The Invoice Approval Workflow automates your invoice approval process. Based on rules you define, the workflow determines if an entire invoice (document) or invoice lines need approval, who the approvers are, and in what order approvers should approve payment of the invoice.
If you use Invoice Approval Workflow, then every invoice and invoice line that require approval must be approved before you can pay it. Payables indicates that an invoice requires approval by setting the value in the Approval status field in the Invoices window to Required. The approval status is derived from the approval status of the document maintained at the invoice header and the approval status of the invoice lines. For example, if the invoice lines require approval and the document does not, the system sets the approval status for the invoice lines to Required, the approval status for the document to Not Required, and the derived approval status to Required.
Note: Line-level approval is only available for self service invoices that are matched to a purchase order.
Note: Invoice approval workflow is required for self service invoices that are not matched to a purchase order. These invoices are entered using Oracle iSupplier Portal or the Payables Request responsibility.
When you use this feature, all invoices require approval, with the following exceptions. Payables sets the Approval status of the following invoices to Not Required:
expense reports imported through the Payables Expense Report Export Program (because these expense reports have already been through an approval process)
recurring invoices if the recurring invoice template did not have the Approval Workflow Required option enabled (because recurring invoices are often approved in advance)
invoices that existed before you enabled the feature
invoices that completed the Invoice Approval Workflow process and the Invoice Approval Workflow process determined that according to the rules set up in Oracle Approvals Management that no one needs to approve the invoice
You can set up your system to request and receive approval through the approver's e-mail, through the approver's Oracle Workflow Notifications Workflow web page, or both.
Approvers can approve or reject the invoice document or invoice line. If both invoice lines and document need to be approved, all the lines of the invoice requiring approval must be approved before the invoice document can be approved. The following scenario assumes that only invoice document approval is required. However, the same process applies to approving invoice lines.
If an approver approves the invoice, then the invoice goes to the next person in the approver list until all required people approve the invoice.
If an approver rejects the invoice, then the workflow program ends.
If an approver rejects one line, the remaining line level approvals continue to go through approval. This allows the continuation of the line level approval process while the rejected line is being resolved. However, the system does not continue to document level approvals unless all lines are approved.
If an approver does not respond within the time you specify, then Workflow sends a reminder to the approver. If the reminder notification time expires with no response from the approver, Workflow sends the approval notification to that person's manager.
An approver can delegate approval requests, approval reminders, and escalated approval requests. If a notification is delegated to an approver outside the approval chain, the system continues with the original approval chain. For example, the approval chain consists of approvers A > B > C. Approver A delegates to approver X. Once approver X approves the invoice, the system notifies approver B. If the delegated approver does not respond within the time you specify, the system sends a reminder to the delegated approver. If the delegated approver still does not respond, the system rejects the invoice approval and does not escalate it. The Invoice History Approval and Invoice Lines Approval History windows track the approval process, including the delegated approvers' actions.
If an approver rejects an invoice or invoice line, you can perform one of the following actions:
Use the Force Approval option to manually approve the invoice.
Use the Initiate Approval option to resubmit the invoice to the Invoice Approval Workflow after correcting any issue that caused the approver to reject the invoice.
Use the Cancel Invoice option to cancel the approval process.
Suggestion: We recommend that you schedule the Invoice Approval Status Report to run nightly so you can closely monitor your rejected invoices.
For more information on invoice approval actions, see Handling Exceptions
You can review the approval status of an invoice that has started the Invoice Approval Workflow in the following ways:
Invoice Approval History window and the Invoice Lines Approval History window. See: Invoice Approval History.
Invoice Approval Status Report. See: Invoice Approval Status Report.
Invoice approval workflow is required for self service invoices that are not matched to a purchase order. These invoices are created using Oracle iSupplier Portal or the Payables Request responsibility. The system initiates the approval process automatically when the invoices are submitted. At this point, the invoice becomes an invoice request. The approval workflow must be complete before the invoice becomes a standard invoice. Once the invoice becomes a standard invoice, the system validates it and the invoice is susceptible to holds. The requester name on the iSupplier Portal can be the first approver in the approval chain.
You can submit the Invoice Approval Workflow for an invoice either from the Invoice Actions window, or from the Submit Request window. An invoice must meet all of the following criteria to be processed:
The invoice approval status must be:
Required or Needs Reapproval, if you submit the workflow program from the Submit Request window.
Anything except Initiated or Manually Approved, if you submit the workflow program from the Invoice Actions window.
The invoice approval status is derived from the approval status of the document maintained at the invoice header and the approval status of the invoice lines.
The invoice amount must equal the distribution total.
The tax calculated status must not be either New or Needs Recalculation, indicating that the system calculated tax.
The Ready for Approval check box in the Invoices window must be enabled. This check box is enabled by default for all invoices.
The system applies the rules specified in the Approval Processing Sequence Payables option to determine if invoice approval can be initiated. For example, if the Approval Processing Sequence Payables option requires validation before approval, then the invoice must be validated.
Note: The system automatically initiates invoice approval workflow for self service invoices that are not matched to a purchase order and that come from iSupplier Portal or the Payables Request responsibility.
The order of the Invoice Validation process and Invoice Approval Workflow Program is based on the Approval Processing Sequence Payables option. Options include:
Require Validation Before Approval.
Require Accounting Before Approval.
For example, you might want to validate before you approve if you enter invoices that require the Invoice Validation process to create tax distributions for you. If your approvers need to review tax details before they approve an invoice, then we recommend that you select an option that validates before approving.
You are provided with the following actions for handling invoice document and invoice line approvals:
If the workflow program fails, then the workflow sends an e-mail or workflow notification (or both) to a designated person such as your system administrator. This person can abort the workflow program, retry the failed workflow activity, or resolve the problem that caused the error to occur.
You can force approve a non-validated invoice or invoice line regardless of the Approval Process Sequence Payables option setting. You might want to use force approval if there is a problem with the workflow program and you need to pay an invoice immediately. To force approve an invoice, select it in the Invoices window, then in the Invoice Actions window choose the Force Approval option. This stops the workflow program for the invoice or invoice line. When you force approve an invoice, the system updates the document and line approval statuses to Manually Approved.
You can stop the approval of an invoice or invoice line so you can make invoice or line adjustments. To stop the approval for an invoice or invoice lines, select the Stop Approval check box in the Invoice Actions window. The system cancels all pending workflow processes and cancels all open notifications associated with the invoice and invoice lines. The system sets the document and invoice line approval statuses to Stopped.
Once you change the invoice amount the system automatically sets the document approval status to Needs Reapproval. Resubmit the invoice to Invoice Approval Workflow either from the Invoice Actions window or from the Submit Request window.
You can cancel the approval of an invoice or invoice line. To stop the approval for an invoice or invoice lines, select the Cancel Invoices check box in the Invoice Actions window. The system cancels all pending workflow processes and cancels all open notifications associated with the invoice and invoice lines. You cannot resubmit the invoice or invoice lines to the approval process. The system sets the document and line approval statuses to Invoice Cancelled.
You can delete an invoice, invoice lines, and invoice distributions if the invoice has not gone through the approval process or if the approval status is Not Required.