How do Advanced Approvals Work?

Modified on Thu, Jan 30, 2020 at 1:22 AM

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 3 layers of hierarchy:

Location
Group
Company

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 are 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.
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.
More added frequently...	TBD

For instance, this Test policy will says: all invoices

Sent to a Location that's a part of the Company, Boulder
That are sent from a mapped vendor named "Sysco:
That are more than $10,000
And that were sent directly from the Vendor

... requires special approvals

Potential Approvers

These invoices need to be approved by a pre-defined set of users called Potential Approvers

In this case, Aaron and Dane will get emails alerting them that they have invoices requiring their approval, and at least 1 of them is required to approve it to satisfy the policy.

Auto-Approval Rules

Lastly, Auto-Approval Rules are an optional condition. This rule says that if Aaron from above was the user who uploaded the invoice, then the invoice in Plate IQ will be automatically marked as approved.

Approving an invoice

Dane and Aaron can Approve invoices directly from the Invoice Details view.

Or, if Dane and Aaron are on vacation for instance, Admins are able to Force Approve invoices to bump them into Pending Export.

Undo Approvals

Admins 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.