Allocating, Approving, and Releasing for Payment
The Supplier Invoice activities (28.1.1) let you select invoices to update based on their status code and move the invoices through a workflow cycle. You change the status of the invoices by selecting a different invoice status code.
You control two aspects of supplier invoicing through invoice status codes:
• Allocation of the invoice amount to accounts. This determines the postings generated and which layer is updated.
• Approval of the invoice and release for payment. The approval process can be completed in as many stages as your company’s business process requires. For example, a company’s accounting process can require that the accounting clerk’s manager must first approve the invoice, followed by the budget holder for that cost center. If the invoice is above a certain value, the financial controller may also need to approve the invoice.
For example, you can use a different invoice status code each time to reflect each stage in the approval process with the Lock Payment field set to Yes and the Approved field to No on the invoice status code until the final stage in the process.
Approving the invoice indicates that it is a valid transaction. However, for cash flow or other reasons, you may not want to pay the invoice before the due date. If you apply a status code for which the Lock Payment field is set to Yes, the invoice is be excluded from payment runs. You can then apply an invoice status code for which the Lock Payment field is set to No when you want to include the invoice in payment selections.
You typically create a specific invoice status code for each type of status you need when processing the invoice. You then simply change the invoice status code when necessary.
See
Invoice Status Codes for a more complete description.