Configure automatic approval of contract invoices
- 6 min.
Purchase Contracts can be set up to automatically approve linked invoices and credit memos upon registration. You can even choose to set up a variance percentage for each contract line, so that invoices whose amounts stay within the specified variance are also automatically approved.
To set up automatic approval for invoices or credit memos linked to a purchase contract, you must:
- Set up the purchase contract for auto-approval by fixed amount or variance.
- Set up the relevant purchase contract template to automatically send for approval upon registration.
Set up the purchase contract
As mentioned, you can set up the purchase contract to automatically approve linked invoices and credit memos where the amount:
- exactly matches the amount specified on the purchase contract.
- is within a specified variance defined for each line in the purchase contract.
To allow the invoice or credit memo to be approved automatically if the amount is exactly the same as specified in the purchase contract, search for and open the Purchase Contracts page, open the relevant purchase contract, and fill in the fields as follows.
| No. | Field | Setting |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Price Type | Fixed Amount |
| 2 | Auto Approve Within Variance | Yes |
To set up automatic approval with a variance amount or percentage, you must first enable line recognition on the relevant template and then you fill in the fields on the purchase contract as follows:
| No. | Field | Setting |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Price Type | Variable Amount |
| 2 | Auto Approve Within Variance | Yes |
| 3 | Max. Allowed Line Variance % | Enter the allowed variance in percent for each line |
Tip
You can also specify the allowed variance with a specific amount. To do this, you need to add the Max. Allowed Line Variance column to the Lines section. For details on how to do that, please refer to the following Continia Docs article: Approving Contract Invoices
Set up the vendor template
To ensure that registered contract invoices are sent for approval automatically, you must configure the second step of the registration process on the relevant template.
Open the relevant template card, and in the Invoice Reg. Step 2 field, simply select Submit for Approval.
Note
You can enable automatic approval for the specific template that’s assigned to the selected invoice, or you can set it up for the master template so that all newly created templates will have it enabled by default.
As an example, here's the template card for the vendor BT&T. With this setup, the invoice or credit memo will now be sent for approval upon registration, and if the amounts comply with the details specified on the purchase contract, the invoice or credit memo will be approved automatically.
Important
On the purchase contract, the setting "No" in the Auto Approve Within Variance field overrules the approval setting in the Invoice Reg. Step 2 field on the template. For example, if the approval setting on the purchase contract is set to "No", invoices linked to the purchase contract will never be sent for approval even if the setting on the template specifies that documents must be sent for approval. In this way, you can have a configuration on the same template for general documents and a separate one for contracts, so they'll be processed differently.
Before the new purchase contract can start to automatically process your incoming invoices or credit memos, you must ensure that the new contract is properly reviewed. We'll look at that in the next unit.
Other resources
- Approving Contract Invoices (Continia Docs article for Document Capture)