Buy-Side Financials Flow

The buy-side financial flow typically follows this process:

1. Create an invoice. Invoices can be generated from executed buy shipments using the Create Invoice action or by an automation agent. Invoices can also be manually entered or created via integration from an outside system.
2. Match the invoice to a shipment. Invoices can be manually matched to buy shipments, using the Match Invoice action. Alternatively, they can be automatically matched based on the match rule profiles that you assign to service providers.

   Note: You can manually match more than one shipment to an invoice. However, the AutoMatch Invoices action and the Process All Invoices process automatically match only one shipment to an invoice.

3. Approve the invoice for payment. Invoices can be approved manually using the Approve Invoice action. Alternatively, they can be automatically approved based on the auto approve rule profiles assigned to service providers.

   Note: You can use the Process All Invoices process to automatically match and approve batches of invoices based on the applicable match and auto-approve rule profiles.

4. Issue a voucher for the invoice. When an invoice is approved, a voucher is automatically created for it. The voucher needs to be issued to a specified directory so that its payment data can be accessed and used by an accounts payable system.
   Vouchers can be issued using the Send Voucher Interface action or you can create an automation agent that will automatically issue vouchers for approved invoices.
5. Allocate the voucher. The vouchered (that is, actual) costs can be allocated using the Allocate Voucher action or they can be allocated in batches by the Bulk Allocation process.
6. Issue the allocation data.