![]() This situation can get even worse if multiple approvers are involved and there isn’t clear visibility into who is responsible for the approval or which stage of the workflow the invoice is currently in. Without workflow automation, invoice approvals can take a long time, particularly when they end up lying on the manager’s desk or sitting in their email inbox for days or weeks. When dealing with large numbers of invoices in different formats (paper-based, email-based, PDFs, Faxes, etc.), it’s not unheard of for invoices to get misplaced and forgotten about, or even for the original purchase order document to go missing, making it much harder for Accounts Payable employees to do their work effectively. ![]() Accounts payable personnel spend many precious hours reconciling invoices against purchase orders (invoice matching), following up on invoices – via email, over the phone or even in-person – to confirm the accuracy of invoices and track down missing documents. Manually processing invoice approvals is enormously time-consuming. Performing invoice approvals manually comes with a number of challenges that can have a considerable impact on your organization’s ability to conduct its business as effectively and efficiently as possible. Challenges of Manual Invoice Approval Workflows The invoice approval process may seem simple, but multiply this by dozens or hundreds of vendors and thousands of invoices and you quickly have a complex situation on your hands. That’s it – the whole process in six quick steps. BookkeepingĪ permanent record of the transaction is added to the organization’s books. The approved invoice is sent to the person/department responsible for accounts payable for processing and the vendor is paid. Depending on the products and services being ordered or the billed amount, this approval chain can be dynamically determined. ![]() The invoice is sent to relevant personnel for approval. The invoice is sent to the relevant parties to address/correct the irregularity, after which it’s sent through the approval workflow again. Invoice irregularities can include pricing discrepancies and missing information such as a PO number. Verification typically involves matching the invoice with the appropriate purchase order (PO) for the product or service. The invoice is verified by the staff member responsible for procuring that particular type of product or service. The business receives an invoice from a vendor or supplier. These are the steps involved in a typical invoice approval process: 1. Here’s what a typical invoice approval workflow looks like: Invoice Approval Workflow Steps It’s a simple sequence of events to ensure that the invoice is legitimate and that there are no discrepancies between the invoice and the original purchase documents, such as the purchase requisition, purchase order, order confirmation or other procurement/sales documents. ![]() Quite simply, an invoice approval workflow is the process of approving invoices before payment is processed. And at the heart of any AP department is the invoice approval workflow. ![]() Suppliers or vendors need to be paid for their products and services, and they need to be paid accurately and on time if you want to maintain good supplier relationships.Īccounts payable (AP) plays a vital role in any organization, whether it’s a one-person accounting operation in a small business or a whole finance department in a large enterprise. Every business, whether its offering is a product or service, has expenses. ![]()
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