Secondary Invoice Approval Process

Definition

Secondary Invoice Approval provides Payables with two levels of approvals for invoices. Invoices are first approved by individual business units, and then optionally finally approved for payment by a central unit with access to all departments' invoices.

Setting Up Secondary Invoice Approval

The process for setting up Secondary Invoice Approval is as follows:

  1. The system administrator sets the payment approvals required profile option at application level for Payables to determine if tertiary level approval is required by the secondary approval process.

    A Yes setting allows for a tertiary level of approval before an invoice is made available for payment. This means that an invoice requires two stages of approval after a successful AutoApproval before it can be paid.

    A No setting allows only for the secondary level of approval before an invoice is made available for payment. The invoice is ready for payment after one stage of approval, namely, the secondary approval authorization.

    Users can set the posting level of secondary approval holds to the General Ledger as postable or non-postable.

  2. The database administrator uses the Maintain Secondary Approval Relationships window to set up departmental groups, approvers, and invoice clerks. All approvers and clerks must be valid users of Payables.

    The diagram below shows the relationship between the departmental group and the approvers and clerks as described in the accompanying text.

    Setup Relationship in Secondary Approval

    the picture is described in the document text

    The departmental group enables a number of approvers to be assigned to a number of invoice clerks, to avoid authorization problems if an approver is absent or unavailable. In this way, it is possible to assign temporary approvers or have more than one person authorizing invoices.

    An approver can be part of more than one departmental group, in which case the approver can authorize invoices for all those groups. Similarly, an invoice clerk can be a member of different departmental groups. Where this is the case, approvers in each of those groups can authorize that clerk's invoices.

    It is important to keep the relationship of group approvers and invoice clerks up-to-date. Otherwise, invoices can be entered without an approver to authorize them. Users should run the Secondary Invoice Approval: Secondary Approval of Invoices report to monitor invoices awaiting approval, or outside the exception range.

    For information on the Secondary Invoice Approval: Secondary Approval of Invoices report, see Generating Secondary Invoice Approval: Secondary Approval of Invoices Report Procedure.

    Approvers can also be assigned flexfield ranges to restrict the invoice lines each approver can approve. Approvers then drill-down to the individual invoice lines and distributions and approve them.

  3. The database administrator sets up menus and responsibilities to determine who has access to which windows.

    It is recommended that invoice clerks have access only to windows that enter invoices. Approvers must have access to all the approval windows authorizing invoices and be able to remove all holds except the payment approval hold. This hold can be removed only by users who have the central finance user profile option set to Yes.

    Note: Misuse of the standard View and Authorize Secondary Approvals window releases secondary approval and payment approval holds, and bypasses secondary approval completely. This window must be available to super users only.

Secondary Invoice Approval Process Diagram

The diagram below shows the Secondary Invoice Approval process diagram, as described in the accompanying text.

Secondary Invoice Approval Process Diagram

the picture is described in the document text

Using Oracle Payables with Secondary Invoice Approval

This section describes the additional steps required to enforce subsequent levels of approval prior to an invoice being selected for payment.

  1. Invoice clerks enter invoices using the Invoice Workbench in Payables.

    Note: On the Invoice Actions window in Payables, the All option is not available in the list of values in the Hold Name field. This is to prevent the release of secondary approval holds that are placed when the Validate check box and the Release check box are both selected.

    For information on the Invoice Actions window, see Invoice Validation, Oracle Payables User's Guide.

  2. The system automatically approves invoices as in Payables. In Payables, this is usually the last entry against the invoice before final payment, unless further modifications are made to the invoice lines.

    If any approval holds are placed against an invoice, with the exception of secondary approval holds, they are removed using the View Payment Holds tab of the View and Authorize Secondary Approvals window. This allows removal of all user-defined holds and most system-generated AutoApproval holds. It does not allow for removal of secondary approval holds or payment approval holds.

  3. The secondary approval hold can be removed only by the appropriate secondary approver using the View and Authorize Secondary Approvals window. If necessary, the Secondary Invoice Approval: Secondary Approval of Invoices Report is run to review details of invoices requiring secondary approval and of any unassigned invoices.

    If AutoApproval is not successful, for example, a distribution line does not match, the invoice is not approved, and the secondary approval hold cannot be released.

    If further modifications are made to an invoice, the secondary approval hold is released. The invoice requires reapproval, and the process of secondary approval starts again.

  4. Approvers approve invoices with a secondary approval hold using the View and Authorize Secondary Approvals window and optionally drill-down to the invoice lines and distributions.

    Approvers release the secondary approval hold by selecting invoices and the Authorization check box. If the payment approval profile option is set to Yes, the system places a payment hold against the invoice after authorization; otherwise, the invoice is available for payment.

    If necessary, the Secondary Invoice Approval: Secondary Approval of Invoices Report is run to review details of invoices that receive secondary approval. If secondary approval is set up to require payment approvals, it is recommended that the standard Invoice On Hold Report is run to track payment approvals.

  5. If invoices have a payment approval hold set, users with the central finance user profile option set to Yes release these holds using the View Payment Holds tab of the View and Authorize Secondary Approvals window.

  6. Invoices are selected for payment.

    The payment process is unaffected by the secondary approval process and requires all invoices to be approved before they are available for payment.

Using Secondary Approval Example

This example illustrates how to use secondary approval. It assumes that the HR GROUP departmental group has one approver, JSMITH, and two invoice clerks, TSCOTT and TJONES. Additionally, the payment approval profile option is set to Yes so that a payment hold is placed on invoices after approval. JSMITH has the central finance user profile option set to Yes and is able to remove holds of this type.

  1. Invoice INV 0310 is entered and successfully approved by invoice clerk TJONES. The system issues the message no holds have been placed or released, indicating that AutoApproval is successful. The Enter Invoices window places a secondary approval hold against the invoice. The Status field of the Invoices Summary window shows the text Needs Reapproval for this invoice.

  2. The group approver JSMITH uses the View and Authorize Secondary Approvals window to list those invoices and authorizes INV 0310 for payment by selecting the Authorize check box.

  3. The system places a payment approval hold on invoice INV 0310.

  4. JSMITH, who also has the central finance user profile option set to Yes, uses the Invoice Holds window to view invoices with payment approval holds. The line for invoice INV 0310 shows that the secondary approval hold is released and that the payment approval hold is in place. JSMITH uses this window to release the hold.

  5. JSMITH runs the Secondary Invoice Approval: Secondary Approval of Invoices Report. This provides details of the authorized invoices that receive secondary approval. The report is ordered by status, approver name, group name, invoice date, and invoice number.

References

For information on menus and responsibilities, see Defining a Responsibility, Oracle E-Business Suite Security Guide.

For information on setting the posting level of secondary invoice holds, see Invoice Approvals, Oracle Payables User's Guide.

For information on entering invoices in Payables, see Payables Workbench, Oracle Payables User's Guide.

For information on the Invoice On Hold Report, see Invoice on Hold Report, Oracle Payables User's Guide.