Approve button not available on an invoice, or invoice with the wrong approver
If some invoices seem to be with incorrect approval groups/roles, or the 'Approve' button is not available on the invoice processing screen, its advised to check the below-
1. Invalid line items or missing gross amount
Check the History tab on the invoice processing screen. This can provide more context. Check if all line items for the given invoice have been completed and it says 'Yes' under the 'Valid' section; if its says 'No' check the reason, values with 0 gross amount could be one of them. Unless its fixed, the approve button will not show up.
2. Check invoice approval flow as per authorised amount for a building
Go to Setup / Building approval steps at building level and check the invoice approval flow. If the invoice is currently sat with a person on that approval flow with the correct authority, then its correctly following the 'Role-based invoicing' process, that person should have the 'Approve' button to approve the given invoice.
3. Work Order related to the Invoice has a special category linked with handling group
Check if the request or contract linked with the invoice has a special category, the category may have a special handling group.
Example - if the category of a work order or contract linked with the invoice to be approved is 'Maintenance'-
a. Go to Setup / Core data / Categories at Managing agent level and look for 'Maintenance'
b. Click on 3 dots on far right on new layout (Select Action on old layout), and click on 'Edit' from the drop-down. A smaller window will pop out.
If the 'Handling group' field is populated, then only members of this user group can approve the given invoice, providing their authority covers the invoice amount. You can cross-verify this under the You / View detail section for an invoice - check the 'Current step' in the attached picture to see with whom is an invoice sat with currently.
4. Expected approver added late to the assigned group of the invoice
Check when was the invoice uploaded and when was the user added to the assigned group.
- Try uploading a new invoice to the same contract or work order to verify if newly created invoices do appear. If that is the case, a saved search may be the solution, and the property managers should have been trained to know how to use them.
5. The user has set up a saved search which needs to be disabled or adjusted.
- There is a 3rd tab on Invoice search screen labelled 'Saved searches'. It may not be configured as expected.
Other considerations that may impact approval but not necessarily the invoice list:-
- Privilege - Two pairs of eyes - some clients have this privilege turned ON as a mandate, which requires all the invoices to go through two people or 'two pairs of eyes'.
- Organisation group - Super Approvers - only members of Super Approvers user group can approve an invoice if this is followed.
To learn more about role-based invoicing, please give this article a visit.