Automating your AP process helps reduce the AP portion of procurement to pay cycle time - closing your books sooner, and making authorized approver's jobs easier and quicker. The most basic Accounts Payable approval process requires some kind of approval matrix to maintain approval process integrity. Here, we'll provide a brief overview of what constitutes an AP Approval Process within Perceptive Content.
This approval matrix typically includes the following data:
Approval Level
Approver Name (Perceptive Content Username or ExternalID)
Invoice Amount Limit
Data to find the Approver such as GL Code or Business Unit
A document inside of Perceptive needs to include the following data:
Invoice Amount
Current Approval Level
The approval process begins when an invoice flows into an Approval Process Workflow. A script is run to create Tasks within Perceptive Content for the first approver(s) using the approval matrix.
The user will then access their assigned task list and either approve the invoice or reject the invoice:
If the approver rejects the invoice, the invoice will be routed to a rejected invoice queue for review.
If the approver approves the invoice, a script will run and check if the user has the proper approval level to fully approve the invoice. If the approver can fully approve the invoice, the invoice is routed to an approved invoice queue. If the user cannot fully approve the invoice, the script will look for the next level approver and create a task for the next approver.
Out of the Office Functionality:
Sometimes, an approver is out of the office. In this case, the script will check if the Perceptive Content user is set as "out of office" in Perceptive Content. If the approver is out of office, the script will look in the matrix to find the backup approver and assign the invoice to the backup approver automatically.
Escalation Functionality:
After a set amount of days, if the approver hasn’t approved or rejected their task, the task will be removed and the script will find the next level approver. A new task will be created for the next level approver and both parties would be notified about the escalation.
If you'd like more information or a demonstration of an automated Accounts Payable process, please contact us!
Katherine Wu
Developer