PO invoices may occasionally import into the portal with a "Math Error." This article is intended to provide you an understanding of what causes Math Errors, and to inform you of the steps you can take to correct them
Introduction
When reviewing invoices, you may encounter a "Math Error," which occurs when the calculated Extended Amount (Unit Price multiplied by Quantity) for a line item does not match the Extended Amount that was entered during processing. For example, if a Quantity of 0.75, a Unit Price of 172.22, and an Extended Amount of 129.16 were entered during the processing stage, a Math Error would occur; this is because 0.75 x 172.22 equals 129.165, which rounds up to 129.17, not matching the entered value of 129.16. This often happens because the processor enters the values displayed on the invoice image, which might itself reflect incorrect calculations, but may also occur if the processor made a mistake and did not enter the values shown on the invoice image.
Invoices with Math Errors initially import into an "EA Verification" or "Portal Verification" status (see the following article for more information on this status: https://www.nimbello.com/support/what-is-ea-verification-status). From there, the invoice may be manually moved by a user into a "Verification" status for further review and correction. When a Math Error is detected, a comment is logged in the Notes section of the Invoice Details page to highlight the discrepancy:
Normal Correction
To resolve this, you can update the Unit Price, the Quantity, or both to achieve the desired Extended Amount.
In the below example, a Math Error is corrected by updating the Unit Price from 172.22 to 172.213333:
Alternative Correction
However, there may be scenarios where adjusting the Unit Price or Quantity to achieve the desired Extended Amount isn’t feasible. This most often happens for clients who do not find fractional quantities acceptable; if you cannot adjust the Quantity because you require it to be a whole number, and the Quantity is very large, then you may not be able to correct the math error by just adjusting the Unit Price. For example, if the line’s Quantity is 75008, and the desired Extended Amount is 19340.25, you cannot reach that Extended Amount by just adjusting the Unit Price to the 6th decimal without also adjusting the Quantity (75008 x 0.257842 = 19340.21; 75008 x 0.257843 = 19340.28).
A common way to address this issue is by using an Adjustment line. An Adjustment line is an Additional Charges line used to correct any difference between the Subtotal and Total, whenever the desired Extended Amount for one or more of the invoice lines cannot be achieved.
An Adjustment line would be entered with a PO Line # of 'Y' (to approve the charge), no Product Number, and the Description "Adjustment." The extended amount of the line would be calculated to correct the difference between the subtotal and total (in this case, -$0.04 would correct the difference):
