a chip in the corner, or a set of brake discs that do not match the specification on the order. The supplier is now holding the money and has little reason to hurry.
Most workshops pay suppliers on a three-document check. For some parts, that is not enough. This article explains when to add a fourth check, a quality inspection, before paying, and how to record it so the payment waits until the parts have been passed.
From three documents to four
AccountingTools explains that a three-way match compares the supplier invoice, the purchase order and the receiving report to confirm that a payment should be made. It says the procedure ensures only authorised purchases are paid for, preventing losses due to fraud and carelessness. Matching the invoice to the receiving documentation, AccountingTools explains, checks that the goods were received, in the correct quantity and in good condition.
Four-way matching adds one more document. AccountingTools describes it as comparing the purchase order, the receiving report, the supplier invoice and an inspection or quality approval before payment is authorised, and notes that it is especially useful when product quality or specifications affect whether the business should pay. Its explanation of three-way matching covers both the three-way and four-way versions.
The difference is the depth of the look. At receiving, someone checks that the boxes are the right ones and not visibly damaged. At inspection, someone qualified checks that what is inside the boxes is what was ordered and fit to fit.
Parts where quality decides whether to pay
Not every delivery needs an inspection. Filters, wiper blades and globes rarely justify the effort. The fourth check earns its place where a defect is expensive, hard to spot at the receiving door, or likely to be found only once the part is on a customer's vehicle:
- Body panels and glass, where damage in transit is common and a chip or dent may be hidden by packaging.
- Major mechanical components, such as gearboxes, turbochargers or engine assemblies, especially reconditioned units.
- Safety-related parts, such as brake components, where a wrong specification is a risk to the customer.
- Parts bought from a new or unfamiliar supplier, until the supplier has a track record.
- High-value orders of any kind, where one bad item costs more than the inspection.
Write the list down, so the receiving clerk knows which deliveries go to the workshop foreman before the paperwork moves on.
Recording the delivery line by line
In Achekam, deliveries are recorded against a purchase order line by line, including part deliveries, and a goods-received record is kept. Use that to make the inspection count. For deliveries on your inspection list, record as received only the quantity that has passed inspection. Parts that are awaiting inspection, or that have failed it, are not yet received in the record.
Note one limit: in Achekam, goods received do not add stock. The goods-received record is a purchasing record, not a stock movement, so update your stock records separately in the way your business already does.
Holding the invoice until the difference is resolved
Here is where the matching does the work. A supplier invoice recorded against an order in Achekam is matched with what was ordered and what arrived. If the price or the quantity differ, the invoice is held until someone writes a resolution note.
So if the supplier invoices for four brake disc sets and only two passed inspection and were recorded as received, the quantity difference holds the invoice. Nobody pays for the two failed sets by accident, and the resolution note becomes the record of what was agreed with the supplier.
Getting a revised invoice or a credit note
AccountingTools says that when a three-way match finds a problem, accounts payable staff contact the supplier, which may lead to a revised invoice or a credit memo from the supplier. For rejected parts the usual outcomes are:
- Replacement. The supplier sends replacement parts, which are inspected and received in turn, and the original invoice is paid once everything is received.
- Credit. The supplier issues a credit note for the rejected parts, and the invoice is paid net of the credit.
- Revised invoice. The supplier cancels the original and invoices only for what was accepted.
Whichever it is, the resolution note on the held invoice should say which route was agreed, who agreed it and when. That note is what someone checking the payment months later will need.
Filing inspection photos and notes
An inspection that leaves no evidence is hard to defend when the supplier disputes the rejection. Take photos of the damage or the wrong part number, alongside the packaging and the delivery note, and write a short inspection note: what was checked, by whom, what was found.
Achekam's Document Centre is a folder-based store where a business uploads files or whole folders, previews, downloads, renames, moves, tags, archives and searches them, and a new version keeps the earlier ones. Keep a folder per purchase order, or tag files with the order number, so the photos and the inspection note sit with the order they belong to. Uploads go in batches of up to 25 files.
A short routine for the parts department
- The order states the specification, not just the part number.
- Receiving checks the boxes, counts them and signs.
- Parts on the inspection list go to the named inspector before anything is recorded as received.
- Only passed parts are recorded as received.
- Rejects are photographed, noted and returned or held for collection.
- Held invoices are resolved with a note that says what the supplier agreed.
For deciding which purchases need two, three or four checks, see two-way or three-way match, and for keeping part numbers clean, read parts stock, SKUs and barcodes.
An inspection costs a little time at the receiving door. Paying for a part you then have to fight to return costs a great deal more.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
