Invoice Approval Rule and Approval Lookup Rule Management

Invoice approval rules can be configured to include multiple conditions and parameters to support a wide variety of policies and practices.  Responsible approvers can either be specified or determined through a lookup table of approvers.

See Documentation Topics:

Invoice Approval - Post-reconciliation

Configuring Invoice Approval Rules

The Invoice Approval Rules are created and accessed in the Admin Control Panel at  Document Rules > Payable Rules > Invoice Approval Rules > Approval Rules.

Edit or Add New Approval Rule 

1. To add a new Approval Rule, click on Add New Rule.
2. To add a new rule to be used in a Lookup Table, click on Add New Lookup Rule. See Add New Invoice Approval Lookup Rule below. 
3. To search and filter to find an existing rule, use the filter boxes shown at the top of the list of rules.
4. To edit an existing rule, click on its Name.
5. Note

   If a rule is created via Add New Rule, the Approver Type is shown as Specified.
   If a rule is created via Add New Lookup Rule, the Approver Type is shown as Lookup.

When you edit or add a rule, the Invoice Approval Rule page opens, displaying additional tabs: Rule Information, Conditions, and Actions or Lookup Entity.

Rule Information

1. Enter a Rule Name.
2. Provide an optional Display Message.
3. Select a Status: Active or Inactive.
4. Specify the Content Groups the Rule is applicable to.
5. All Content Groups may be selected, including automatic selection of new Content Groups; or
6. Specify automatic selection of new Content Groups.
7. Specify a Priority.
   Note

   The lowest Priority value means that the rule has higher priority in comparison to the rest of the rules created.
   This priority is applied when a item validates more that one receiving rule.
8. Specify an Exception Handler to be the Approver in the event other Approver(s) are unavailable.
9. Save or Save and Continue to Edit.

Approval Rule Conditions at Invoice Level

Administrators can configure the new Invoice Approval Rule to include any combination of the available conditions at the Invoice or Invoice Line Item levels. 

Conditions that can be configured at the Invoice level are shown below.

1. Choose Invoice or Invoice Line Item for the scope of the rule.
2. A Condition can be chosen to select rule to be applicable to PO-based Invoices (true) or non PO-based Invoices (false).
3. Additional Conditions may be selected from the list.
4. Click on the green plus sign to add more Conditions.
5. Save or Save and Continue Edit.

Approval Rule Conditions at Invoice Item Level

Conditions that can be configured at the Invoice Line level are shown below. 

Invoice Approval Rule Actions

Configure the Actions for the New Invoice Approval Rule. 

1. Choose an Approver Type from the list of available options.
   Preparer - the person who created the Request.
   Requestor/OBO is a user creating a Request while acting on behalf of another person.
   Note

   A user acting on behalf of (OBO) of the person who created the Request is the Requestor and is referred to as the OBO user or the delegate. The person whose duties have been delegated is referred to as the delegated user. See the topic Account Delegation for more information.
   Specific User - one person who is then designated in the Approver or Watcher box.
   User Group - the name of a User Group where any member can be the Approver or Watcher who is then designated in the Approver or Watcher box.
   Approver  - is the designated Approver of the Requestor.
   Spend Limit Approver - he Approver of the Requester or Approver of the delegated user, if specified.
   Note

   The Spend Limit Approver is assigned when the rule is triggered and the Invoice total is greater than the Requester's or delegated user's Spend Limit.
   When the Invoice total is less than the Requester's or delegated user's Spend Limit, no Approver is assigned. 
   Spend Limit Approver Hierarchy - specifies a hierarchy of Approvers or Watchers who have the signing authority for the Request.
   Note

   The Spend Limit Approver Hierarchy determines the approval chain when the rule is triggered and the Invoice total is greater than the Requester's or delegated user's Spend Limit.
   Approver with Sufficient Spend Limit Authority - adds the Approver in the Requestor or the delegated user's Approval chain with the maximum spend limit authority.
   On Behalf of User is a user acting on behalf of the Requestor. 
2. Specify the Approver if Specific User was chosen as the Approver Type.

Spend Limit Approver, Spend Limit Approver Hierarchy, and Sufficient Spend Limit Authority Approval Types

When Spend Limit Approver type is assigned as the Approver, the Approver is set as the Requestor's or OBO user's Approver:

1. When the rule is triggered; and
2. The Requestor's or delegated user's Spend Limit has been exceeded by the Invoice. 

When Spend Limit Approver Hierarchy Type is assigned as the Approver, the Approver is set:

1.  When the rule is triggered; and 
2. The Requestor's or a delegated user's Spend Limit has been exceeded by the Invoice: 
   1. Requestor's Approver (Approver A) is assigned, if the Invoice total is less than Approver A's Spend Limit.
   2. When the total is over the Approval A's limit, it is assigned to Approver A's Approver (Approver B), if the total is less than Approver B's Spend Limit. 
   3. As Spend Limits are met/exceeded, the determination of Invoice Approver continues up the Approval Hierarchy to set an Approver whose Spend Limit is less than the Invoice total. 

When Approver with Sufficient Spend Limit Authority is assigned as the Approver,  the Approver is set: 

1.  When the rule is triggered; and 
2. The Approver is the user with the maximum spend limit authority in the Requestor's or delegated user's Approval chain.

Add New Invoice Approval Lookup Rule

Invoice Approval Lookup Rules can be created and configured to be used in a Lookup Table to determine Approvers. Select Add New Lookup Rule to configure a Lookup Rule.

Rule Information and Conditions are set as for a new Invoice Approval  Rule.

Lookup Entity

The Lookup Entity must be specified for use with the Lookup Table. 

1. Specify the Setthe new rule belongs to.
   Note

   Similar lookup values with different approvers are placed in sets. The selection of the correct approver is based on the conditions defined in the rule.
2. Specify the Lookup Entity for the rule. The available values are Accounting, Content Group, Category, Shipping (location), Commodity Group, and UNSPSC.
   As noted: The value of the entity will be looked up in the Invoice Approval Lookup Table and compared with the invoice to determine the approver.

Invoice Approval Lookup Table

The Invoice Approval Lookup Table provides the functionality to determine, rather than specify, the responsible Approver(s) when the Conditions evaluate to true. 

Similar lookup rules with different approvers can be placed in different sets. Each set of lookup values is comprised of unique rows of lookup values and corresponding approvers. 

Using a Lookup Rule eliminates the need for to configure multiple rules - one for each approver -  if your organization needs to specify different approvers for the same rule. 

Export or view Lookup Table Rules from Menu > Document Rules > Invoice Rules > Invoice Approval Rules > Approval Lookup Table. 
Lookup table rules can be exported to a csv file for review and reimport. 

To Filter and Search lookup table values, use the fields at the top of the table.

1. Lookup values are maintained in Sets. The table displays values by set, in ascending order.
2. Entity is one of these business entities: Accounting, Content Group, Category, Commodity Group, or UNSPSC.
3. The Entity Values are either the ID or value of the Entity.
4. The Entity Value Description is the Name of the Entity Value, and is populated by looking up the Entity Valuein the system.
   Note

   For Accounting and Category, the Entity Value Description is Name. For Content Group or Commodity Group, it is the ID; for UNSPSC it is the Value.
5. The Approver Type is either User or User Group.
6. The Approver ID is the External ID of an internal User or ID of the User Group.
7. The Approver Name is the name of the User or User Group, populated by a system look up of the Approver ID.

Determining Approvers  Using Lookup Rule Sets

System logic determines the approver for a rule through the Set and Lookup Entity values when a condition for a rule has the Lookup Table set as the Approver Type. 

When a rule specifies the Lookup Table in a condition, the logic is as follows for the following situations, where 

Y = Selected Set on the 'Lookup Entity' tab for that rule

X = Selected Lookup Entity on the 'Lookup Entity' tab for that rule.

When the Lookup Entity is Accounting, evaluation is for each value associated to the Invoice Line Item for the Accounting Value.
Note that a single invoice line item could be associated with multiple Accounting Values.

When the Lookup Entity is Category, Content Group, Commodity Group, or UNSPSC, evaluation is for each value associated to the Invoice Line Item for the Entity.

1.  If the value is in the Set Y of the Invoice Approval Lookup Table grid in the entity_value column:
   The Reconciler is selected from that row in Lookup Table grid from the approver_type|approver_id columns.
2. If the selected Approver is an active user, then it is added  to the Approval Workflow chain. All Approvers for this rule are added as parallel.
3. If the Approver is disabled or deleted,  then the Exception Handler is added as a parallel reconciler. 

Note that the rule evaluation process will remove duplicate parallel approvers.