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A document has to be on the right trade before Mercora can check it and you can approve it. Mercora does most of the finding; this page shows how to read its suggestion and settle the trade yourself.
Matching needs the Trades module and a role with access to trades. Without the module, documents complete on their own and there’s nothing to match.

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What Mercora does

  • Links it itself when it’s sure: a trade reference, contract number, deal reference or B/L number that identifies exactly one trade, or strong evidence across the parties, product, quantity, vessel and dates. The panel says why, for example “B/L RCLLCH2607841 on the document”, and the checks run straight away.
  • Recommends a trade when it’s less sure. The trade is pre-selected with a Recommended label and a reason, but nothing is linked until you click Match.
  • Doesn’t guess when a reference fits more than one trade, or when it has nothing to go on. The document waits under Match in Needs you as Unmatched.
Either way, you still approve the document, and you can change the trade.
The Match step with a recommended trade and the Match button

Purchase contract VCS-P-2026-0688 arrives unmatched, and Mercora recommends sugar trade VCS-S-2026-0714.

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Match a document yourself

1

Open the document

Unmatched documents are in the Inbox, under Needs you › Match.
2

Choose the trade

Click the Trade field. Suggested trades come first, then trades with the Same vessel or Same product, then Other trades. Type to search by trade, contract, counterparty, product or vessel.
3

Click Match

Mercora links the document and checks it against the trade. The step then shows ✓ Match and Checked, with the number of differences.
Several at once: in the Match section, tick the documents (shift-click for a range), choose the trade in Assign selected documents, and click Assign N documents. Esc cancels. No trade: for a document that belongs to no trade, choose No trade at the bottom of the list and click Match. You’ll then approve it with Approve without a trade. If you choose a trade when you upload, the documents go straight onto it.

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Starting a trade from a contract or recap

When no trade carries a contract or recap yet, the Trade list offers New trade from this contract (or from this recap), and Mercora may recommend it. Click Approve: the approval flow creates the trade. Nothing is created until you approve. Mercora never puts a document on a trade leg by itself. You set a contract’s purchase or sale leg when you approve it; other documents sit on the trade as a whole.
The Match step recommending a new trade from a contract

No trade carries ALU-2026-0012 yet, so Mercora recommends a new trade from purchase contract P-2026-0893.

If your workspace uses the Contracts module, a document whose contract number matches a standalone contract stays on that contract, shown as “On contract number · no trade”.

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Change or remove the trade

Before approving: click Change next to ✓ Match, pick another trade (or No trade) and click Match. If you’ve already resolved discrepancies against the current trade, they’re dropped, and the button reads Match anyway. After approving: open the ⋯ menu, choose Reassign to Trade, and pick the new trade or Unmatched (remove from trade). For shipping documents, Mercora then offers the new trade’s shipments. This also works from a trade’s Documents tab. If a trade is created or changed while documents wait for a match, Mercora tries matching them again (“Matching it again after a trade changed…”).

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Next steps