Unit of measure normalization
Converting contract and invoice quantities to a common unit before any price comparison.
A contract priced per square compared to an invoice priced per bundle produces an enormous variance that is not a variance at all. Per thousand versus per piece, per roll versus per linear foot, and case versus each all cause the same failure.
Normalization needs two things: a canonical unit per product family, and a per-supplier alias table because suppliers spell units differently (EA, EACH, EA., PC, PCE).
Normalize first, compare second. A tool that compares before normalizing will bury the real findings under noise, and the team will stop trusting the report within a week.
Related terms
- Price variance — The difference between the unit price a supplier billed and the contracted price in effect on the invoice date.
- Column mapping profile — A saved translation between one supplier's file layout and the fields the audit engine needs.
See this on your own invoices
Audit your first 500 invoice lines free. No card, no sales call.