Invoice Workflows
- Joseph Averkamp
The Invoice Workflow tool allows you to set up invoice approval processes for the invoices that are processed in the Procurement system via vendors or SimpleAP (if applicable). This gives you the control you need over the invoice management your users will complete within the Procurement system.
Note: Invoice Workflows are not enabled by default. If you wish to use this feature, contact our Support team.
To get started, navigate to Management → Invoice Approvals
This screen will display any existing invoice approval hierarchy you have created. If you have not created a hierarchy yet, you can begin by dragging a job title from the left column (Job Titles) to the right column (Approval Hierarchy).
The order in which your Approval Hierarchy appears is the order in which invoices will call for approval. If you wish to rearrange the order of approval, you can drag and drop the job roles in the right column to appropriately reflect the approval order.
Note: Many organizations will want to utilize an invoice approval flow that begins with the Orderer - that is, the person who originally placed the order being the first one to review the associated invoice. There are two Job Title options to accomplish this: Order Creator and Order Behalf Of. We recommend using Order Behalf Of because this will default to the order creator unless they specify that they are placing the order on behalf of another person, in which case it will pass the associated invoice approval responsibility to that designated person.
You can set specific criteria to determine whether the particular Job Title will be triggered for approval by using the Edit Criteria button to the right of the Job Title.
You can use the Backup Approver dropdown to select a backup approval person, if one is desired.
Leaving Approve All Invoices checked will require this job title’s approval on all invoices.
Selecting Approve Invoices Based On Set Criteria allows you to choose specific criteria that must be fulfilled for the invoice to require approval at this step.
Click Add Criteria to view the available options. Most criteria will allow you to set a Condition; for numeric values typically “greater than” or “less than”, and for non-numeric values typically “selected” and “all except”. In some cases you can also select more than one value for the criteria. The criteria are listed below:
Order Creator - Require approval if the order to which the invoice is tied was created by a specific job role.
GL Code - Require approval if the invoice contains a specific GL code.
Has PO - Require approval if the invoice has (or does not have) an associated PO.
Invoice Total Amount - Require approval if the total dollar amount for the invoice is greater than or less than the specified amount
Line Item Amount - Require approval if the dollar amount for a line item on the invoice is greater than or less than the specified amount
Extended Line Item Amount - Require approval if the dollar amount for an extended line item on the invoice is greater than or less than the specified amount
Source - Require approval if the invoice was generated from the specified source, with examples such as “Manually added”, “EDI”, “OCR”, “Vendor portal” and others.
Vendor - Require approval if the invoice is for a specific vendor.
Facility - Require approval if the invoice is for a specific facility.
Is Formulary - Require approval if the invoice does (or does not) fall within your organization’s formulary.
After creating a criteria, you will have the option to create more criteria. As of now, the criteria are linked with “OR” logic, meaning that an invoice will require approval if any one of the criteria specified are fulfilled.
If you wish to delete a criteria that was created, select the criteria and click Delete.
Once your criteria are set, click the Next button in the upper right corner to save your work. If the Next button is greyed out, something about your selection is incomplete; review your work and make adjustments as necessary.