# PO mismatch referral brief template | SourceX

Canonical: https://refer.sourcex.si/resources/purchase-order-mismatch-resolution-referral-brief-template
Last updated: 2026-10-20

A company introduction about purchase order mismatch resolution is a one-page brief the procure-to-pay head can forward to the CEO unchanged. It holds metadata only: the business and its full-time headcount, the systems that keep PO revisions, receipts and invoice holds, the years each covers, rough hold volumes, who owns the history, who can authorize a licensing discussion, the open question and any dated access event. It carries no supplier names, PO copies, exports or logins.

This template belongs to the [purchase order mismatch resolution guide](/guides/workflow-purchase-order-mismatch-resolution), which covers the inventory before a procure-to-pay rollout. Fill the blank form during one call with the procure-to-pay head, then compare your draft with the completed Illustrative brief.

## The blank brief

Copy the form. Every field takes a short phrase, a number or "unknown".

| Field | What to write |
|---|---|
| A. Company | [Industry; full-time staff at peak; countries of operation] |
| B. Task | Resolving invoices held because PO, receipt and invoice disagree, and recording why each hold was released |
| C. Systems | [ERP purchasing; procurement suite; ERP payables; AP case log or inbox] |
| D. Years of history | [Per system: first year still readable] |
| E. Volumes | [Rough POs per year; rough invoice holds per year; share released with a written reason, if known] |
| F. Record owner | [Role that keeps hold and release history] |
| G. Authorized contact | [CEO or owner; sponsor's role] |
| H. Open question | [The one thing nobody can confirm yet] |
| I. Access event | [Module retirement, archive decision or contract end, with its documented date] |
| J. Not shared | No supplier names, PO or invoice copies, exports or logins |

Field J never changes. It tells the CEO, before they ask, that nothing confidential has moved.

## How to fill each field without opening a record

**A. Company.** Headcount is full-time staff at peak, contractors excluded. The CFO will check this first, because it decides whether the rest matters.

**C. Systems.** Name the module, not just the vendor. "ERP payables" and "ERP purchasing" can have different retirement dates in the same rollout.

**D. Years.** Ask per system; the answers rarely line up. Purchasing may go back a decade while archived revisions start much later, because keeping earlier versions is a configuration choice. Oracle's Purchasing help, for instance, links revision numbering to each document type's archive option. One question to the purchasing systems analyst settles it.

**E. Volumes.** A rough yearly count is enough. In SAP's description, an invoice over its tolerance limit is posted but blocked for payment, and releasing it is a distinct step, so blocks and releases can be counted from a report without reading any invoice. Note whether a release reason field was ever made mandatory, and from when.

**G. Authorized contact.** Name a role, not a person's private details. If you are unsure who it is, the [who-can-license decision tree](/questions/who-can-license-purchase-order-mismatch-resolution-records) walks through it.

**H. Open question.** In this workflow it is usually one of two things: whether approved PO changes reliably reached AP, or whether release reasons were recorded before a certain year.

**I. Access event.** A date with a source, such as the rollout plan's decommission date. With none on file, write "none known".

## Completed brief (Illustrative)

Written for this page about a fictional 1,250-person building products manufacturer. Every value is invented; it is not a real client, quote or deal.

| Field | Illustrative entry |
|---|---|
| A. Company | Building products manufacturer, 1,250 full-time staff at peak, plants in Ohio, Ontario and Poland |
| B. Task | Resolving invoices held on quantity and price mismatches and recording each release reason |
| C. Systems | On-premise ERP with purchasing and payables; supplier portal for confirmations; AP ticket queue |
| D. Years of history | Purchasing since 2013 with revisions archived from 2018; payables blocks since 2013; tickets since 2020 |
| E. Volumes | About 110,000 PO lines a year; roughly 14,000 blocked invoices a year; release reason field mandatory since 2020 |
| F. Record owner | Accounts payable lead for blocks; purchasing systems analyst for revisions |
| G. Authorized contact | Group CEO; director of procurement operations as sponsor |
| H. Open question | Whether the Polish plant's blocks, released locally, carry reasons in English |
| I. Access event | None known; a cloud ERP project is under evaluation with no date set |
| J. Not shared | No supplier names, PO or invoice copies, exports or logins |

Notice two honest entries. Field H flags a language question for SourceX's review to weigh; Poland is in the EU, so it does not change eligibility, but saying so up front saves a round of questions. Field I says "none known" rather than inventing a deadline.

Read it as the CEO would: what exists, for how long, how much, who keeps it, what is uncertain and when part of it gets harder to reach. None of it is a record.

## The covering note

Keep the email around the brief to four sentences: who you are and how you know the company; that its PO mismatch history may interest an AI data licensing program; that the brief is attached and contains no records; and that the CEO can decide whether a short call makes sense. The [client opportunity brief generator](/tools/client-opportunity-brief-generator) can draft that note. Implementation partners will find role-specific advice on the [software implementation partners page](/for/software-implementation-partners) and in [what an ERP implementation partner does](/questions/erp-implementation-partner).

## After the CEO says yes

The company applies and SourceX reviews record classes, rights and qualification. SourceX licenses approved business data directly from companies for AI training and evaluation, and manages the agreement, rights review, data preparation, delivery and payout. How supplier names and prices are handled, SourceX's current data needs and any offer stay unknown until that review. The [worked exception example](/guides/purchase-order-mismatch-resolution-exception-examples) shows the kind of case field H refers to, and the [procurement approvals guide](/guides/how-to-assess-procurement-approvals-and-exception-workflows) applies the same test before a PO exists.

The company needs 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded), a documented operating history, rights to license and an authorized contact. Companies in the U.S., Canada and the EU qualify, as do companies in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, South Africa, Latin America, the UAE and Saudi Arabia when at least 90% of the data is in English. Partners sign the Channel Partner Agreement before submitting; the first valid introduction within the 90-day window is credited when the company submits a verified application.

Your reward is calculated on what SourceX actually pays the company and is funded separately, so it never comes out of the company's payment. A reward becomes payable after SourceX has paid the referred company under its signed agreement and the payout conditions in the program terms are met, including finance approval and your tax and payment details. See [how rewards work](/rewards).

## Next step

> **Refer a company. Earn up to $100,000.** Default reward: 25% of Actual Supplier Payout, capped at $100,000 cumulatively per referred company. Eligibility and payment conditions apply, and a signed Schedule A or addendum can differ. A lead, meeting or signature alone does not trigger payment.

When every field is filled or marked unknown and field J holds true, [register as a partner](/register), confirm the company on [who qualifies](/who-qualifies) and read the [program terms](/terms) before the procure-to-pay head forwards the brief.

## Sources

- https://docs.oracle.com/cd/A60725_05/html/comnls/us/po/revnum.htm
- https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_S4HANA_ON-PREMISE/b7eb2f9e70ab4c88abbff8b34a409b26/ec236b54f94c8f4ce10000000a4450e5.html
- https://docs.oracle.com/cd/A60725_05/html/comnls/us/ap/point04.htm
- https://refer.sourcex.si/terms