The approval process: roles, limits, substitutes and the stamp

In detail

The process

An organization has one process for incoming invoices. It consists of steps in a fixed order: receipt and filing, checking the supplier, checking the mandatory details, Kontierung, approval, closing by accounting and export. Several steps can be switched off, and the approval can have several levels, before and after the approval by the cost centre.

• Templates: When you set up for the first time you choose "Einfache Freigabe" or "Bau mit Kostenstellen" and adapt the template.
• Draft, test run, publish: You first change the process as a draft. A test run shows which way an invoice would take. Only "Veröffentlichen" puts the change into effect. Every published version stays viewable in the version list.
• Running invoices keep the version they started with.
• If a setting changes who decides about money, the application marks it "Freigaberelevant". Such a change can only be published with a test run that the server runs again when publishing.

Setting up the process and the approval rules needs the plan of NOVEX Rechnungseingang. An invoice that is already running is carried to its end even without a running plan, as long as the organization is not suspended by the vendor.

Roles and permissions

The role decides who does what. These permissions belong to the incoming invoices:

• Work on tasks in the incoming invoices (approve, reject, send to clarification).
• View all incoming invoices.
• Upload, capture, file and discard incoming invoices.
• Export incoming invoices for bookkeeping and mark them as exported.
• Use the process monitor to reassign, end or continue cases.
• Delete incoming documents filed by mistake and restore deleted ones.
• Set up the invoice process.
• Manage approval rules, substitutes and the members of work groups.

Anyone who is only to approve invoices, such as a site manager or an external reviewer, gets the access "Nur eigene Aufgaben" (own tasks only). This person sees only the tasks assigned to them and no outgoing invoices. The access "Alle Eingangsrechnungen" shows all incoming invoices and nothing else. Both take a full seat of NOVEX Rechnungseingang, see Seats and prices.

Limits and superiors

The approval rules decide who decides on which invoice:

• Per cost centre the rules name a first reviewer and superiors, and company-wide also the orderers.
• Each rule has a limit in euro. An empty limit means unlimited. If an invoice's share exceeds the limit, the superior named by the rule decides as well. If they are absent, their substitute takes their place.
• NOVEX reads the limit at the time of the decision. The task shows the person their share, their limit and who decides above it as well.
• Your own rules: Anyone who is not an owner cannot create, change or delete a rule that names them as the person, a superior or a substitute. This applies rule by rule; owners are exempt. Every change to a rule writes a line to the security log, and every owner receives a notice.
• Where the process allows it, accounting names a different reviewer when capturing, a person or a work group. They review in place of the people of the cost centre and in place of nobody else. A task is decided only once; a second decision on the same task is rejected and names who decided.

A preview shows the approval path of the invoice before it is submitted.

Substitutes during absence

An absence has a period whose first and last day are both included, and an end is mandatory. Optionally it names a substitute and a note. The field asks for no reason.

• During the absence a task goes to the substitute named in the approval rule, otherwise to the substitute of the absence. If that one is absent too, it goes to their substitute. If nobody can be reached, a person chooses the reviewer.
• The substitute decides with the limit of the absent person if they have none of their own.
• Everybody records their own absence under "Konto", an external reviewer too. Whoever manages approval rules records it for everybody.

Tasks and decisions

Each person sees their open tasks under "Meine Aufgaben", one row per task. Tasks of a work group you take over and hand back if needed. The decisions are approve, reject and send to clarification.

• The link in the notification opens the task, on a phone too, in a view of its own.
• NOVEX notifies people by e-mail when a task is due and reminds them when it stays open. Depending on the process settings a task escalates further.
• Invoices that cannot go on are sent to clarification. Every clarification case has an owner before it has an exit.

The decision stamp

When the document is displayed (PDF, PNG or JPEG), every decision on an invoice is stamped on the document, at the place where the decider puts the stamp.

• Before confirming, the stamp appears on the page. You drag it, click at the place or move it with the arrow keys; on a phone you tap. Then you confirm the decision.
• The stamp belongs to the decision and is stored with it. It is never written into the file. The original stays unchanged.
• With "Notiz schreiben" you also place notes on the paper. A saved note can be neither edited nor removed.
• "PDF mit Vermerken" creates a copy into which the browser draws stamps and notes. It is not archived.

Record of decisions

For every decision NOVEX stores who made it, when, with which limit and under which rule. The process monitor shows running cases. Whoever may use it can reassign cases, retry them, send them to clarification or end them. The archive of the incoming invoices lists every filed invoice in every state.

No command of the process monitor marks an invoice as approved. The only exception is passing a stuck invoice on to the export without approval. That handover is recorded.