Approval levels for supplier invoices

 

Users that have the right to approve invoices can also approve invoices in the Briox App!

Content:

Activation

Minimum amount requiring approval

Separate posting and payment approval workflows

Determining Approval Rights

The approval workflow and supplier invoice log invoice log

Filtering the supplier invoice list

Mass management

Notifications for invoices awaiting to be approved

Activation

In Briox, you have the possibility to approve supplier invoices. This functionality needs to be activated under Settings - Accounting - Approval Levels:

 

 

Here you can choose which levels of approval are suitable for your company. Slide the switches to blue, as shown below, to activate the desired functionality.

 

The Settings for approval determine what the approval workflow looks like in the account and limits the rights that can be attributed to a user.

When approval is activated a user can only receive approval rights that are active in the settings. No more, no less. For example if only payment approval is active, a user that receives rights for approval will only receive rights for payment approval. If more approval rights are active, then the administrator will automatically have to edit and limit access for a particular user.

If an administrator attributes a user an approval right that is not active, they have to confirm that they want to activate it before they can attribute it to a user.

When all approvals are turned on, the sequence is as follows:

Posting approval  -> Invoice review level 1 -> Invoice review leve 2 -> Payment approval

Minimum amount requiring approval

As an administrator you can now decide that only invoices over a certain value need to enter the approval workflow.
Enter the minimum amount requiring approval under The approval settings for payment approval. See below.
This means that invoice that have a value below the amount entered in the setting will not go through any of the steps of the approval workflow you have setup, and will go straight to payment.  Note that amount entered is in Euros only.

Separate posting and payment approval workflows

A setting can be turned on for you to be able to separate the posting and payment approval workflows.

Activating this setting will let you send an invoice through the payment approval workflow and all the way to the bank without the invoice having to be posted. 
If no payment approval workflow has been activated, turning on the setting will allow you to send the invoice to the bank without waiting for the invoice to be posted.

Notes:

• The invoice will need to be posted to be paid in Briox and reconciled under banking.
  
  
• When there is no posting approval att the start of an approval workflow, the invoice can still be edited even if it has been reviewed and sent for payment.
  The premise is that approvers do not have editing rights (only approval and comment) and the accountant or user  who needs to approve and post the invoice may need to edit the invoice. It is the posting approval that locks the invoice for editing.
  
  

When this setting is turned on:

• An extra statuses for your unposted invoices will be displayed : Unposted payment in process:
• A new filter will allow you to select all invoices that are Unposted payment in process, so that you can revert the payments or post the invoices.

 

The following reports will display the new unposted statuses:

• Purchase order / supplier invoice list
• Supplier statistics

The following report will offer the option to include unposted invoices:

• Supplier invoices overdue

 

Determining Approval Rights

When the functionality is enabled the application administrator can determine suitable approval rights for individual users, under Admin - Users - select a user and click on the edit user icon at the end of the row. The detailed access rights will appear, see below:

 

Note!  When approval is activated a user can only receive approval rights that are active in the settings. No more, no less. For example if payment approval is active, a user that receives rights for approval will only receive rights for payment approval. If more approval rights are active, then the administrator will automatically have to edit and limit access for a particular user.

If an administrator attributes a user an approval right that is not active, they have to confirm that they want to activate it before they can attribute it to a user.

 

The approval workflow and supplier invoice log invoice log

When the approval workflow is set up you can see it in the section Approvals & Comments in the supplier invoice. See below.

In the graphical overview, you see the various steps of the workflow as well as if they have been carried out and by whom.
You also see which users have the rights carry out the steps that have not been completed. If several users (more than two) can do the same action you can hover over the step to see their names.
If there is a dotted line between the posting approval and the next step, this means that the posting approval can be carried out after the other steps and will not block the payment of the invoice.

All the steps of the approval workflow are also noted in the invoice history in chronological order.

 

Filtering the supplier invoice list

When the functionality is in use you can filter your list of supplier invoices based on approval levels under Supplier invoice - Supplier Invoices:

 

If you only have the right to approve supplier invoices and not to see the complete supplier invoice list, you will then only see the invoices you have the right to approve.

A dashboard widget called "Invoices to Approve" will serve as a shortcut to your list of invoice, see below, and the filer will only display the approval levels you have the right to see.

 

Mass management

It is also possible to mass-approve selected invoices directly in the invoice list view. When you have selected the invoices you want to approve the action buttons will appear at the bottom of the page:

 

 

Approving Invoices

You find the approval tools in the supplier invoice view at the bottom of the page. If the Posting approval is in use, you must approve the invoice in order for the actual posting functionality to become active. If Invoice review is in use, the invoice will move to the next level in the hierarchy after it has been reviewed. When the invoice has been reviewed, a row is created in the Review history section on the invoice:

 

Both the Posting approval and the Invoice review can be removed if necessary. If removed, the invoice will return to its previous state.

 

Notifications for invoices awaiting to be approved

If you want to smoothly receive information about new invoices waiting for your approval you can get notifications sent to your e-mail address. Turn on notifications for the various scenarios under Your account - Receive E-mail notifications for.

 

 

If accountants participate in invoice approval of client accounts, we recommend they turn on notifications from the Client Manager database (Receive E-mail notifications for client accounts). If notifications are turned on in this way, accountants will receive a collective message regarding all clients (max 1 a day) instead of several e-mails for each client.