Approving invoices

Invoice workflow

While invoices can move through various statuses there isn't a defined workflow that must be followed. The actions a person is able to perform is determined by the setup of the access levels.

Each person is able to set an invoice to the most advanced state they are authorised to do.

• Draft

  • Invoice creation is in progress, the invoice has been saved

• Pending

  • Has been submitted for approval by the manager

• Approved (Manager)

  • Manager has reviewed the invoice and approved it

  • Can no longer be edited (withdraw and set to draft if changes are needed)

• Approved (Finance)

  • The final status in Projectworks

  • Finance has reviewed the invoice and has approved it

  • Cannot be edited (withdraw and set to draft if changes are needed)

There are no notifications generated as invoices move through the statuses. The My Dashboard screen lists invoices that a person needs to approve, and the All Invoices screen can be filtered to invoices that relate to a person.

Submitting and approving invoices

Invoices can be submitted and approved on an individual or bulk basis . You might like to bulk Manager Approve from the “All Invoices” tab or bulk Finance Approve from the “Ready for Finance” tab and use filters and grouping to help manage the process. The “All Invoices” tab contains all invoices where as the “Ready for Finance” tab contains all invoices that have been manager approved and are awaiting finance approval.

Example workflow for invoices

Project Managers are responsible for creating invoices for the projects they are managing. They will create the invoice and once happy can either:

• Submit for approval: if an additional step is required before handing to finance

• Approve (Manager): approve the invoice for finance to finalise

The finance team review invoices with the status of Manager Approved and if no changes are required set the invoice to Approved (Finance) and complete the process or exporting to the accounting system and emailing to the customer.

Setting up access levels for invoice creation/editing

Access Levels can be set up to control the ability to create and edit invoices. It is possible to set up access to allow project managers to only create invoices for projects they manage, but view invoices or all projects.

The default access levels have been set up as follows:

• Time & Expense user: no access to invoices

• Project Manager: Can create invoices for any project, and set invoices to Manager Approved

• System Admin: Access to all invoicing options, including exporting and emailing invoices

To change these access levels or grant access to invoice functions, the settings can be changed in the Access Levels settings.

In the System - Settings page you will find the controls to:

• Allow Bulk Finance approval for draft invoices; and

• Allow Bulk Manager approval for draft invoices

Once enabled, any users who have been granted the access to invoices are able to take advantage of the bulk action capability.

Access levels can be used to “build a wall” between the delivery team and finance team. Once an invoice has been approved by the manager it sits with the finance team to finalise. If any changes are needed the finance team can set the invoice back to draft.

The finance team are able to export to the accounting system and email the invoice to the customer.