Rhythm uses your file mapping before it searches for an invoice. When it reads a bank’s lockbox file, it translates each row into Rhythm’s invoice fields using the column mapping you set up for that file. After that translation, Rhythm looks for a matching invoice.
The Cheque Amount Must Be a Plain Number
Rhythm reads the column you map to Payment Amount as a number, without cleaning currency symbols or thousands separators. A value such as $50 or 1,200.00 is not recognized as a number. When Rhythm cannot read the amount, it takes no action on that row and does not match it to an invoice, even if the rest of the row is correct. If a lockbox row is skipped unexpectedly, check that the amount column in the source file contains only plain digits and, at most, a decimal point.
What a Member Can Write to Identify the Invoice
Rhythm looks for an invoice using the value the member wrote in the mapped invoice-reference column. It tries these matches in order, based on what that value looks like:
| What was written | How Rhythm matches it | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| A full invoice identifier | Rhythm looks for an exact, case-sensitive match against that identifier. | A lower-case version of the identifier does not match this way. |
| An order number | Rhythm matches the first invoice created under that order. | If the order has more than one invoice, such as an order billed in installments, only its first invoice is matched this way. A cheque intended for a later installment is matched to the first invoice instead. |
| An invoice number | Rhythm looks for any invoice in your Rhythm account with that number. | If more than one invoice shares the same number, the matched invoice is not predictable; it is simply the first one the lookup returns. If the member wrote a trailing installment suffix, meaning a hyphen followed by digits, Rhythm removes that suffix before searching. |
| A work-order identifier | Rhythm looks for an invoice carrying that identifier. | This is a narrower, less commonly used matching path alongside the three above. |
If Rhythm cannot find a matching invoice through any of these paths, it marks the row not matched with the message Invoice not found and does not process it.
Tip
An order number with extra characters that Rhythm’s own order identifiers do not use, such as a hyphen right after the order prefix, will not build an identifier Rhythm recognizes. Rhythm leaves that row unmatched. Encourage members who write an order number on a cheque to copy it exactly as it appears on their invoice or receipt.