How do Advanced Approvals Work?

Modified on Wed, Mar 5 at 4:10 PM

Advanced Approvals mimic the workflow for a Single Approval, with two main differences.

1. An invoice can have multiple approvers

2. An invoice can have various conditions for which it requires approval (called "approval policies").

Creating a policy

Conditions

Policies can be defined across any layer of hierarchy:

Account
Location
Group
Company

Configurable Field	Description of requirements and clarifying remarks
Vendor	Specify one vendor and all invoices from that vendor will get held in Pending Approval.
Accounting Vendor ID	Specify the Accounting Vendor ID that vendors are mapped to (ex. Sysco).
Min. Total	Specify a number and all invoices with invoice_total above that minimum threshold will be held in Pending Approval.
Max. Total	Specify a number and all invoices with invoice_total below that maximum threshold will be held in Pending Approval.
Department	Specify one Department and all invoices from that Department will be held in Pending Approval.
GL Account	Specify one GL Account and all invoices from that GL will be held in Pending Approval.
GL Name Contains	Specify a string (ex. Food).
GL Name Does Not Contain	Specify a string (ex. Fixed Assets).
GL Number Contains	Specify a string (ex. 5400).
GL Number Does Not Contain	Specify a string (ex. 73350).
Received directly from Vendor?	Specify a boolean, Yes or No. If yes, all invoices that are sent directly from a vendor (via EDI, FTP, or email) will get held in Pending Approval. If no, all invoices that are not sent directly from a vendor will get held in Pending Approval.
Has unmapped items?	Specify a boolean, Yes or No. If yes, all invoices that contain unmapped items will get held in Pending Approval. If no, all invoices that do not have unmapped items will get held in Pending Approval.
Has no other policies	Single selection. Catch all that will funnel all invoices that do not have any other approval policies applying to this policy.
Has PO Number?	Specify a boolean, Yes or No. If yes, all invoices that have PO Number will get held in Pending Approval. If no, all invoices that do not have PO Number will get will get held in Pending Approval.
Policy	Specify one or many existing approval polices, and all invoices that meet those policies will get held in Pending Approval. This is usually paired with a new condition. Also known as "Sequential Approvers" or "Hierarchal Approvers," which means: after one policy has been approved will this other policy get triggered. Consider this use case: As a CFO, I only want to be alerted that an invoice requires my approval after everyone else reporting to me has already approved the invoice.
Item SKU	Specify a string (ex. ABC123).
Tag is	Specify a string (ex. Taxable).
More added frequently...	We are continually enhancing our offerings, please reach out if you need something new!

In the example below, this "Test Policy" will says: all invoices

Sent to a Location that's a part of the "AM Training Account" group
That are sent from a mapped vendor with ID ATT646
That are more than $500

... requires specific approval.

Potential Approvers

These invoices need to be approved by a pre-defined set of users.

In this case, Sam1 and Sam2 will get emails alerting them that they have invoices requiring their approval and see those invoices in their "Your Approval" queue. At least 1 of them is required to approve it to satisfy the policy based on the "Minimum Approvers" setting. Should both users be required, minimum approvers should be set to 2.

Fall Back Approvers and Automatic Approvals

Setting a fallback approval will escalate the policy if it has not been approved within the set days. In the below example, Josh will receive the invoice to approve after 7 days, and then Lena will receive it after 10 days.

You can also configure the policy to approve the invoice automatically if it is uploaded by one of the approvers configured.

Approving an Invoice

Users can Approve invoices directly from the Invoice Details view,

or from the Pending Approval tab.

Administrators or roles with the permission enabled, can FORCE APPROVE an invoice. This requires an added step of verification.

Undo Approvals

Administrators or roles with the permission enabled, can undo approvals by selecting "Undo Approval" from the Approvals tab of Invoice Details.

This removes the approval for this policy only and retains all approvals from other users.