Overview:

Creating a new AP Invoice can only be done inside an open AP Invoice Batch. The standard process assumes that a supplier has sent an invoice by email, but if not it is recommended to make an electronic copy for attaching.

The objective of this screen is to transfer the data from the received invoice into the appropriate fields. It is important that the Invoice No matches the invoice exactly, for example if it is your company's policy to enter all leading zeros at the beginning of the invoice number, all users must be consistent with the practice. Workbench will check for duplicate invoice numbers for a given supplier and reject them.

Invoices can be entered using three methods:

• Manual entry where POs and dockets were not used to initiate the purchase.
• Purchase Orders where you can match the invoice against Order Lines.
• Dockets where you can match the invoice against Docket Lines.

Depending on your company's procedures and your Control Parameter/User settings, you can assign reviewers/approvers to finalise the invoice or you as the enterer may have the authority to approve the invoice yourself.

The invoice date generally needs to be within the period that the batch was made in. 

Screen Guide:

This screen is divided into four sections: General, Details, Lines, and Buttons.

General:

• ID - This is a system generated unique identification for this invoice, and is not the invoice number.
• Invoice No - this should be located on the supplier's invoice. By default the maximum characters is 10, but can be increased to 20 in Control Parameters.
• Invoice Date - this should also be stated on the supplier's invoice.
• Comments - optional text if notes need to be taken or communication within the accounts department and approvers.
• Order No - If the invoice states a Purchase Order number, it should be entered here. If found, we can click Get Order Lines to bring up the following dialogue. Note for Docket PO's this will display the Reconcile Docket Lines popup instead.
  
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  • When confirming the purchase order lines, care must be taken to match what is on the invoice versus what has been ordered in the system. Discrepancies should be reported to the purchaser.
  • You can change the filter between Incomplete and All in order to get a full picture of the PO in case it was partially consumed in a previous invoice.
  • When you click on one of the PO lines, the system will highlight non-editable cells in green, leaving only Qty and Value under This Invoice for editing.
  • Match the quantity and value to what has been delivered for each PO line, then click Confirm. Alternatively, clicking Default will default all PO lines to be fully delivered, and will complete all lines.
  • Note that you can partially invoice PO lines, in cases where the supplier only delivered part of the order, items are on hold, or part of the order was cancelled. Please tick "Completed" if there is no further expectation of the remaining items, or the PO will remain open and valid.
• Supplier - If selecting a PO in the field above, the system will automatically fill in the supplier. If there is no PO, a supplier will have to be manually selected. Once a supplier is selected, and if that supplier has unreconciled Dockets in the system, the Get Docket Lines button will become available.
  
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  • Dockets can now be reconciled with the invoice. If there is a discrepancy, the rate and quantity approved can be modified, which will then reverse or add to the original dockets, transferring the correct cost to the job.
• Payment Date - defaults from the Supplier’s Payment Terms on the Company’s details, but can be manually changed. This is mandatory and the AP Invoice cannot be approved without a Payment Due date. Payment Terms are imported from the Financial system, so it is recommended that if the Supplier does not have this information in Workbench, then to update Payment Terms in the Financial system so the details are imported to Workbench using the integration.
• Reviewer - Reviewers are useful in situations where multiple people need to see the document, or if the person responsible for the purchase does not have the authority to approve. Enter the user's name, then save.
• Assigned Approver - If your company requires approvals for invoices, you will need to assign someone to approve this purchase before it goes to the financial system. The list of people will be filtered based on their approval authority. If the person you are expecting is not in the list, choose the next user in line, or speak with the system administrator to adjust approval levels.

Details:

• This section provides additional information about the invoice. The Rate field is the currency rate compared to the system currency, and in this case they are the same.
• Status - 
  • Entered - This invoice is modifiable and may be assigned to a reviewer or approver. For automatic batching, the first open batch for the month will be used.
  • Submitted - The invoice has been reviewed and is ready to be approved by an approver
  • Approved - The invoice has been approved by a user with appropriate authority. If the Control Parameter "AP Invoice Auto System Batch" is set to yes, the system will automatically move this invoice to a generic batch.
  • Updated - The invoice has been exported with its batch to the financial system and is not editable. Please contact your system administrator if there is a problem with an updated invoice.

Invoice Lines:

• Job may be entered via the 'autopicker' or searched for. The Jobs listed are restricted to those with a Profit Centre belonging to the Profit Centre Group of the logged in User. 
  A further restriction is that the Financial Company on the Profit Centre on the Job equates to that of the logged in User.
• Activity includes all 'Purchase' and 'Stock' Type Activities that are included in the Job's Activity Group, if present. Job Activity Groups are derived from Job Maintenance which cannot be edited here. If you cannot find what you are looking for, the group may need to be changed or is not allowed on this job. In the unlikely event that the Job Activity Group was not populated, all 'Purchase' and 'Stock' Type Activities will be listed.
• Work Centre defaults to the one set up in the Activity Group activity, so long as it is allowed as a Work Centre on the chosen Job (this can be modified in Job Maintenance).
• Quantity is the number of items being purchased on this line.
• Rate is the cost per item being purchased on this line. It is updated automatically if a value is entered in the Cost column.
• Values by default take the product of Rate x Quantity, then will apply the default GST amount and add them together in the inclusive column. The GST field should be changed to the appropriate tax category for each line. From time to time, there will be GST discrepancies due to differing rounding calculations from some suppliers. Fields can be manually changed when needed.
• Details is the Activity Description default text, and is freely editable if the default is not accurate for the purchase.
• GST Type - these are usually set up during system initialisation, but can be modified by the system administrator if needed.
• Derived - This field will show where the line originates from. This is useful if multiple POs are used in one invoice, or to differentiate between PO and Docket lines. Clicking the hyperlink will bring you to the Confirm Purchase Order screen:
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  • This screen is used to view the details of the Purchase Order used in the preceding AP Invoice. The column categories and fields come directly from the PO document, and you can use the Filter to narrow down the view to incomplete lines. Clicking the  symbol will further delve into the selected PO line, displaying the Inwards Goods receipts and AP Invoice Enquiry breakdown of the line:
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  • This screen is useful for viewing the history of a PO line and to determine where it may have been consumed in other invoices.
• Delete - to delete an unwanted line, tick the delete field for each line then click "Save".

Buttons:

• Report Text - Headers and Footers can be added through this dialogue.
• Attachments - it is highly recommended to attach the digital copy of each invoice here when entering AP Invoices. Attachments will never be deleted and will be necessary for approvers and reviewers to check the data. Emails, spreadsheets, quotes, and many other files can also be attached.
• Import - Lines can be imported via an excel sheet or .csv file. Note that the fields must match exactly and be valid data. This would be useful for bulk purchasing.
• Delete - This button is used to delete the entire AP Invoice, not individual lines within the invoice. Approved invoices cannot be deleted unless unapproved, and updated invoices can never be deleted. If the AP Invoice originated as an AP Voucher, the system will prompt you that the voucher will be marked as Cancelled as well. The voucher can then be Uncancelled in the voucher screen if needed.
• Approve/Review - if your user has a correct approval limit set, this approves the invoice under your name. If you have assigned an approver in the General section, and your user has the ability to approve on behalf of others, this button will approve the invoice under that person's name. Reviewers do not have cost limitations.
• Unapprove - once the invoice is approved, it can be unapproved by users with the correct authority (the "Unapprove AP Invoices" Permission must be included in the Users' Role), and the Control Parameter "AP Invoice Approval Process" must be set to either "Value Standard" or "Header Total Ext". If the invoice has been approved and exported as part of a batch to the financial system, you may need to create an AP Credit or an Adjustment.
• Save - this will commit the data entered to the system. If data is missing or is incorrect, an error will be displayed in red and the document will not be saved. Invoices can be saved without lines, but must have data in the General section.
• Close - exit this screen without saving changes.
• A Send Back button is now available to all users which clears the assigned Reviewer and/or Approver so that the document can be assigned anew. This is useful in situations where the user who was assigned the document does not have enough information to approve the purchase or if it was assigned incorrectly.

Next Steps:

Depending on your procedure, you may wish to assign a reviewer or approver and then save the document. If you have authority, you can approve the document yourself. Once the document is approved, the batch that this invoice is contained in can be exported to your financial system using Export Control.

If you need to modify the invoice before it has been exported, you can open the batch and unapprove the invoice, allowing changes to be made. If the batch has been exported, you may need to create an AP Credit or Adjustment if you need to fix data.