> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.mercora.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Discrepancies
> How Mercora checks a document against its trade, what it compares, how severe each difference is, and how to review and resolve discrepancies. Also covers the expected documents checklist.
Once a document is [matched](https://docs.mercora.io/documents/matching.md) to a trade, Mercora compares it with the trade, and with its shipment if it belongs to one, and flags anything that doesn't line up, such as a discharge port on the packing list that differs from the B/L, or a price that doesn't match the contract. Each difference is a **discrepancy**. You decide what each one means: an acceptable difference, or a real problem to fix. This is the last step before you approve a document in the [Inbox](https://docs.mercora.io/documents/inbox.md).
The examples on this page come from the aluminium trade ALU-2026-0012 of Veltana Metals SA, bought from Altamira Metals DMCC and sold to Extrunord Metallwerke GmbH, shipped on the CORMORANT BAY under B/L CBAY-JEA-RTM-88213.
> [!NOTE]
>
> **Before you start:** discrepancy checks run on documents matched to a trade, so they need the **Trades** module. Resolving discrepancies needs permission to edit documents. Ask your workspace admin.
## What Mercora compares against
Each trade builds up a record of its agreed terms and facts: the contract or recap, the trade's legs, and what the trade's approved documents have already established. A new document is compared field by field with that record.
The checks run when the document is matched to the trade, and again when:
* you edit one of the document's fields,
* you click **Run checks** on the document,
* another document on the same trade is approved, which can change the trade's record.
## What gets checked
The core commercial documents get a full check: **contracts**, **recaps**, **amendments**, **invoices**, **letters of credit**, **documentary credit advices**, **B/Ls** and **railway B/Ls**. Their parties, product, quantities and weights, prices and amounts, ports, dates, terms and references are compared.
Every other document type, such as certificates, packing lists and insurance certificates, is compared only on the physical facts it carries: **product**, **quantity and weights**, **loading and discharge ports**, and **vessel**. Container seal numbers are compared on every document that lists containers.
### Severity
| Severity | Typical fields | Example |
| - | - | - |
| **Critical** | Unit price, totals, subtotal, tax and final amounts; buyer and seller; loading and discharge ports; product; contract status | The packing list for ALU-2026-0012 says the cargo discharges at Rotterdam, Netherlands; the shipment says Antwerp, Belgium. |
| **Warning** | Quantities and weights outside tolerance; laycan, invoice, due, B/L, issue and expiry dates; shipper, consignee, notify party and banks; origin and destination; payment terms, incoterms, currency and unit; container and bag counts, container weights and seals; invoice, L/C and B/L numbers | The weight certificate gives container GCLU4021440 seal GSL7152207; the trade has GSL7152270. |
| **Info** | Shipment checks Mercora can't fully trust: when a document covers several B/Ls and Mercora can't isolate the part for this shipment, its differences with the shipment are lowered to Info. | |
Prices and amounts must match exactly. Quantities and weights are allowed the trade's quantity tolerance, taken from its contract or letter of credit. If the contract doesn't state a tolerance, Mercora allows 5%.
## When Mercora holds back
A wrong warning wastes your time and a wrong "all clear" is worse, so when Mercora can't be sure a comparison is fair, it skips the check rather than guess. In practice:
* **Wording differences don't count.** "Santos" and "Port of Santos, Brazil", or a company name written two ways, are treated as the same when they mean the same thing. A discrepancy is raised only when the values actually conflict.
* **Number formats don't count.** `1.234,56`, `1,234.56` and `12'500` are read the way they're printed. When a number could be read two ways, the check passes if either reading fits.
* **Units are converted.** Kilograms, pounds and metric tonnes are compared on the same basis. If a unit isn't recognized, the check is skipped rather than assumed to be tonnes.
* **Weights are only compared with weights.** A gross weight is never compared with a contract quantity.
* **Multi-leg trades.** When a trade has several legs with different quantities and the document doesn't say which leg it's for, quantity checks are skipped.
* **Document dates aren't compared.** Each document has its own issue date, so differences there aren't discrepancies.
* **Purchase and sale contracts.** The sale contract is the reference. A purchase contract is compared only on product, quantity, ports and dates, never on price, incoterms, payment terms or parties, because those differ by design: that's your margin.
* **B/L numbers.** A trade can have several B/Ls. A document is only flagged for a B/L number the trade doesn't know about yet.
## Reviewing discrepancies in the Inbox
Open discrepancies appear at the top of a document's review panel in the [Inbox](https://docs.mercora.io/documents/inbox.md), under a heading such as **3 open discrepancies**, above the extracted fields. Documents with open discrepancies sit in **Needs you**, under **Review**, with a status such as **2 disc.**
Each discrepancy is a card with the field, its severity, and two values: the value on the document (**Doc**) and the value it was compared with. Click a card to highlight the value on the document. What the card compares with, and the buttons it offers, depend on what it checks:
| Card | Compared with | Buttons |
| - | - | - |
| **Trade discrepancy** | The trade's record: **Trade** | **Approve**, **Decline**, **Note…** |
| **Shipment discrepancy** | The shipment the document belongs to: **Shipment** | **Keep doc value**, **Keep shipment value**, **Note…** |
A document that belongs to a shipment, such as a B/L, packing list or weight certificate, can carry both kinds. The same container seal can be flagged twice: once against the shipment and once against the trade.
The weight certificate for ALU-2026-0012 with both kinds of card: two shipment discrepancies (seal and discharge port) and one trade discrepancy on the same seal.
### Trade discrepancies: Approve, Decline, Note…
A trade discrepancy: the weight certificate's seal for container GCLU4021440 differs from the trade, GSL7152207 against GSL7152270.
| Action | When to use it | What happens |
| - | - | - |
| **Approve** | The difference is acceptable, for example within what was agreed by email. | It's marked **Approved**. The trade's value stands. |
| **Decline** | It's a real problem that needs fixing at the source. | It's marked **Declined — needs fixing** and included as a correction when you [request a correction](https://docs.mercora.io/documents/inbox.md#request-a-correction). |
| **Note…** | You want to record why. | The note is saved on the discrepancy. Press Enter to save, Esc to cancel. |
### Shipment discrepancies: Keep doc value, Keep shipment value, Note…
Documents that belong to a shipment are also checked against that shipment's record. These cards are labelled **Shipment** instead of **Trade**, and you decide which value is right.
A critical shipment discrepancy: the shipment says Antwerp, Belgium; the packing list and contract say Rotterdam, Netherlands.
| Action | When to use it | What happens |
| - | - | - |
| **Keep doc value** | The document is right and the shipment is wrong. | It's marked **Approved**, and the shipment is updated with the document's value: straight away if the document is already on the shipment, otherwise when you approve the document. This applies to the shipment's own fields: quantity, vessel and IMO, loading and discharge ports, B/L number and date, and ETD. For a single container's weight or seal, the decision is recorded but nothing on the shipment changes. |
| **Keep shipment value** | The shipment is right and the document is wrong. | The shipment stays as it is, and the discrepancy is marked **Declined — needs fixing**. |
| **Note…** | You want to record why. | The note is saved on the discrepancy. |
In the example above, choosing **Keep doc value** moves the shipment's discharge port to Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Resolved discrepancies of both kinds stay listed, muted, under the open ones, so you can see what was decided. Click **Undo** on one to put it back to open.
### If Mercora misread the document
Sometimes the document is right and Mercora read it wrong. Double-click the **Doc** value to correct it, then press Enter. Mercora checks the document again, and the discrepancy disappears if the corrected value matches. Container seal values can't be edited this way.
### Approving the document
When you approve a document, its open **trade** discrepancies are accepted with it. The line next to **Approve** says so, for example "accepts 2 differences". Review each one before you approve.
Open **shipment** discrepancies aren't accepted by approving. They stay open on the shipment, where you can resolve them later. In the example below, the packing list has 23 open discrepancies, but the line reads "Stays on CBAY-JEA-RTM-88213 · accepts 1 difference": only the one trade discrepancy is accepted.
The packing list for ALU-2026-0012 disagrees with shipment CBAY-JEA-RTM-88213 on the discharge port and on container weights and seals.
## Discrepancies on a trade
A trade's **Discrepancies** tab lists the trade discrepancies raised on the trade's documents, under **Open** and **Resolved**. Each row shows the field, its severity, its status, the source document and when it was raised. Click a row to open the document in the Inbox, where you resolve it.
When everything has been handled, the tab says "All discrepancies on this trade have been handled."
Shipment discrepancies are listed on the shipment's own **Discrepancies** tab instead. Click a row there to open its card and choose **Keep doc value** or **Keep shipment value** without going back to the Inbox. See [Shipments](https://docs.mercora.io/trades/shipments.md) and [Trades overview](https://docs.mercora.io/trades/overview.md).
## Expected documents
A trade's **Documents** tab also has an **Expected Documents** checklist: the documents the trade still needs, so you can see at a glance what's missing.
* **Where the list comes from.** Mercora builds it from the document requirements written into the trade's contract and letter of credit. It's marked **Contract/LC** when it was built that way. Click **Generate**, or **Refresh** after a new contract or L/C arrives.
* **Ticking items off.** When a document is approved on the trade, Mercora ticks off the requirement it fulfils, even if the document's type is general, for example a phytosanitary certificate read as a compliance certificate.
* **Progress.** The card shows how many required documents have arrived, for example "Required documents 10/10", and "All expected documents received" once the list is complete.
* **Editing the list.** Click an item's status icon to mark it **Pending**, **Satisfied** or **Not needed**, or to **Remove** it. Click **Add** to add a document the contract doesn't mention, with its stage and whether it's required.
A terminated trade expects no further documents.
Every document the contract and L/C require for sugar trade VCS-S-2026-0714 has arrived: 10/10.
You need permission to edit trades to generate or change the checklist. Everyone who can see the trade can read it.
## Who can do what
Approving, declining and noting discrepancies, keeping a document or shipment value, and correcting document values need permission to edit documents. See [Roles and permissions](https://docs.mercora.io/concepts/roles-and-permissions.md).
## Next steps
> **[Trades overview](https://docs.mercora.io/trades/overview.md)**
>
> See the trade your approved documents built: legs, documents and discrepancies.
> **[Trade financials](https://docs.mercora.io/trades/financials.md)**
>
> Follow the invoices and payments on the trade.
> **[Shipments](https://docs.mercora.io/trades/shipments.md)**
>
> Work through a shipment's discrepancies and cargo.
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