Invoice Approval Rules
- Joseph Averkamp
Procurement Partners offers a flexible approval set-up tool which gives you many options for managing your organization’s invoice approval needs.
To access invoice rules, click on Administration -> Invoice Rule.
If you would like to search through existing rules or change the invoice in which they are displayed, you can use the options located under the Invoice Rule Search Criteria bar:
Invoice Rule: search for a specific rule based on its InvoiceRule name.
Order By: change the order in which rules are displayed based on the selected job, if the job is directly tied to the rule.
Location: narrow your search results based on the location(s) that the rule applies to.
Vendor: narrow your search results based on the vendor(s) that the rule applies to.
All rules are broken up into steps; a single rule can contain one or more steps. To create an entirely new rule, click the New Rule button. To create a new step for an existing rule, select a part of the existing rule and click the New Step button. This will add the new step as the last step number in the rule list.
When you create a new rule or a new step for an existing rule, you’ll need to fill in some details about that rule. These details will be filled into three tabs: Invoice Rule, Approvers and Carts.
Invoice Rule tab
The Invoice Rule tab allows you to set up the specifics of this particular rule step. The following fields must be filled in:
Invoice Rule – Enter the name of the invoice rule here; if you are creating a new step for an existing rule, it will carry the same name of the original invoice rule.
Step – Enter the name of the rule step here. Make it something clear and concise as to the purpose of the rule; ex. Total > $500.
Step Condition – Select a step condition to apply to this rule:
OR – Selecting this will mean that the rule will trigger if any one of the approval triggers are met.
AND – Selecting this will mean that the rule will trigger only if all of the approval triggers are met.
Step No. – This is the number of the rule step. 1 is the first step of any given rule, and rules will follow their ascending step number order.
The following fields constitute the potential approval triggers; you will need to select / fill in one or more of these:
Total $ Threshold – This will cause the invoice to require approval if the invoice total exceeds the entered value.
Item $ Threshold – This will cause the invoice to require approval if any single item in the invoice exceeds the entered value.
Extended Line Item $ Threshold – This will cause the invoice to require approval if any extended line items in the invoice exceed the entered value.
Invoice contains the following GL code(s) – This will cause the invoice to require approval if any of the Selected GL codes appear on the invoice prior to approval. If this box is checked, be sure to move one or more GL codes from the Available box to the Selected box using the arrows.
Attribute Type – Checking one or more of these boxes will require that the invoice receive approval if it contains any items that are marked as Capital, are not marked as Formulary or are not marked as Preferred.
All Invoices Require Approval – This will cause all invoices to be approved at this approval step.
Invoice Only Require Approval – This will cause all invoices marked as “Invoice Only” to be approved at this approval step. Note that Invoice Only will include both invoices that arrive from vendors configured as Invoice Only or invoices that are tied to orders that were placed outside of the Procurement Partners system (their PO did not originate in the system).
Vendor Added Item Require Approval – This will cause all invoices that include items that were added by the vendor after the order was submitted to require approval at this step.
Approvers tab
The Approvals tab allows you to set the approvers that will be associated with this rule step. You can move the approvers from the Available box over to the Selected box to assign them as an approval person for this rule. All users who are in the Selected field will be able to approve this invoice step; only one of the users will need to approve the invoice for it to move onto the next approval step, or for the invoice to be fully approved if this approval step is the final step in its rule. However, the approver at the top of the Selected list will be the Primary Approver and will be the displayed role on the Order and Invoice screens.
Can be approved by orderer – If this box is checked, the invoice will need to be approved by the person who originally placed the order through the Procurement Partners system.
Carts tab
The Carts tab has been enhanced to give you additional options and control over the carts that your rule will apply to. Utilizing this tab will make it easy to add carts to your rules based on vendors it applies to, the facilities it will apply to or the jobs that the rule will apply to, or any combination of these options.
Note: You will need to save the rule before you will be able to add carts to it. Click the Save button at the bottom of the page to save your rule before proceeding.
Each combination of vendors, facilities and jobs are listed as a separate record (called a cart). For instance, if Location A has 50 vendors and 10 jobs, a combination of 500 carts will be displayed. You can narrow down the range of vendors shown in either the Available or Selected Cart by choosing a Vendor, Facility or Job. When you choose one of these options from their appropriate drop-down, the displayed results below will automatically update, and you can select more than one of each of these three criteria to best narrow down your available selections. Remember that a cart cannot be tied to more than one rule.
A note is also visible that reads “Any invoices currently pending approval which are tied to cart criteria being removed will automatically be set to On Hold status.” If you modify rules that apply to active invoices in the approval queue, you can locate and release these invoices in the Transactions → Hold tab after your rule modifications are complete.
The following buttons can be used to manipulate your cart selections:
+ Add: Add the chosen cart to the Selected Carts
Add Current Page: Add all carts on the current page to the Selected Carts, based on how many items are listed by the Items Per Page dropdown
Add All Results: Add all results that were searched for to the Selected Carts, not confined to the Items Per Page listing
- Remove: Remove the chosen cart from the Selected Carts
Remove Current Page: Remove all carts on the current page from the Selected Carts, based on how many items are listed by the Items Per Page dropdown
Remove All Results: Remove all results that were searched for from the Selected Carts, not confined to the Items Per Page listing
Once you have made all the necessary changes to your carts, make sure to click the Save button.