1. Using Payables Invoice to Pay
  2. How You Create Invoice Approval Rules Using a Spreadsheet

How You Create Invoice Approval Rules Using a Spreadsheet

You can create approval rules using a spreadsheet. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

  • Each spreadsheet or template contains sample data that you can refer to when creating your approval rules.

  • The templates provide examples of use cases that you can use to modify or create your own approval rules.

  • For more information see the topics listed in the Related Links section of this topic.

You have four spreadsheets or templates shown in this list, that you can either modify or use to define your own rules:

  • Invoice Approval Basic template

  • Invoice Approval Sample template 1

  • Invoice Approval Sample template 2

  • Invoice Approval Sample template 3

You can access the templates from the Manage Workflow Rules in Spreadsheet page and navigate to the Payables Invoice Approval workflow. Each spreadsheet template contains the following four worksheets:

  1. Instructions

  2. Invoice Request Approval Rules

  3. Invoice Approval Rules

  4. Data Sets

Invoice Approval Templates

You can use the templates to create approval rules in accordance with your approval policy. Each sample template contains use cases that you can refer to and you can define rules using any of the templates. For more information you can refer to the Related Links section in this topic.

Attributes

In the Invoice Approval Rules worksheet, you can select the attributes based on Invoice Header, Invoice Line, Invoice Distribution and other attribute categories in the Approval Conditions section. By opening the drop-down list associated with the attribute category, you can view the available attributes. To add an attribute category, open the drop-down list and select a category. You can choose any of the attributes for the attribute category by selecting the wanted attribute from the drop-down list.

Rule Evaluation Currency Attribute

To create workflow rules that should be evaluated in a specific currency, enter the currency using the attribute Rule Evaluation Currency. The attribute is available for these attribute categories:

  • Invoice Header

  • Invoice Line

  • Invoice Distribution

Specify the currency value following the ISO 4217 standard. The resulting rules that are created apply Corporate as the rate type and the Invoice Date as the rate date for evaluating transactions that satisfy rule conditions.

Data Sets

In the Data Sets worksheet, the list of values for the Varying Attributes column contains a selected list of attributes you can use to create your own data sets. A data set enables you to define a mapping between your data and the variation in approvers based on such data.

Each template has sample rules for these use cases:

Invoice Approval Basic template

The sample rule in this template is based on the following use case:

Invoice Request Approval:

Business Rule: All Invoice requests require approval by the Invoice header level requester.

Invoice Approval

  • Any invoice with an invoice amount greater than or equal to 1000 requires approval by the supervisor of the user creating the invoice.

  • Any invoice with an invoice amount less than 1000 should be automatically approved.

Note:

Each template has sample rules already defined for you to reference when creating or modifying your approval rules.

Invoice Approval Sample template 1

This template contains sample rules required to enforce the following approval policy. Each business rule from the approval policy is represented in one block in the template.

Invoice Request Approval:

Business Rule: All Invoice requests require approval by the Invoice header level requester.

Invoice Approval

  • Business Rule 1: All invoices that aren't matched to a purchase order require supervisory approval. Any unmatched invoice that doesn't have requester details should automatically be rejected. Invoices that are matched to a purchase order don't require approval under this rule.

  • Business Rule 2: All invoices with an invoice amount greater than or equal to USD 5000 require approval by the Finance approval group. The Finance approval group that must approve the invoice, varies based on the invoice distribution cost center and the business unit on the invoice. Any invoice with an invoice amount less than USD 5000 should be automatically approved.

Invoice Approval Sample template 2

This template contains sample rules required to enforce the following approval policy: Each business rule from the approval policy is represented in one block in the template.

Invoice Request Approval:

Business Rule: All Invoice requests require approval by the Invoice header level requester.

Invoice Approval

  • Business Rule1: All invoices for a particular business unit and with specific distribution account segment values require approval from a job-based hierarchy. The range of job levels that must approve the invoice vary based on the invoice amount. Any invoice that doesn't have the specified distribution account segment values should be automatically approved.

  • Business Rule2: All invoices that have project information about them require approval by the project manager. Any invoice that doesn't refer to a project should be auto approved.

Invoice Approval Sample template 3

This template contains sample rules required to enforce the following approval policy: Each business rule from the approval policy is represented in one block in the template.

Invoice Request Approval:

Business Rule: All Invoice requests require approval by the Invoice header level requester.

Invoice Approval

  • Business Rule1: All invoices for specific invoice sources require approval by a supervisory hierarchy. The pay group and invoice amount determine the required number of levels of supervisory approval.

    • Invoices from certain invoice sources require approval by a specific approval group.

  • Business Rule2: All invoices for asset purchases for specific cost centers with invoice amount more than a specific amount, require approval by the cost center manager.

    • Invoices for the same specific cost center for asset purchases less than the specific amount require autoapproval.

    • Invoices for asset purchases by any cost center other than the specified cost centers require auto-rejection.

Points to Consider

Consider the following:

  • When you generate the rule file for the template, the rules for both Invoice Request Approvals and Invoice Approvals are included.

  • You must define rules in at one or both worksheets, the Invoice Request Approval or Invoice approval to successfully generate the rule file. Otherwise, the file isn't generated without rules.

  • Each new successful rule file uploaded overwrites all the existing rules for the workflow.

  • This feature is only available for the Payables Invoice Approval Workflow for Payables.

  • You must use Oracle Business Process Management (BPM) to define rules for the other Payables workflows.

  • The Invoice Request Approval Rules can only be used to define approval rules for Supplier Portal invoices. You must use the Invoice Approval Rules worksheet for all other invoice types such as Standard invoices, Debit memos, Credit memos, and Prepayments.

Related Topics