AP Vouchers

Owned by Daniel Akers (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Mar 09, 2022 by Nelson Leong
5 min read

Overview:

Vouchers in Workbench are used as an intermediary step between receiving an invoice from a supplier and the creation of an AP Invoice, offering increased control and staging over the Accounts Payable process. If Image Documents are being used, vouchering is required, but otherwise it is an optional feature. Workflow rules can be applied to Vouchers, enabling multiple review steps before it can be approved as well as more specific approval authorities. Vouchers are not required to be in a batch and are not reflected against actual job costs until they are converted to an AP Invoice, giving the accounts team more freedom when entering all received AP documents for processing.

This guide will reference the Image Documents module, but if your company does not utilise the function, simply ignore these references.

For more information about the technical setup of Vouchers, see Voucher Configuration. See Create/Edit AP Voucher for details about entry and approval of vouchers.

Screen Guide:

By default, the filters are set to display vouchers with a Status of New and Sent Back, but you can modify the filter and then Create Tile in the filter menu to create a shortcut tile for your Home page.

  • Type shows whether this document is an Invoice (Inv) or Credit (Cr).
  • Ref Number is generally the invoice or credit number of the voucher that is unique for the Company, and also serves as a link to open the details of the AP Voucher.
  • Voucher ID is a system generated number that is unique for each voucher. This is not to be confused with the Ref Number.
  • Voucher Status can be one of the following, and will depend on whether a Workflow is being used:
    • New
    • Saved
    • Assigned
    • In Progress
    • Declined
    • Approved 
    • Cancelled
    • Sent Back
  • Invoice Status shows the status of the linked AP Invoice if it exists.
  • PO Number displays the first voucher line PO number, and an ellipsis (…) if there are more POs; the column is hidden by default.
  • Batch No displays the batch number that the AP Invoice is in, if it exists.
  • Assigned shows the user that this voucher is currently assigned to. Supports direct assignment for vouchers not In Progress by specifying a person in the Assigned column and clicking [Assign]. For vouchers In Progress this is not available. 
  • Received is the date that this voucher was marked as actually received, as opposed to the Doc Date that was written on the invoice.
  • Doc Date is the date that was written on the received invoice, but not necessarily the Received date.
  • Company is the supplier Company that this voucher is for.
  • Currency shows which Currency the Company operates in, or the currency from an underlying PO.
  • AP Invoice displays a View link when the AP Invoice is created from this voucher.
  • Total Tax is the total amount of tax that this voucher contains.
  • Total Incl is the total value inclusive of tax for this voucher.
  • Comments displays the voucher comment; the column is hidden by default.

Next Steps:

Click + New AP Voucher to create a Create/Edit AP Voucher if you want to create a manual voucher, or click on an existing voucher's Ref Number field to show the details. The AP Invoice field link will take you to that record's AP Invoice.


Related Pages:

Create/Edit AP Voucher

Image Documents

AP Invoice Enquiry


FAQs:

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Process Flow:

  1. Supplier Sends AP invoices – Most AP invoices would be sent directly by suppliers to a Workbench client specific email address associated with the extraction service. Any other AP invoices received may be manually forward to the same email address to utilise this process.
  2. Extract reads data – The extraction service will attempt to extract the data from the document and save its results. Validation rules are configured for a valid AP Invoice extraction.
  3. Download AP invoice data – Routinely a process would download the AP invoice data and obtain the status of documents processed by the service.
  4. Action – Based on the status obtained for each document, different actions will be required of the Workbench user. This action may be configured for automation for validated AP invoices.
  5. Manual Error Management – An “Error” status indicates the document could not be processed e.g. the document is not a supported file type. The user would acknowledge the errors and attempt offline resolution if required, such as contacting the supplier.
  6. Manually correct rejections – A “Rejection” status indicates that the extracted data for the document failed the defined validations for whatever reason. The user will be presented with the document image, and the data extracted, and then take the corrective actions. These include indicating the correct location of data on the image, and correcting the data extracted. This step is complete when the validation rules pass.
  7. Create AP voucher header – Whether automatically passed or with user intervention, a validated document is then used to create the respective AP voucher header, and unlike an AP invoice it will not reflect as costs on the job. The AP Invoice image is attached for reference.
  8. Optional re-assignment – If the person notified has insufficient context for the voucher then it may be manually re-assigned to another person. The new person may code the voucher or make a re-assignment. There is no limit on the number of re-assignments.
  9. Optional match and code – Optional matching and coding may be performed at this point for AP vouchers without any referenced PO. These are created as new vouchers and a reminder email may be configured as per (7).
  10. Auto / manual workflow submit – Vouchers with a PO may be configured to auto submit; alternatively, manual intervention is required to determine the appropriate schema.
  11. Execute workflow schema – The workflow schema is executed using the existing engine and screens updated for vouchers.
  12. Next step – As defined by the workflow, the voucher is assigned to one or more configured individuals for review, and then final approval.
  13. Decline – If the document is declined, the AP invoice must be managed manually, such as contacting the supplier for enquiry.
  14. Send back – This is a standard outcome that reverts to the originator. This results in resolution actions then may include off-line activities such as contacting the supplier, or changes and a re-submission.
  15. Approve – On approval the user is prompted for auto-batching. Beta release will only support auto batching.
  16. Create AP invoice – Is auto batching, the (pre-approved) AP invoice is created from the AP voucher and auto batched.
  17. No auto-batch – If not auto-batched the voucher is left in an approved state. A separate bulk batch process is then used to batch approved vouchers at a later stage.