Glossary
Purchasing and finance, in plain language.
Anyone who works with purchasing, invoices or the annual accounts runs into a lot of jargon. Here are the key terms explained: what they mean, why they matter and how Fiatto works with them.
Three-way match
A check that compares the invoice with the purchase order and with what was actually received.
In a three-way match you put three documents side by side: the purchase order, the goods receipt and the invoice. If quantity and price agree on all three, the invoice can go through. That way you never pay for something that was not ordered or never delivered, and finance only has to review the exceptions.
How it works in Fiatto
Fiatto matches every invoice against the order and the receipt; if it fits, it goes through, and if it differs, finance sees only that exception, with the reason attached. Learn more →
Commitment
Money you have already promised, even though the invoice has not arrived yet.
As soon as an order is approved, the money is effectively spoken for: the supplier will deliver and invoice later. That promise is called a commitment. If you only look at booked invoices, you see budget and cash being used when it is too late to steer.
How it works in Fiatto
As soon as a request is approved, Fiatto records the commitment, before the invoice exists. Learn more →
Budget check before approval
A request is checked against the remaining budget before anyone approves it.
With a budget check afterwards, you only find out at the invoice that a budget has run out. If you check before approval, the approver sees how much is left at the moment of deciding. An overrun then becomes a conscious choice instead of a surprise at the end of the month.
How it works in Fiatto
In Fiatto a request goes to whoever may decide, with the remaining budget alongside it, and the budget is checked before approval. Learn more →
Duplicate invoice
The same invoice arriving twice and, without a check, being paid twice.
A supplier sends a reminder, an invoice arrives by email and by post, or someone enters it twice. Without a check you pay twice, and that often only shows up in a review afterwards, when the money has already gone. Getting it back then takes time and an awkward conversation.
How it works in Fiatto
If the same invoice comes in again, by email, Peppol or upload, Fiatto stops it before it reaches the payment run. Learn more →
Peppol
An international network over which companies send each other e-invoices in a fixed, machine-readable format.
A Peppol e-invoice is not a PDF but structured data that an accounting system can read without retyping. Sender and receiver are each reachable through a connected provider, based for example on their company registration number. In Belgium, e-invoicing between businesses has been mandatory since 2026, and Peppol is the standard channel there.
How it works in Fiatto
Invoices via Peppol arrive in Fiatto alongside invoices by email or upload and go through the same duplicate check; for Belgian companies Fiatto routes Peppol on the enterprise number. Learn more →
Four-eyes principle
An important action only goes through once two different people have looked at it.
The four-eyes principle stops one person from pushing through a large expense or a sensitive change on their own. A second person checks and approves. That catches mistakes and makes fraud much harder, because someone is always looking along.
How it works in Fiatto
Above the threshold you set, two people sign, and with four eyes on bank details a new supplier account number only takes effect after a second administrator approves it. Learn more →
Segregation of duties
Tasks that together create a risk are held by different people.
Segregation of duties (SoD) means nobody controls an entire process alone. Whoever creates suppliers should not also prepare payments. When such rights sit with one person, a mistake or fraud can go unnoticed, because nobody else sees it.
How it works in Fiatto
Fiatto shows which combinations of rights in the purchasing chain are risky and who currently holds them together; each conflict becomes a card in the action centre, so you resolve it or accept it deliberately. Learn more →
Delegation of authority (DoA)
Agreed rules on who may decide on behalf of the company, and up to what amount.
A delegation of authority matrix records, per role and amount, who may approve. A budget holder might sign up to a certain amount, with the controller or management needed above it. If that only lives in people's heads and emails, someone else suddenly signs during holidays or after staff turnover.
How it works in Fiatto
In the approval matrix you record per role and amount who may approve; if someone is away, a designated deputy approves temporarily, and that is in the audit trail too. Learn more →
Audit trail
A record of who did what and when, so you can find it later and prove it.
An audit trail shows how a decision came about: who requested something, who approved it, what was changed and when. For your auditor it is the evidence that the agreed rules were actually followed. Loose emails, chats and spreadsheets do not add up to a reliable trail, because they can be changed and are hard to find again.
How it works in Fiatto
In Fiatto every approval, change and review is in an immutable audit trail, with decision, owner and documents from the request onwards. Learn more →
IFRS 16 (lease accounting)
The international reporting standard for leases, which brings most leases onto the balance sheet as an asset and a liability.
Under IFRS 16 a lessee recognises a right-of-use asset and a lease liability for almost every lease. Only short-term leases and leases of low-value assets can stay off. After that, the liability and the right-of-use asset are updated every period with interest and depreciation, which is a lot of calculation for a large lease portfolio.
How it works in Fiatto
Fiatto runs IFRS 16 lease accounting for lessee and lessor, with register, schedule and ledger equal to the cent from one calculation engine, and a PDF audit file per lease. Learn more →
Want to see how this works in your own process?
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