Invoice circulation management

Approval circulation settings can be found from Management > Company info > Invoice circulation management. 

 

 

 

• Approval circulation is a feature that enables circulation of purchase, travel and expense invoices from one verifier to the next and then to the approvers. When the circulation is enabled, verifiers and approvers can be specified for individual invoices. The e-mail addresses of verifiers and approvers must be entered in their Personal information if the e-mail reminder of invoices waiting for verification or approval will be used. Note! E-mail notifications of received purchase invoices will also be sent if Circulation for approval is disabled and a single verifier or approver has been specified in the Usage settings.

 

Purchase invoice approval circulation

• The setting determines whether approval circulation for purchase invoices is enabled. The approval circulation setting is disabled by default. The functions and fields related to the circulation will not be displayed if the setting is disabled.
• Purchase invoices can still be verified and approved even if their circulation is disabled.

 

Travel and expense invoice approval circulation

• The  setting determines whether approval circulation for travel and expense invoices is enabled. The approval circulation setting is disabled by default. The functions and fields related to the circulation will not be displayed if the setting is disabled.
• Travel and expense invoices can still be verified and approved even if their circulation is disabled.

 

Reminder interval

 The interval determines how often the notification will be sent to the invoice approver of the invoice.

• Only once
  • a notification message via email is sent immediately when invoice is sent to circulation
  • A separate notification of every new invoice is sent when a new invoice is sent to circulation or forwarded to another person in the circulation
  • No reminders will be sent
• Once a day
  • a collection email of notifications and reminders is sent at 12:00 every day
  • System sends a collection email once a day of all notifications and reminders of invoices that are in circulation
  • A separate notification of new invoices is not sent when a new invoice is sent to circulation or forwarded to another person in the circulation
• Every second day
  • an email message of reminders is sent every second day at 12:00
  • System sends a reminder email of all invoices that have not yet been approved
  • A separate notification of every new invoice is still sent when a new invoice is sent to circulation or forwarded to another person in the circulation
• Every third day
  • an email message of reminders is sent every third day at 12:00
  • Sends a reminder email of all invoices that have not yet been approved
  • A separate notification of every new invoice is still sent when a new invoice is sent to circulation or forwarded to another person in the circulation
• Once a week
  • an email message of reminders is sent once a week at 12:00
  • Sends a reminder email of all invoices that have not yet been approved
  • A separate notification of every new invoice is still sent when a new invoice is sent to circulation or forwarded to another person in the circulation

NOTE! Changes made apply to all persons in the environment who appear in the invoice circulation and who have accepted to receive emails related to invoice circulation.

 

Force notifications for users who are on invoice circulation

If this setting is on, the users will get notifications when they have unapproved or unverified invoices even if they have not selected Send me notifications from e.g. invoices waiting for verification in Personal information and settings.

 

Approval circulation order and payment

• The  setting determines whether verification and approval must be performed in a specific order.
  • If the Approval circulation order setting is enabled, an e-mail notification of an invoice waiting for verification will be sent to the first verifier when the invoice is sent to circulation. When that verifier has examined and verified the invoice, the next one will be notified, and so on. The invoice status will only change to Verified once the last verifier has verified it.
  • If a person other than the next verifier or approver verifies or approves the invoice, the program will issue a notification. If this setting is enabled and a person other than the next verifier verifies the invoice, its status will change to Verified even if all specified verifiers have not verified the invoice yet.
  • If the Approval circulation order setting is disabled, all verifiers will be notified immediately when an invoice is sent to circulation, and the order in which they verify the invoice is irrelevant. The invoice status will change to Verified only after all verifiers have verified it. The same applies to approvers.
  • This setting effects also to the Invoices waiting for verification widget.

• Allow payment only after the invoice has been approved setting can be used to prevent the payment of invoices before they have been approved.
• Prevent payee information change on payment view setting prevents the change of the payee in the Payment view. 

 

Invoice circulation substitutions  

• When the setting is enabled, users can set substitutes to approve and/or verify invoices on behalf of themselves. Users can determine the substitutes on Personal info and settings view.
• If the setting is not enabled, substitutes can be set on the Substitutes section of the Invoice circulation management view.
• Further information about setting the substitutes can be found from Invoice circulation substitutions article. 

 

Communication

• Allow Invoice specific discussion setting activates invoice specific discussion. Invoice specific discussion view can be found in each purchase, travel and expense invoice. In these discussion views, users are able to see the discussion related to the invoice. Invoice specific discussion on invoice related views (invoice, accounting, dimensioning, etc) is a feature that, for examle, enables discussion between accountant and users. The invoice specific discussion is shown to all users that have the right to view the specific invoice
• Allow extended tagging on invoice specific discussion - Enabling extended tagging on invoice specific discussion will allow tagging all users who have rights on verification or approving. By default only users related to invoice are allowed to be tagged on discussion.

 

Advanced settings

• If the setting is enabled, a selection window for retrieving purchase orders to be allocated to the purchase invoice will be available in the Verification view.
• Use this setting if you wish to allocate received e-invoices to existing purchase invoices, for example. This function will allocate the entire purchase order to the purchase invoice, i.e., allocation by row may not be used.

 

Max. number of verifiers

• The setting specifies the maximum number of verifiers for invoices.
• Procountor package might effect the maximum amount of verifiers.

 

Max. number of approvers 

• The setting specifies the maximum number of approvers for invoices.
• Procountor package might effect the maximum amount of approvers.

 

Verifier list

• The verifier lists can be created by clicking on the Verifier lists-button.
• The setting enables verifiers and approvers to be selected from a pre-defined Verifier list.
• When the list has been selected from the Usage settings these verifiers and approvers will come automatically to all new purchase, travel and expense invoices. Note that if the verifiers and approvers have been selected to a specific supplier or customer this will overdrive the default approval circulation in the usage settings. 

 

Invoice verifier and approver

• If the invoice verifier list is not set the verifiers and approvers can be set one by one to the usage settings.
• You should define the most commonly used approval circulation in Company information. Approval circulations can also be defined for individual suppliers, persons or invoices.

 

Substitutes

Substitutes section shows the current info about substitutes in invoice circulation. Also, it is possible to set, edit and remove substitutes in the section.

• Set a new substitute button enables setting a new substitute for a user. Further information about setting a new substitute can be found from Substitutes in invoice circulation article. 
• Edit substitute button enables editing the substitutes listed on the Substitutes section. The substitute that is wanted to be edited must be selected by clicking on it. After selecting the substitute, the button will activate and then the substitute can be edited by clicking on the button.
• Remove substitute button can be used to end substitutions. The substitute that is wanted to be removed must be selected by clicking on it. After selecting the substitute, the button will activate and then the substitute can be removed by clicking on the button.
• Substitute history button opens a new view, where it is possible to review the substitute history. Already ended substitutes can be searched and the search can be limited with search criteria, such as username, substitute dates or a date range.

 

Extra features

Procountor package size effects the maximum amount of verifiers and approvers. If you need more verifiers and approvers, you can use the Extended circulation -feature.The Extended circulation -feature makes possible to add 9 verifiers and 9 approvers to the invoice. The feature is included in the Premium and Unlimited packages. 

Read more about Extended circulation -feature here (in Finnish).