Find, review and approve Invoices Awaiting Your Approval.
When an Invoice is in a 'FLAGGED' state, it contains one or more discrepancies that require review and approval by an appropriate user (or users) at your Organization.
Nominated Approvers can Approve or Decline an Invoice. Approving the Invoice will mark it as Reconciled, and Declining the Invoice will mark it as Cancelled.
Jump to:
- Invoice Approval Workflows (Legacy vs New)
- Approve an Invoice (Legacy Workflows)
- Approve an Invoice (New Workflows)
- Reviewing Flagged Invoices
- Best Practice for Reviewing Flagged Invoices
Invoice Approval Workflows (Legacy vs New)
PurchasePlus his historically supported Role-based Invoice Approval Workflows, with Operational users (e.g. Head of Food and Beverage) providing their Approval first, and then Financial Users (e.g. Accounts Payable) providing their Approval second. We call this Workflow model 'Legacy Workflows', and many Purchasers will be using this Invoice Approval Workflow model.
As of February 2025, PurchasePlus has delivered new Rank-based Invoice Approval Workflows, that are more scalable and performant than the Legacy Workflow model. We refer to this updated model as 'New Workflows'. Newer Purchaser Organisations or Purchasers that have migrated with the assistance of our Configuration teams will be using New Invoice Approval Workflows.
The two models cannot operate in tandem; an Organisation must have one model or the other enabled for their Account. Please get in touch with us to enable New Workflows for your Organisation if you would like to switch.
Learn more about the difference between Legacy and New Workflows.
Approve an Invoice (Legacy Workflows)
1. Click [Invoices Awaiting My Approval] on the Home page, or select [Invoices] → [Awaiting My Approval] from the side navigation bar.
2. In the Invoices Awaiting My Approval table view, you can complete the following tasks:
a. Use [Search] to find a specific Invoice.
b. [Manage Columns] to adjust information shown in table.
c. Click the [Invoice Number] to open an Invoice.
d. [Reference]. Hover on the Reference to add or edit the Invoice Reference.
e. View the 'Supplier' invoice is from.
f. [Expense Account]. Hover on the Expense Account to add or edit the Department or Account that the Invoice is expensed against.
g. [Purchase Order]. Determine if the Invoice has been matched to a Purchase Order. See our Match a Purchase Order to an Invoice article to learn more.
h. [GR Notes]. View the Goods Receiving Notes or create a Goods Receiving Note against the Purchase Order.
i. [PDF Copy]. View the PDF Copy of the Invoice, if the Invoice was created from a PDF.
j. Operationally or Financially [Approve] the Invoice, depending on your permissions.
3. You can also click into a 'FLAGGED' Invoice and you will find the Financial and Operational Approval buttons in the Invoice header. Here you can Operationally or Financially [Approve] the Invoice depending on your permissions.
4. Once both Operational and Financial approval has been granted, the Invoice will be progressed to the 'RECONCILED' state.
If your Organisation creates batch Export Files see our Mark an Invoice or Credit Note as Export Ready article to learn more about preparing Invoices for Exporting. If your Organisation exports Invoices and Credit Notes individually, see our Export an Invoice or Credit Note article.
Approve an Invoice (New Workflows)
Users have the ability to Approve or Decline an Invoice that has been coded to an Organisation Unit where (a) there is a new Workflow Assigned, and (b) they are an Approver in one of its Workflow Ranks.
Approvers can either Approve or Decline an Invoice from the [Invoices] → [Awaiting My Approval] page. Please note, Approvers in the second (and subsequent) Ranks of the Workflow will only see Invoices in this list after they have been granted Approval by the earlier Rank(s):
Additionally, Approvers can click into an Invoice and use the [Approve] or [Decline] buttons in the header of the Invoice:
What happens when an Invoice is Approved?
- If the Invoice Value is greater than the Approver's Rank Maximum Value, the Invoice will be progressed to the next Approval Rank. Users in the next Approval Rank will be notified by email.
- If the Invoice Value is less than the Approver's Rank Maximum Value, the Workflow considers this 'Final Approval', and the Invoice is automatically moved to the state of Reconciled. It can be exported to your external AP system for payment.
What happens when an Invoice is Declined?
- Approvers will be prompted to add a Comment, and the Invoice is automatically transitioned to a Cancelled state.
Learn more about New Invoice Workflows.
Review a Flagged Invoice
There are many reasons that an Invoice may be flagged, and each of the Flag reasons are shown on the Invoice Flags tab and in the Flags column on each Invoice line. As the Operational or Financial Approver, you may review each Flag reason and decide if you wish to rectify the Flag reason, or approve the Invoice without rectifying some or all of the Flag reasons.
Flag reasons are customized per Organization, so speak with an administrator at your Organization if you believe any of the Flag reasons appearing on your Invoices are unnecessary.
1. Select [Invoice] in the [Awaiting My Approval] list to view it in detail. You can use the quick action buttons in the Invoice header to:
a. [Show or Hide Details]. View detailed information about the Invoice.
b. [PDF Copy]. View the PDF Copy of the Invoice, if the Invoice was created from a PDF.
c. [More Options]. View More Options such as the Audit Log of the Invoice.
2. If required, click [Update Values] to manually adjust the Invoice values to bring the Invoice into balance. The Invoice Balance panel appears on all Invoices, and indicates if the sum of the Invoice lines balances the Invoice totals.
3. All Invoice lines are listed within the [Product Summary] tab of the Invoice. Here you can:
a. Choose [Advanced View] to view Invoice Sub-Lines. View help article Update Invoice Lines using Advanced Mode for more information.
b. [Add Invoice Line], if required.
c. [Link] Invoice Line Items to Purchase Order Line Items. If your Organization matches Invoices to Purchase Orders, it is important that each line of the Invoice is linked to a corresponding line on the matched Purchase Order. See our Link Invoice Lines to Purchase Order Lines article to learn more.
d. [Flags] View Flag Reasons for each Invoice line. If one or more Flag reasons are present on the Invoice line, a red flag icon will be present.
e. [Received] Status. Understand if the matched Purchase Order line has been marked as received on one or more Goods Receiving Notes.
f. [Info] View detailed information about the Invoice line.
g. Invoice Quantity, Unit Price, Tax % and Line Totals.
There are other tabs on the Invoice that contain important information:
1. The [Flags] tab provides a summary of the Flag reasons for the Invoice.
2. The [Analysis] tab provides a detailed view of the 3-Way/2-Way Match Analysis.
3. The [Settings] tab enables you to view and manage details about the Invoice, such as Invoice Number, Reference, Invoice Date, Currency and Department and Account Code.
4. The [Comments] tab shows the Internal or External Comments that have been added to the invoice by users at your Organization.
5. The [Purchase Order] tab shows the Purchase Order that has been matched to the Invoice, if any.
6. The [Receiving Notes] tab shows the Goods Receiving Notes that belong to the matched Purchase Order, if any.
7. The [Attachments] tab shows the attached files that have been added to the Invoice by users at your Organization, if any.
Best Practices when Reviewing Invoices
Match Purchase Orders & Invoices
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If applicable to your Organization, ensure a Purchase Order is matched to the Invoice before reviewing any Flag reasons.
- Link Invoice Line Items to Purchase Order Line Items, if needed.
Receive Goods & Services
- Check if items have been received. If applicable to your Organization, receiving a Purchase Order is a critical step in ensuring the items have been delivered and signals to the Invoice Approver that the Invoice is okay to be approved.
Check Line Items on Invoice before Approving
- In case of discrepancies between Purchase Order price and Invoice price, you may wish to reach out to the Supplier for a potential Credit Note for any variance.