An AP clerk at a multi-building nursing home operator opens a med supply invoice. The PO number is on it and the vendor name matches the order, so the clerk keys it as received. The purchasing director placed that order at the GPO contract price. The vendor billed the list price instead, and nobody put the two prices side by side, because nothing on the invoice looked wrong.
The Price Discrepancies Report is the report in Adelpo that lists, for each invoice line matched to a PO, the price on the PO, the price on the invoice, and the difference between them. Every difference is flagged, line by line, with no tolerance, and a line with nothing to compare against does not appear on the report.
A price check like this is one part of a three-way match. The quantity and receipt side is covered in what a three-way match compares, and where it breaks.
Does the report check the invoice against the contract price?
The Price Discrepancies Report checks the invoice price against the PO price, not against the contract directly, and the PO normally carries the contract price. Contracted, GPO, or negotiated prices are loaded into the operator's store in Adelpo, usually when the store is first set up, and a cart built from that store carries those prices onto the PO. When the PO and the invoice disagree, the vendor billed a price other than the one agreed.
Keeping the store current is the operator's job. When a GPO catalog changes, the operator gets the updated catalog from the GPO and either loads it or sends it to Adelpo to load. The report only knows the price the PO carried.
One case the report does not catch is a PO and an invoice that agree with each other while both sit above the contract price. The report sees no difference on that line, so nothing is highlighted.
Which invoice lines appear on the Price Discrepancies Report?
A line appears only when there is a PO price and an invoice price to put side by side. The table covers the cases that come up.
| Invoice line | What the report does |
|---|---|
| PO price and invoice price differ, by any amount | Shows both prices and the difference, flagged |
| Invoice has no PO to match | Does not appear |
| Line with nothing in the system to compare against | Does not appear |
| Substitute item that is not on the PO | Does not appear, flagged on the invoice as a substitution instead |
| PO and invoice agree, both above the contract price | Not highlighted, the report sees no difference |
The flag sits on the line, not on the whole invoice, and there is no tolerance. A substitution is a separate flag. The system marks a line that is not on the PO so the person reviewing the invoice knows the vendor shipped something else, and that line stays off the Price Discrepancies Report.
Who acts on a price discrepancy flag?
Someone at the operator acts on the flag, because the report finds the gap and does not fix the vendor's price file. Who that is depends on how the operator sets up its approvals, covered in purchase order approval workflows for nursing homes. That person compares the two prices and calls the rep for a credit or a corrected invoice.
The vendor's price file stays the vendor's. A flag on this month's invoice does not stop the same price from arriving on next month's. What the report changes is when the call happens, before the invoice is approved rather than after the check has gone out. When the credit memo or the corrected invoice comes in, Adelpo applies it to the budget, and the budget comes back to the correct amount.
How a price discrepancy is handled in Adelpo
In Adelpo, a price that differs from the PO is flagged on the invoice itself, per line, and the invoice is not blocked by default. The operator chooses what happens next, whether an alert in Adelpo or by email, a route to an approver, a route to Adelpo's team for review, or an approval rule that triggers on the mismatch. The budget reflects the invoice amount by default, and the difference is highlighted on the PO and on the invoice as well as in the report. The free invoice audit is where an operator asks to see its own duplicates and overcharges.
Questions controllers ask about price discrepancies
Does the Price Discrepancies Report check invoices against GPO contract prices?
The Price Discrepancies Report compares the invoice price to the PO price, line by line. The contracted, GPO, or negotiated price is loaded into the operator's store in Adelpo, so the PO normally carries the agreed price, and a gap between the PO and the invoice means the vendor billed something other than that price. The report has no separate column for the contract price.
What happens to an invoice with a price discrepancy in Adelpo?
The line is flagged on the invoice, and the invoice is not blocked by default. The operator chooses what happens next, an alert in Adelpo or by email, a route to an approver, or a route to Adelpo's team for review, and can set an approval rule to trigger on the mismatch. Someone at the operator still calls the vendor for the credit.
Is there a tolerance before a price difference is flagged?
There is no tolerance. Every difference between the PO price and the invoice price is flagged, on that line, whether it is a few cents or many dollars. A line with nothing to compare against does not appear on the report at all.
Does a substitute item show up as a price discrepancy?
A substitute does not show up as a price discrepancy. A line that is not on the PO is flagged on the invoice as a substitution, so the person reviewing it knows the vendor shipped something else. Substitutions stay off the Price Discrepancies Report.
Does an invoice with no PO show on the Price Discrepancies Report?
An invoice with no PO does not appear on the report, because there is no ordered price to compare against. The invoice can still be approved and paid in Adelpo, and it applies to the budget, usually by the GL code on each line. Service and utility bills arrive this way.