Approve an invoice | Docs Center

You have been given the task of approving an invoice. You may need to update and add data.

With the Approve action in the ribbon of the capture form, you confirm that the data has been verified and you have approved the invoice. With your confirmation, the invoice receives a kind of digital stamp with the name Released in the invoice capture form. Your team members and the subsequent participants in a workflow can see from the stamp that the invoice has already been viewed and verified.

You can also use the Approve action to forward an invoice to another person or group if you have questions or require further viewing.

Depending on the situation, you can approve an invoice as part of a simple workflow, as part of a rule-based workflow or according to the four-eyes principle. While individual groups (departments, teams) can approve invoices above a certain amount in a rule-based workflow, this rule is missing in a simple workflow.

Situation 1: simple workflow for approving an invoice

Let's assume the invoice is correct and you forward the invoice to a group (mailbox).

Here's how

Click on Approve in the ribbon to open the Approve invoice dialog.
Enter your question or remark in the Additional remark field under Confirm approval. The text is displayed under Approval history after the invoice has been verified.
Under Next recipient, activate the checkbox for Forwarding enabled.
Select either a group (Mailbox) or an individual person (Clerk).
Select an appropriate text suggestion under Subject.
Click on Approve and forward.

If you do not want to forward the invoice, but only want to confirm that the invoice has been verified, you can ignore the Next recipient section. To confirm the verification, click on Approve.

Situation 2: rule-based workflow with specific invoice amounts

Let's assume you receive an invoice with an invoice amount of 350.00 euros. You have the permission to approve invoice amounts on your cost center from 100.00 euros. The invoice is correct and will be forwarded to the next group in the workflow after you have approved it.

Things to know

Depending on how the workflow has been designed in your organization, forwarding to the next step can be automated. In this case, there is no need to select recipients.

Here's how

Click on Approve in the ribbon to open the Approve invoice dialog.
Under My approval, click on the cross in the Approve field. After clicking, a check mark will be displayed. The check mark indicates that you accept the invoice amount.
Under Next recipient, activate the checkbox for Forwarding enabled.
Select either a group (Mailbox) or an individual person (Clerk) if the next group has not been selected automatically.
Select an appropriate text suggestion under Subject.
Click on Approve and forward.

Situation 3: rule-based workflow for approving invoices above certain amounts

Let's assume you receive an invoice with an invoice amount of 450.00 euros. You have the permission to release invoice amounts from 100.00 euros (without cost center). The invoice is correct and will be forwarded to the next group in the workflow after you have approved it.

Things to know

Depending on how the workflow has been designed in your organization, forwarding to the next step can be automated. In this case, there is no need to select recipients.

Here's how

Click on Approve in the ribbon to open the Approve invoice dialog.
Activate the Limit approval is required checkbox under Limit approval. After activating it, a check mark is displayed. The check mark indicates that you accept the invoice amount as part of the limit approval.
Under Next recipient, activate the checkbox for Forwarding enabled.
Select either a group (Mailbox) or an individual person (Clerk) if the next group has not been selected automatically.
Select an appropriate text suggestion under Subject.
Click on Approve and forward.

Important note on the four-eyes principle

If your administration has activated the four-eyes principle (Approval according to the 4-eyes principle) for the approval of invoices, it may be possible that you still have to forward the invoice to another person. All approval steps are only completed once the other person has also confirmed the invoice amount. The invoice workflow can then be completed.

If you have any questions about the individual steps, please contact your administration.

See also