Streamline invoice reconciliation with the Pay by Invoice report

For many procurement professionals, reconciling invoices can feel like an uphill battle. From gathering records and data to manually matching, processes can be time consuming and error-prone. This makes it hard to focus on what really matters for your business—ensuring transactions are accurate and aligned with business goals.

The Amazon Business Analytics Pay by Invoice report is a new feature specifically designed to tackle these common challenges. With easy-to-work-with formats and customizable templates, this simplified reporting solution fits seamlessly into your workflows and can help you improve accuracy, reduce errors, and save time.

"The introduction of this feature reinforces our strategy to provide tools that address core business challenges that help businesses reduce their operational costs and achieve greater financial oversight."

- Tai Koottatep, Director, Worldwide B2B Payments & Lending, Amazon

How to use the Pay by Invoice report to improve reconciliation
Developed in response to customer feedback, the Pay by Invoice report helps account administrators reconcile faster and more accurately. Here’s how it achieves that:

1. Access data in intuitive formats
The Pay by Invoice report provides invoice data in Excel and CSV formats. These easy-to-work-with files include all of the critical details you need to reconcile orders and match up with the values included on your PDF invoice.

Customize your Pay by Invoice report and include the values that matter to you by adjusting the columns and adding values such as:

• Charges
• Refunds
• Order ID
• Fees
• Tax rates
• Payment status
• Cost center
• Custom fields, and more

By enabling this level of accessibility from a centralized report, we removed the step of manually converting data into a functional format—making it easier for you to access the data you need faster. The result? Reduced frustration and improved efficiency.

2. Save time with simplified reporting
The Pay by Invoice report comes with core reporting capabilities designed to save you time and effort, including:

• Filters: Quickly narrow down the data to what’s relevant.
• Custom time period selection: Easily review specific billing cycles.
• Bulk downloading: Speed up data collection no matter how many orders you’re reconciling or how complex your spend.
• Adjustable columns: Focus on the fields that are relevant to your organization and add custom columns. You can also create and save templates for future use.

These capabilities enable you to streamline the reconciliation process, ensuring accuracy and clarity even when dealing with large datasets. 

3. Customize your reports to adapt to your unique business needs
One of the most frustrating parts of reconciliation involves building and rebuilding reports to adapt to your workflows and processes. To minimize repetitive work, the Pay by Invoice report allows you to build and save customizable templates tailored to your organization’s needs.

Add or remove more than 65 columns to make your reports work for you and align with your reconciliation needs. Adjust your columns to include or remove details like ASIN, UNSPSC, shipment status, seller name, delivery status, and more. Once you’ve adjusted your columns to add the details you need, click “Add a title and save to your templates,” then input your template name and “Save as a new report” to use your adjusted report again in the future. 

4. Get seamless access to download history
The Pay by Invoice report includes a download history function to help you easily access archived reports or confirm historic reconciliation data. This feature reduces the risk of misplaced or duplicate reports—keeping workflows uninterrupted and helping you maintain audit trails. 

How the Pay by Invoice report solves practical reconciliation challenges
By directly addressing reconciliation challenges, the Pay by Invoice report provides specific benefits to professionals tasked with managing organizational spend data, helping accounts payable teams:

• Improve accuracy: Access reliable data, using tools like adjustable columns and customizable templates.
• Save time: Automate repetitive tasks and use filters to reduce the time needed to analyze and reconcile invoices.
• Access flexible report formats: Consolidate spend data and leverage intuitive templates to analyze trends more clearly.
• Reduce manual tasks: From accessible file formats to bulk downloads, report features are designed with efficiency in mind—removing redundant and error-prone manual processes. 

"We designed the Pay by Invoice report with direct input from our customers, ensuring it delivers the ease and adaptability they need for accurate and efficient reconciliation."

- Vikram Ramadoss, Principal Product Manager, Amazon Business

Note: Pay by Invoice, an invite-only invoice solution for eligible Amazon Business customers, simplifies procurement with standard 30-day payment terms and easy invoice management. Learn more about Pay by Invoice.