Invoice Approval Processing Version

Contents

Overview

This topic outlines how to set up and use the invoice approval process. Buyers and anyone who creates or approves invoices should find parts of the discussion useful. The information also will be of interest to system administrators. This feature is available for Supply Chain and Financials.

The invoice approvals process enables designated approvers to review and approve or reject invoices created in the system. Any purchase order invoice, manually-created invoice, or recurring invoice can be put into the approval process. Approval routing is also supported for EDI 810 invoices for blanket, standing, bill-only, and regular purchase orders.

You can require approval for an invoice by settings as follows:

• On the invoice itself, you can designate approvers. This designation routes the invoice through the approval process.
• On a blanket, standing, regular, or bill-only requisition or PO, by assigning approvers. If a PO of these types is invoiced via an EDI 810, the assigned approvers propagate to the EDI 810 invoice.
• On the organization record, you can set a field that specifies approval for all manual invoices in the organization, and optionally, review of distribution lines.
• On an AP vendor record, you can require that all invoices for the vendor in designated organizations are automatically routed to assigned approvers. (You can also turn off automatic routing for EDI 810 blanket PO invoices, and require approval of blanket invoices by approvers that you assign manually.)

The invoice approvals process, similar to requisition approval, allows invoices to be reviewed by a single “direct” approver or routed to several approvers in an invoice approver group. Invoices are routed within the group based on the amount of each invoice, and each group member's approval dollar limit. In the routing process, an invoice’s Total is compared to each approver's Maximum Approval Limit to determine whether the approver needs to review the invoice. Each member of an approver group can approve or reject invoices up to his/her dollar limit. (Two users in the same group cannot have the same dollar limit, however.)

Each approver has an approval queue that contains invoices awaiting approval. An approver can select an invoice from the queue for review and approve or reject the invoice, or do neither. The system can send a notification to an approver when an invoice is placed on the person's queue. Notifications can also be sent to the creator of the invoice when the invoice is approved or rejected.

You can attach documents and emails to an invoice using Microsoft Outlook. You can create emails while editing or viewing an invoice and view existing documents attached to the invoice.

While invoices are pending approval, the existing unapproved invoice accrual process automatically generates the auto-reversing GL Accrual transactions.

In the Process Flows section of the online help The Approval Process for Invoices, Check Requests, Requisitions, and Vendors: Setup and Flow may be useful.

Financial Reporting Fields

Invoice Groups

Invoices in Invoice Groups can take advantage of the approvals process. The status of an Invoice Group is "Approved" only when all invoices in the Invoice Group are approved.

Security

Role Objects for Invoice Approval Processing

Role Objects control access to approver group edits and invoice approval queues. You may need to change the settings of role objects for users who work with and administer invoice approvals.

The documentation topic Set Up and Maintain Users, Administration, and Security explains role objects in more detail.

The role objects for invoice approval routing are:

Distribution Approvals: To edit an invoice distribution line, the "Invoicing" role object must be set to Create.

See Set Up Buyers, Approvers, and Approver Groups for security details.

Set Up Invoice Approvals Processing

Setup for invoice approvals processing involves the following:

• Identifying users who are approvers.
• Selecting notification options for users who create invoices and users who approve invoices.
• Setting approver limits, including a dollar limit for direct approvers, if desired.
• Assigning an "approver buddy" to review invoices when the approver is not available.
• Creating approver groups.
• Reviewing, and changing (if needed) security role object settings for members of approver groups and users who maintain approver groups.
• Entering Reason Codes to be used in approving or rejecting an invoice.
• Setting up approval reminders. Details are in the topic Approval reminders and redirected approvals.

Designate a User as an Approver

Users who approve invoices (including members of approver groups) must have the authorization User is Invoice Approver selected on the Roles tab of their user profile.

Notes:
You can also set an approver buddy for a user by clicking the down arrow next to Invoice Approver Buddy and making a selection (Figure 2).
Details for setting up different kinds of approvers is in the topic Set up buyers, approvers, and approval groups. The discussion of invoice approvers (in this section) is repeated from that document.

To set the User Is Invoice Approver field:

1. On the user profile, click the User Roles tab to open the User Roles panel.
2. Click the box next to User is Invoice Approver (Figure 1).
3. Click Save and Submit.

Figure 1 - Designating a User as an Invoice Approver

Setting the Dollar Limit for invoice Direct Approvers

Assigning each direct invoice approver a dollar limit for invoices lets you better control approval processing. This enhancement also makes it easier to allow some approvers only authority for small dollar invoices.

The dollar limit setting also applies to approvals of invoice credits.

To set a dollar limit for an approver,

1. From Work in Administration on the main Contents, select Administration > Users. The list of users appears.
2. Locate the user of interest who you will set up as an approver.
3. Click the edit icon to edit the user profile.
4. Click the Approver Limits tab (Figure 2).

Figure 2 - The User Profile Approver Limits Panel

5. Enter a dollar value in the Invoice Direct Approval Limit field. The default value of this field is $0.00, which means “no limit.”
6. Click Save and Submit to leave the panel and return to the list of users.

Set an Approver's Notification Type and Approver Buddy

Users who approve invoices have the option to be notified when an invoice has been added to their Invoice Approval Queue.

To set an approver's notification options, approver buddy, and other options, open the person's user profile as follows:

1. From Work in Administration on the main Contents, select Administration > Users. The list of users appears.
2. Locate the user of interest who you will set up as an approver.
3. Click the edit icon to edit the user profile.
4. Click the Approver Limits tab (Figure 3).

   

   Figure 3 - Setting the Invoice Approval Notification for an Invoice Approver

5. Click the prompt next to the Invoice Approver Buddy field to select an approver buddy for the user, as appropriate.
   
   When the user goes out of the office (Out of Office is selected), approver buddies will take over the user's approvals.
   Note: Approvers can change their own out-of-office settings from the Misc Functions menu in the main Contents. Select Misc Functions > Change My Out-of-Office Status.
6. If the approver wants to be notified when a requisition, invoice, check request, or journal voucher has been submitted for approval, select Email on Submission in the appropriate Invoice Submit Notify Type field(s).
7. The Invoice Direct Approval Limit field lets you set a dollar limit when the user is a direct approver. Assigning each direct invoice approver a dollar limit lets you better control the amounts that direct approvers’  can handle. This field makes it easier to assign some users to approve only small dollar invoices.
8. Click the Help button for detailed information on panel fields.
9. Click Submit to return to the Users list.

Invoice Approver Buddy Dollar Limits

When a direct approver wishes to designate an Invoice Approver Buddy, only users with an equal or greater dollar limit than the Direct Approver are available for selection from the drop list. This restriction ensures that a direct approver's approver buddies are authorized to approve invoice the appropriate dollar amounts when the Direct Approver is unavailable.

When a direct approver's Dollar Limit is edited to change to a lower value, and he/she is assigned as a Invoice Approver Buddy to other approvers, the system displays an error message and lists all of the approvers' names to which he/she is assigned as a approver buddy. The error message explains that the Dollar Limit change is invalid because the user is an Approver Buddy for other direct approvers who have higher dollar limits.

Set the Notification Type for Invoice Originators

Users who create invoices have the option of being notified when an invoice has been approved or rejected by an invoice approver.

1. On the user profile, click the AP Limits tab to open the AP Limits panel.
2. For the field Invoice Approval Notify Action, click the down arrow and select the appropriate option from the list (Figure 4).
3. Click Save and Submit.

Figure 4 - Setting the Invoice Approval Notification for an Invoice Creator

If you select eMail Approve Or Reject, and your email address is entered in your User Profile, when a notification arrives that you have an invoice to approve, a link within the email notification takes you directly to the transaction needing approval, and avoids your having to navigate manually through ERP after receiving an email message. You can select Approve Invoice or Reject Invoice from the email message. See the discussion below.

Note: The link from an email is only available for Microsoft Internet Explorer. Mobile browsers, Firefox, Chrome, and others are not supported. Of course, you can also access an invoice that needs approval through your approval queue.

Create Invoice Approver Groups

Invoice Approver Groups allow invoices to be routed to multiple approvers. In the routing process, an invoice’s Total is compared to each Approvers Maximum Approval Limit to determine whether the approver needs to review the invoice.

To create an invoice approver group:

1. From the Materials Management or Accounts Payable main Contents, select Invoicing > Invoice Approver Groups.
   The Invoice Approver Groups list appears (Figure 5). If no groups have been set up, No Data appears.

Figure 5 - Invoice Approver Groups List Panel

2. Click New to create a new invoice approver group.
   The Edit panel appears (Figure 6).
3. Enter a name in Approver Group field and a description of the approver group in the Description field.
   The available Approval Method is Sequential, which cannot currently be changed.
4. Click Save and Submit.
   

Figure 6 - Entering Descriptive Information for a New Approver Group

The Invoice Approver Group Edit panel appears (Figure 7). When you add users to the group, they are listed on this panel.

Figure 7 - Approver Group Users Panel: A New Group is Being Created

5. Click New. A panel appears for entering a user name and dollar limit (Figure 8)

Figure 8 - Adding a User to an Approver Group

6. Enter information for the approver in the fields on the panel.
   The Max Approval Limit is the maximum amount of dollars for an invoice that the user can approve.
   Click Help for more information about fields.
7. Click Save and Submit.
   You are returned to the Approver Group Users list.
   Click Refresh to view the user that you just entered.
   To enter more users, go back to Step 5 and follow the steps until your Approver Group is complete (Figure 9).
8. Click Save and Submit on the Invoice Approver Group Edit panel.

Figure 9 - Completed Invoice Approver Group

To restrict an invoice approver group by organization

By restricting approver groups by organization, you can limit user access to them based on users' Data Profiles.
When an approver group has been restricted by organization, it will only appear in lists where the user has Data Profile access to at least one of the restricted organizations.

The Invoice Approver Group Edit panel (Figure 9) displays a tab -- Restricted Orgs -- that allows you to restrict the approver group by organization.

• Click the Restricted Orgs tab, then select from the list of organizations displayed.

When an approver group is restricted by organization, Yes appears in the Restricted column on the Invoice Approver Groups List.

Enter Reason Codes

Reason Codes provide a shorthand method for communicating the reason for approval or rejection. They are required when an invoice approver approves or rejects an invoice. The approver selects a Reason Code from a list that you or your system administrator creates.

To create Reason Codes for approvers to select:

1. From the Accounts Payable main Contents, select Tables > Reason for Approval Rejection.
   A list of reason codes appears, or No Data if none have been created.
2. To create a new Reason Code, click New.
   The Reason for Approval Rejection panel appears.
3. Enter the new Reason Code and its description in the appropriate fields.
4. Click Save and Submit.
5. Refresh the Reason Codes list. The new code appears.

Set Up Vendor Approvals

Vendor Approvals are an optional way to allow the invoice approval settings on an invoice to default automatically based on the invoice vendor. For any vendor, define either the Direct Approver or Invoice Approver Group for each organization. When an invoice is created for the vendor and organization, the system automatically uses the approval routing set up for the vendor.

To specify settings to automatically route vendor invoices for approval:

Note: Set up Approver Groups first. You will want to assign an Approver Group to a vendor.

1. From the Accounts Payable main Contents, select Vendors > Vendor Approvals for Invoices.
   A list appears containing vendors and organizations set up for automatic invoice approval routing, or No Data if none have been set up.
2. Click New.
   The Vendor Approval edit panel appears (Figure 10)

Figure 10 - The Vendor Approval Edit Panel

3. Enter values in the panel fields.

• Click the prompt in the Vendor No to find and select a vendor number.
• The Organization defaults to the organization in your Current Settings. You can select another organization by clicking the prompt.
• Select either an Approver Group or a Direct Approver.

4. Click Save and Submit. The vendor approval settings are added.
   You are returned to the list of Vendors Approvals.
   Click Refresh to view the vendor approval entry.

Dollar Limits for Approvers Directly Assigned to a Vendor

If the direct approver has been pre-assigned to a vendor, and the approver's limit is not high enough to approve an invoice, you receive a message, for example:

Direct Approver "name" Invoice Direct Approval Limit is insufficient for this invoice. Please assign another approver.

The person creating the invoice cannot go further until a valid approver is designated.

What to do:

Edit the invoice and click the Invoice Direct Approver prompt to select a new approver. The select list only displays users with a dollar limit high enough to approve the invoice. Also, direct approvers on the list have the appropriate Data Profile settings for the organization, department, and asset location (if relevant) on the invoice.

Example

In the invoice below, the Direct Approver assigned to the vendor has a dollar limit of $3,000.00. The invoice amount is $6,000.00 (Figure 11).The user creating the invoice has entered header information, and clicked Save. The application displays an error, and a message below the invoice header that explains that the approver does not have a high enough dollar limit to approve/reject the invoice. In this situation, you must select another approver from the Direct Approver prompt (Figure 12).

Figure 11 - Invoice Whose Dollar Amount Is Above Direct Approver's Limit

Figure 12 - Direct Approvers Selection Field for an Invoice

The selection panel displays approvers with dollar limits appropriate for the invoice amount (Figure 13). The dollar amount is on the panel header.

Figure 13 - Selecting a New Direct Approver for an Invoice

Change a maximum dollar limit for an approver in all approver groups

An approver's maximum dollar limit can be changed simultaneously for all approver groups that the user belongs to.

You can make mass changes from the Materials Management Requisitioning menu, or the Invoicing menu; or from the Accounts Payable Invoicing menu. The mass change feature is similar to other utilities in the system for making mass changes: first, you build the changes that you wish to make; then, you instruct the system to execute the changes.

For detailed instructions on how to change approver limits, see the discussion of mass changes to approvers in the approver setup topic.

Distribution Review for Manually Created (non-PO) Invoice Types

You can set up manually created invoices for review of their distribution lines.
On the Organization Edit panel, click the AP Information tab to select Distribution Review for Manually Created Invoice.

The organization record specifies whether approval of manual invoices is required. The Organization edit panel AP Info tab contains the field:  Dist Review Enabled for Manually Created Invoices (Figure 14, red).

The Dist Review Enabled for Manually Created Invoices optionally allows invoice distribution to be reviewed and approved.  If you want your invoices to require approvals, then check the box Approval Required for Manually Created Invoices (Figure 14, green) as well.  
Note: This field was previously called: Distribution Review for Manually Created Invoices

Figure 14 - Distribution Review Field on the Organization Record

For organizations with the flag checked, two fields for manual invoices allow the selection of either a direct approver or approver group for distribution review (see Figure 15 below). These fields are available on the Approval tab when you create an invoice.

Invoices that are out-of-balance (or otherwise incomplete) can thus be updated and approved or rejected by a distribution review approver or approver group.

Figure 15 - New Approver Fields on the Create Manual Invoice Panel

The approver group may include a Final AP Distribution Direct Approver (AP > Invoicing > Invoice Approver Groups > New). This field is visible on the New Invoice Approver Group panel (Figure 16) for all organizations, because an approver group is not unique to an organization.
- If a Final AP Distribution Direct Approver is designated, out-of-balance invoices can be approved by all reviewers and
  then routed to the Final AP Distribution Direct Approver, who must balance the invoice.
- If the invoice is balanced before it reaches the end of the distribution review group, it will not be routed to the Final AP Distribution  Direct Approver.

Figure 16 - Invoice Approver Group Panel - Final AP Distribution Direct Approver Field

Note: When a manual invoice eligible for distribution review is approved, the period and year are set to the current period and year.

Restricting GL Distribution Accounts

You can set up manual invoice distribution reviews and check request reviews so that approvers can only see GL accounts that are valid, based on the users' Data Profiles, and relevant for distribution/check request review, allowing invoices to be properly categorized.

This feature does the following:

• Allows approvers to see only GL distribution accounts that are valid for the organizations and departments in their data profiles. A new field on the organization record provides this capability (Figure 17).
• Lets accounting staff designate the particular accounts that are used for distribution.

Set Up Distribution Account Restriction

1. Check Distribution Review/Check Request Accounts on the Organization panel GL Info tab (Figure 17).

Figure 17 – Enabling Distribution Review Accounts for an Organization’s Distribution Reviewers

Materials Management or AP main Contents > Tables > Organizations > locate Organization > edit > GL Info tab

Note: If you set the Distribution Review/Check Request Account field for an organization, you must also specify the accounts that are distribution review accounts and vice versa.

2. Identify each account that is a distribution review account by checking the field Distribution Review/Check Request Account on the account record (Figure 18).

Figure 18 – Specifying That a GL Account is a Distribution Review Account

Work in General Ledger > Account Management > GL Accounts > locate account > edit

Using Distribution Account Restriction

When the Distribution Review / Check Request Account field on the Organization record is checked and the appropriate accounts are designated as Distribution Review/ Check Request accounts, this feature works as follows:

Invoice distribution reviewers or check request reviewers: Clicking the GL Account prompt on the invoice or check request Distribution panel (Figure 19) displays only accounts that are valid for the organization(s) and department(s) in your Data Profile and that are designated as Distribution Review/Check Request Account.

Figure 19 – The Distribution Account Field on a Check Request

Accounts Payable main Contents > Check Requests > My Check Requests > locate check request > edit

If you click the GL Account prompt to enter a distribution review account and your organization and/or department is invalid for the invoice or check request, the list of accounts will be blank. Similarly, if you key in an account number that is not designated as a Distribution Review/Check Request Account, an error message also appears.

Note: The Search for the GL accounts list contains a new option for finding distribution review accounts. The list of accounts contains the new quick filter Distribution Review/Check Request Account (Figure 20). The quick filter is only visible when the Distribution Review/Check Request Account field is set for the organization.

Figure 20 – Distribution Review Quick Filter on GL Account Codes List

General Ledger main Contents > Account Management > GL Accounts >

Account mass maintenance users: For account mass maintenance, the new Distribution Review/Check Request Account field is also located on the Select Fields panel and available for sorting the accounts list. On the mass maintenance import, the field defaults to "blank" -- the flag is not set. When a new account is created, by default, the Distribution Review/Check Request Account field is not set.

Sending an Invoice for Approval

When you create an invoice, the Approval tab contains fields where you identify the person or Approver Group responsible for approving the invoice.

To identify the Approver Group or direct approver for an invoice:

1. On the Invoice Edit panel, click the Approval tab (Figure 21).

Figure 21 - The Invoice Edit Panel Approval Tab

2. On the Approval panel (Figure 22), use the down arrow to select either the Approver Group or the Direct Approver.

Figure 22 - Fields on the Approval Tabbed Panel

3. Complete other fields on the Approval tab as needed.
   

Your organization may require that you enter either a Direct Approver or Approver Group for manual invoices. If required, and you fail to enter either a direct approver or approver group, Accounts Payable displays an error message.

Your organization may also require distribution reviews.
   The Distribution Review Direct Approver has the authority to review, balance, and approve the distribution lines prior to approval.
   The Distribution Review Approver Group reviews, balances, and approves the distribution lines of the invoice. If the invoice is not  balanced, it will be routed to the Final AP Distribution Direct Approver, who must balance the distribution lines before submitting.

When your organization requires approval for manually created invoices and distribution reviews, entering either a Distribution Review Direct Approver or Distribution Review Approver Group will satisfy the approval requirement.

- If you do select both a Distribution Review Direct Approver and the Direct Approver, and you select the same person for both, the system ignores the Direct Approver, and blanks out that field.

- If you select the same group as the Invoice Approver Group and the Distribution Review Approver Group, the system ignores the Invoice Approver Group selected, and that field is blank.

4. If you wish to change your default Approval Notify Action, select the appropriate value in the Approval Notify Action field.
   • Your user profile has the default setting for notification. The Approval Notify Action on the Approval panel overrides the default.
   • Similarly, if the invoice has exceptions, when the exceptions are cleared, the default Exception Clearing Notify Action setting is on your user profile. The Exception Clearing Notify Action on the Approval panel overrides the default.
5. When you are ready to submit the invoice for approval, click Submit.

• You can change the values on the Approval panel before you submit the invoice. After an invoice has been submitted, the approval fields cannot be changed.
• If you have set up automatic approval routing for a vendor, the Approval panel fields are populated by the system. When you submit the invoice, it routes for approval as specified for the vendor.

Approver Assignments for EDI 810 Invoices

Many sites use auto-approval routing for EDI 810 invoices from specific vendors. Others need the ability to route EDI 810s for approval independently of who the vendor is. For auto approvals, you can assign invoice approvers on a vendor panel to route invoices for that vendor to those approvers (Materials Management main Contents > Vendors > Vendor Approvals for Invoices).

If you do not use auto-approval routing by vendor, you can assign approvers for EDI 810 regular, standing, bill-only, and blanket invoices as follows:

- From the purchase order. The assigned approver/approver group propagates to the EDI 810 invoice and back-copies to the associated requisition.

- From the requisition. The assigned approver/approver group propagates to the associated blanket purchase order and EDI 810 invoice.

- On the EDI 810 invoice (if not assigned on either the PO or the blanket requisition). See Figure 23. The ERP application then back-copies the approver/approver group to the PO and the requisition.

The invoice then routes to the designated approvers.

Figure 23 - Selectable Approver Fields on an EDI 810 Invoice

1. From the Invoices list (Materials Management or AP main Contents > Invoicing > Invoices), locate the invoice of interest.
2. Click the edit icon .
3. Click the Approval tab.
4. Enter the Direct Approver or an Approver Group for the invoice and for distribution review (if needed).
5. Complete the Approval Needed By Date and/or the Approval Notify Action fields, if relevant.
6. Click Finish Now. The invoice routes for approval.

Using the Approval Required Feature for Blanket Invoices

For blanket invoices (only), a field on the Organization record lets you "turn off" automatic approval routing (if you have that feature set up on the vendor), and at the same time, require invoice approvals for EDI 810 blanket POs.

With automatic routing by vendor turned off, you can assign approvers to EDI 810 blanket invoices as follows:

- From the blanket purchase order. The assigned approver/approver group propagates to the associated blanket requisition and EDI 810 invoice.

- From the blanket requisition. The assigned approver/approver group propagates to the associated blanket purchase order and EDI 810 invoice.

- On the EDI 810 invoice (if not assigned on either the PO or the blanket requisition). The ERP application then back-copies the approver/approver group to the PO and the requisition.

See "Setting the Approval Fields on the Organization Record for EDI 810 Blanket Invoices" for details.

To turn off automatic approval routing and require EDI 810 blanket invoice approvals,

The field is: Invoice Approver for Blanket Req/PO required (Figure 24).

1. From the Materials Management main Contents, select Tables > Organizations.
   A list of organizations appears.
2. Locate the organization of interest and click Menu > Edit or the edit icon .
3. Open the AP Info tab.

Figure 24 - The Field Invoice Approvers for Blanket EDI 810 Invoices

Unselected: The default setting is unselected. When the field is unselected, ERP uses any approver/approver group set up on the vendor record for automatic approval routing.

Selected: When you select the field, any approver assignments set up on the vendor panel are ignored, and you must create approver assignments on the invoice (PO, or requisition).

4. Select the field.
5. Click Submit to apply the change and return to the Organization list.

Understanding the PO Generation Logic for Requisitions with Specified Invoice Approvers

Approver assignments propagate from the requisition to the PO to the respective EDI invoice.

How ERP generates POs from requisitions

When a requisition is released, ERP first looks for an existing, unedited PO with the same vendor and buy-from location.
If an open, unedited PO exists,

- ERP adds item lines from the requisition to an the existing PO.

- Identical items are combined on PO lines.  If a PO line for a requisition item is not on the existing PO, then a new line is added.

- For blanket POs, the Dollar Limit on the PO is increased by the Dollar Limit amount on the blanket requisition being added.
 Also, the Expiration Dates are compared. If the new blanket requisition has an Expiration Date later than the existing PO's Expiration Date, the existing PO's Expiration Date is changed to the requisition's Expiration Date.

If no usable PO exists for the vendor buy-from location, a new PO is generated for the requisition.

The correct invoice approvers also need to be included on generated POs

ERP also needs to match the correct requisition/PO with the incoming EDI vendor invoice, and the correct invoice approvers. Since you can assign invoice approvers on requisitions, when multiple requisitions (for the same vendor) contain different invoice approvers, ERP accounts for the invoice approver assignments in generating POs.

- For example, if an open PO already exists for the same vendor with the same invoice approvers, ERP will add the requisition lines to it.

- If no open PO exists for the vendor with the same approvers, then a new PO is created.

Monitoring the Progress of an Invoice Through Approval

Several tools let you monitor the progress of an invoice through approvals.

You should have the notification fields in your user profile set to receive messages about the approval status of your invoices.

• On the User Profile AP Limits panel (Figure 4), set the field Invoice Approval Notify Action to either Email on Reject to be notified of rejections, Email on Approve to be notified of approvals, or Email Approve or Reject to be notified of both. Email Approve or Reject also lets you approver or reject invoices by email if your email address is specified in your User Profile.

Invoices List Panel Columns

• To display the Invoices List panel, from the Materials Management or Accounts Payable main Contents, select Invoicing > Invoices.

- The Invoice Status column displays one of these values for approvals purposes:

Pending Approval - the invoice has been submitted for approval and is being reviewed.

• Only invoices that initially have the Entered status can be changed to Pending Approval. This change occurs when you click Finish Now after entering an invoice with either a Direct Approver or Approver Group assigned.
• Invoices that with the Pending Approval status stay as Pending Approval when an approver group member approves the invoice, but further approvals within the Approver Group are needed.
• Invoices with the Pending Approval status are changed to Approved when an approver group member approves the invoice, and no further approvals within the group are needed.
  

Rejected - the invoice was submitted for approval and rejected by an Invoice Approver.

• Only invoices with the Pending Approval status can be changed to Rejected. The change occurs when an invoice approver rejects the invoice.
• Invoices that are in Rejected status are changed back to Entered when a user makes any change in the invoice.

Note: If the last approver in an Approver Group approves an invoice, the invoice can still end up with the Status of Rejected. This situation occurs if the invoice Total exceeds the last approver's Dollar Limit. The clue to this occurrence is in the Invoice Approval History: the audit shows that the last approver approved the invoice, but the invoice Status changed from Pending Approval to Rejected.

Approved - the invoice was submitted for approval, and was approved.

- The Approver Reviewing column displays the name of the person reviewing the invoice.
The reviewer may be a Direct Approver, or a member of an Approver Group to whom the invoice is currently routed.

Invoices List Search

The Search on the Invoices List panel contains filters -- Pending Approval and Rejected -- that let you sort the list by approval status.

Reviewing, Approving, and Rejecting Invoices

Direct Approvers are solely responsible for the approval or rejection of a submitted invoice. When they approve an invoice, the invoice Status is Approved.

Approver Groups share responsibility for the approval or rejection of a submitted invoice. When a member of an Approver Group approves an invoice, the invoice Status remains at Pending Approval until all eligible approvers in the group have reviewed the invoice. When the last eligible approver approves the invoice, the invoice Status is set to Approved.

Invoices are routed sequentially to each invoice approver in an Approver Group -- according to each approver's Maximum Approval Limit -- until the approver whose dollar limit is greater than the Invoice Total is reached.

When an approver user sets his/her "Out of Office" status, approvals for the user are routed to the users Approver Buddy.

Approvers access invoices waiting for approval through approval queues.

- My Invoice Approval Queue is unique for each approver and shows invoices assigned to the approver.
If you are an invoice approver, this queue contains invoices assigned to you.

- All Invoice Approval Queues shows invoices assigned to all invoice approvers.

- Consolidated Approval Queue shows invoices awaiting approval, and any other transactions documents (such as requisitions) that you are also authorized to approve.

Based on an invoice approver's user profile settings, the approver may be notified by an email when a new invoice is placed in his/her approval queue.

If you are set up to receive email notifications when an invoice is ready for review, you can link directly to the invoice from the email. (See the Notifications Setup section above.) You can also access invoices for review/approval from your approval queue.

Reviewing Invoices in Your Approval Queue

The Accounts Payable (and the Materials Management) main Contents contains menu links to the approval queues.

To review invoices assigned to you:

1. From the Accounts Payable (or Materials Management) main Contents, select Invoicing > My Invoice Approval Queue.
   A list of invoices ready for approval appears. (Figure 25 displays a queue containing one invoice.)
   The Invoice Status is Pending Approval (Figure 25, red arrow).
   The Review Status (Figure 25, green arrow) -- Not Reviewed -- is the status of the Approval Queue entry.
   
   The Review Status can have these values:

• Not Reviewed - The approver has not looked at the invoice.
• Reviewed - The approver has looked at the invoice but has not approved or rejected it.
• Rejected - The approver has rejected the invoice.
• Approved - The approver has approved the invoice.

Figure 25 - An Invoice in the User's Invoice Approval Queue

2. From the menu next to the invoice, select the appropriate action.

• To review an invoice, click Menu > Review Invoice.
  Selecting Review Invoice displays the invoice in inquiry format. The invoice in Figure 26 has one distribution line.
  You can take one of two possible actions:
  
  - Click Cancel to leave the invoice as it is, without approval or rejection.

Figure 26 - An Invoice with One Distribution Line in Review Mode

- Click Submit to open the Approve/Reject panel (Figure 27) from which you can approve or reject the invoice.

Figure 27 - Approve or Reject an Invoice from Review Mode

- Select Approve Now or Reject Now.
- Select a Reason Code.

- If you select Reject Now, you must enter Rejection Comments.
Rejection comments can provide the invoice originator useful information. For example, if you are not the appropriate approver, you can enter the name of the correct approver in the Rejection Comments field. (You can also add a Reason to the Reason Codes table that indicates "incorrect approver," so that reviewers can select that Reason Code.)
The system creates a User Note containing the rejection comment's text.
- Click Submit.

• To approve an invoice immediately (whether or not you have reviewed it), next to the invoice in the queue (Figure 25), click Menu > Approve Now.
  An approval confirmation panel appears.
  - Select a Reason Code.
  - Click Submit.
• To reject an invoice immediately (whether or not you have reviewed it), next to the invoice in the queue (Figure 25), click Menu > Reject Now.
  A rejection confirmation panel appears.
  - Select a Reason Code.
  - You must enter a Rejection Comment. (See the discussion above.)
  - Click Submit.
• If you wish to create notes for the invoice, click Menu > Invoice User Notes.
  
  Based on the selected Approval Notify Action on the invoice, the user who created the invoice may be notified by an email when the invoice is approved.

Notes:
- When the Invoice Status is Pending Approval, the Finish Now button is disabled. A user who edits the invoice cannot click Finish Now to process the invoice. The invoice must first be approved.

- An invoice on the approval queue cannot be approved when it is out-of-balance. This rule applies to both manual and PO invoices.

- When invoice distribution details are added or changed on an invoice that is Pending Approval, the invoice Status does not change: it remains as Pending Approval until rejected, or approved.

Rejections Because You Are the Wrong Reviewer

The Rejection Comments field is particularly handy in the situation where an invoice has been routed to an inappropriate reviewer. The rejecting reviewer can use the Rejection Comments to list the name of the correct reviewer, if known, so that the invoice can be rerouted (Figure 28).

Figure 28 - The Approve/Reject Panel with the Rejection Comments Field

Sites where this approach is useful may also wish to create a Reason Code that indicates an incorrect approver. Figure 29 is an example.

Figure 29 - Example of a Site's Approve/Reject Reason Code for Incorrect Approver

To create a rejection reason code, from the Materials Management or AP main Contents, select Reason Codes > Reason for Approval/Rejection. Click New.

Review Invoices from the Consolidated Approval Queue

The Consolidated Approval Queue consolidates all your invoices, journal vouchers, check requests, and requisitions needing approval in one place.
You can see all the transaction documents that you are authorized to review and approve or reject.

This panel is helpful for approvers who approve multiple types of transaction documents...such as invoices and requisitions...so that they do not have to go multiple approval queues in the ERP application. Everything is in one queue.

To access the Consolidated Approval Queue,

From the Materials Management, Accounts Payable, or General Ledger main contents, select Consolidated Approval Queue (Figure 30).

Figure 30 - The Consolidated Approval Queue in Accounts Payable

The list of transaction documents awaiting your approval appears. On the list are invoices awaiting approval, but also any other documents that you are authorized to approve.

• From the Menu next to the invoice, requisition, journal voucher, or check request, select the appropriate action: Approve Now or Reject Now.
• Or, click Review to review the document, and accept or reject it.

The links and menu have the same capabilities as those on My Approval Queue or on All Approval Queues.

Approval Routing when an Approver Buddy Belongs to an Approver Group

When an approver's Out of Office status is set, invoices for the approver go to his/her Approver Buddy. If an approver group is assigned to the invoice, both the original approver and the person's Approver Buddy can belong to the approver group.

In this situation:

• As the invoice for approval routes through the approver group, if the Approver Buddy is the next approver, but has already approved as a "buddy," he/she is skipped, and does not have to approve again.
• Conversely, if an approver group member approves the invoice, and then serves as the Approver Buddy for a subsequent "Out of Office" approver in the group, the invoice is not routed again to the Approver Buddy.
• A system note is written indicating that the duplicate routing was bypassed and the invoice automatically approved.

Using Approval Routing with Recurring Invoices

Recurring invoices must be processed as "unapproved" to take advantage of approval routing (Figure 31).

Figure 31 - Recurring Invoice Selection Parameters Panel

The two fields on the Recurring Invoice Selection Parameters panel: Process All As Approved and Process All As Unapproved (Figure 30) work together with the auto approval field on the Recurring Invoice panel (Figure 32). The results of different field settings are in Table 1.

Figure 32 - The Auto Approve Field on the Create Recurring Invoice Panel

Table 1 - Results of Using Different Approval Settings For Recurring Invoices

To use approval routing with a recurring invoice:

1. Process the invoice with the Unapproved field set.
2. On the Invoices panel, open the recurring invoice that you wish to route.
3. Click the Invoice tab on the top of the invoice.
4. Click the Approval tab on the bottom.
5. Set the routing parameters, and save the invoice.
6. Click Finish Now.

Invoice Approvals/Rejections by Email

You can approve or reject invoices from a link on an email message.  Connect ERP can send an email to invoice approvers that only requires clicking the approval or rejection link. Approvers can also add comments before sending the email back to the application. The invoice is then approved or rejected, as specified in the email.

Note: Email approval/rejection is also available for requisitions and check requests.

Setup

Here are the setup steps:

1. Create Reason Codes for approval/rejection, if you have not already done so.
   - From AP or Materials Management, select Reason Codes > Reason for Approval/Rejection.
   - Click New to create these new reason codes:
   Approved from Email Notification Link
   Rejected from Email Notification Link
2. For each approver, and each person who creates invoices, ensure that the person's User Profile has the following information:
   - A valid email address, located on the General panel.
   - A data profile, located on the User Roles panel, that includes organizations/departments whose data the approver or invoice originator will work with.
   - A role, located on the User Roles panel, with the correct settings for the relevant role objects.
   
   Details on user administration are in the topic: Set Up and Maintain Users, Administration, Security. See the sections Work with User Roles and Work with Data Profiles.

3. On the Approver Limits panel, set Invoice Submit Notify Type to Email on Submission.
4. On the AP Limits panel, set Invoice Approval Notify Action to Email Approve or Reject.

Using Email Invoice Approvals/Rejections

When a departmental user creates an invoice that must be approved, ERP marks the invoice as Pending Approval (Figure 33) and sends an email message to the designated approver (Figure 34).

Figure 33 - An Invoice Awaiting Approval

The email message for the approver (Figure 34) contains the Invoice No, invoice date, and the Invoice Due Date. Also, it lists the invoice description, organization, vendor, total amount, associated PO number (if relevant) and the distribution lines.

Figure 34 - The Email Message for the Approver: Approve or Reject

• If you are the approver, open the email and click the appropriate link to approve or reject the invoice.
• Clicking either Approve Invoice or Reject Invoice opens a new email. See Figure 35 for an approval.
• In the new email, you can enter comments between the square braces [ ].
  - Add comments, if desired, and send the email.
  - The system responds by sending you back a verification email that the action processed successfully.
• You will receive another email with the approval or rejection notification.

Figure 35 - An Approval Message for Emailing Back to Materials Management

You can review the invoice on the Invoices List, with the approval Status as you specified in the email. In this example, the Status is Approved (Figure 36). (For invoices rejected via email. there will be no Reason Code.)

Figure 36 - An Invoice Approved Using the Email Approval Process

On the email message, you can also click the link “Click here to view Invoice No XXX” to open ERP and look at the invoice in detail, to accept or reject it (Figure 34). If you are not logged in to the application, clicking the link opens the ERP Sign On panel and you can sign in. The system displays the transaction needing approval. The application remains open for other work.

When you open ERP from the "Click here..." link on an approval email, you can access the entire ERP features menu directly from the approval queue. Here is an example for an invoice approver:

1. You receive an email that an invoice is ready for approval (Figure 37).

Figure 37 - An Email Message for the Approver: Approve or Reject

2. You click “Click here to view Invoice No XXX” to open ERP to the application Sign On page.
   - Sign in. ERP opens the application to the invoice.
3. You can review and approve or reject the invoice as usual.
   At the top of the Approval Queue panel in the menu bar, the Main Menu button appears (Figure 38).

Figure 38 - The Main Menu Button on an Approval Queue

4. Click Main Menu to open the application to the Welcome Page. All of the features that you are authorized to use are available. (If you go back to the approval queue, however, the Main Menu button does not appear again.)

Distribution Lines Approvals by eMail

When you receive an email for distribution review of an invoice, you cannot reject or approve from the eMail. You need to login in to the system to look at the invoice.
- Click the link  in the email to open and review the invoice on the application. Figure 39 is an example.

Note: Your User Profile must be set up for email review of invoices. See the online documentation for instructions.

Figure 39 – An Email Message Notifying an Approver for Invoice Distribution Lines Review

Viewing Invoice Approval History

The Approval History panel displays information about the approval routing and approval status for your invoice. You can identify approvers, and if several, note which approver currently has your invoice in his/her queue. You can also see the length of time that each approver has/had the invoice and other information.
The topic Approval Information on Inquiry Panels: Examples contains some sample Approval History panels. Approval History is only available from invoice Inquiry.

To display an invoice's approval history:

1. From the Materials Management or Accounts Payable main Contents, select Invoicing > Invoices.
   
2. On the Invoices List panel, locate the invoice of interest.
3. Next to the invoice, click i for inquiry.
4. Click the Approval History tab.

Figure 40 is a simple example of an invoice's approval history. (See "Approval Information on Inquiry Panels: Examples" for more detailed examples.)

Figure 40 - Invoice Approval: One Direct Approver

In the Approval History panel for the invoice in Figure 40,

• The Review Occurrence column shows each instance when the invoice was submitted for approval.
• The approver JuanG is the single direct approver. This assignment is in the column Reason Approval Assigned .
• The approver reviewed the invoice, so the Review Status is Reviewed.
  The invoice still needs to be approved or rejected, but is currently with this approver.
• Three Reminder emails were sent to the approver before he reviewed the invoice. The last reminder was sent on October 9.

Documents Attached to Invoices

The Invoice Documents panel for an invoice (Figure 40) is available when you edit or inquire on the invoice. From the Invoice Documents panel, you can add documents to the invoice, view the documents, and delete the documents. If you have scanned in paper documents for the invoice and processed the scans, they also appear on the Invoice Documents panel.

Documents Containing Electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI)

On the Invoice Documents panel (Figure 40), if you do not have ePHI access, and the "Contains ePHI Data" checkbox is selected, you cannot view a document. When you click the arrow to open the document, the Insufficient Authority message appears. For more information, see Securing Electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI).

For Bill Only documents, if the checkbox has previously been selected for "Contains ePHI Data," then only the Administrator can change the status of the document and select or unselect the "Contains ePHI Data," checkbox. This checkbox remains locked for everyone else.

To view and work with an invoice's documents:

1. On the Invoices List panel, locate the invoice of interest.
2. Next to the invoice, click i for inquiry (or, if the invoice is available for editing, click the pen icon ).
3. Click the Documents tab. The Invoice Documents panel appears (Figure 41).
   A list of documents for the invoice is displayed, if any have been uploaded.

• To view a document, click the arrow next to the document.
  The Microsoft Windows Download panel appears.
  - Click Open.
• You can attach a new document to an invoice by clicking New (Figure 41, red box).

Figure 41 - The Documents Panel for an Invoices: Inquiring i on the Invoice

To add a document to an invoice:

1. Click the Documents tab when editing or inquiring on the invoice.
2. Click New.
   The Invoice Document Create panel appears (Figure 42).
3. Enter a name in the Document Name field.
   The name will be displayed on the Invoice Documents panel when the document is uploaded.

Figure 42 - Adding a Document to an Invoice

4. Click Browse.
   The Microsoft Windows Choose File panel appears.
5. Locate and select the file for the document that you wish to upload.
   When you select the file, Windows populates the File name: field on the Choose File panel.
6. Click Open (on the bottom right of the Choose File panel).
   The document path and file name appear in the Document to Upload field on the Invoice Document Create panel.
   - If the document contains ePHI information, and you are authorized to view ePHI data, check the box Contains ePHI Data. When the document appears on the Invoices Documents list, the Contains ePHI Data column will contain Yes. Unauthorized users will not be able to open the document.
7. Click Submit.
   A message tells you that the document is uploaded.
8. Click the BACK button or close the tab to close the message.
9. Click Refresh.
   The document appears on the invoice Invoice Documents panel (Figure 41).

To delete a document from an invoice:

1. Click Menu > Delete next to the document (Figure 41).
   The system asks you to confirm the deletion.
2. Click Delete.

Notes:

• When a document has been copied from a check request to an invoice, Delete removes all references to the document being deleted.
• When an unprocessed, scanned paper document -- such as a paper invoice -- is attached to an invoice, Delete is not available from the invoice's Documents panel. Go to Accounts Payable > Invoices > Processed Scanned Invoices to detach the scanned document. See Detaching a Scanned Document.

To view audit information:

1. Click Menu > View Audit Info next to the document (Figure 41).
2. The Audit Info panel appears.

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