How to approve vendor payments and expenses

What is it for?

Management decides two things before money goes out: the expenses employees ask to have reimbursed and the vendor payments treasury has prepared. An approved expense goes on to accounting; an approved payment note becomes Ready to pay and treasury can issue it.

When to use it?

• An employee has submitted an expense (trip, meal, parking) and is waiting for reimbursement.
• Treasury has prepared and checked a payment note to a vendor and needs management's approval.
• An expense is above the company's limit and needs two approval levels.

Where to find it?

• Expenses: Management › Approve › Expenses to approve.
• Payments: Management › Approve › Supplier payments.

On a narrower screen (for example, a laptop 1366 px wide), Approve does not appear in the Management bar: click the + button at the end of the bar and choose Expenses to approve or Supplier payments there.

Before you start

• Your profile is Management. It is the profile that sees the Management app and has the Approve (ready to pay) button on payment notes.

• The expense is Submitted. The product only lets an expense be submitted with the document attached, the document number and, if it has VAT, the vendor with a tax number (NIF).

• Today, the employee cannot submit the expense they created: fiscaldoo gives an access error and the expense stays in Draft. Until the error is fixed, management can submit it for them: in the Expenses to approve list, without a filter, open the expense in Draft, choose the Product, the Supporting document and the Document number, attach the document (the Anexar ficheiros (attach files) button, in the expense's chatter) and click Submit. Because it is management that approves, an expense below the limit goes straight from Draft to Approved, without going through Submitted, so check everything before clicking. Also check what the Product fills in: in the test, the product [EXP_GEN] Despesas brought 23% VAT, a vendor and account 311 Mercadorias, which did not suit a parking expense.

• The payment note is Checked: treasury created it from the vendor's bills and checked it.

• If the company uses two levels, the administrator has set the limit in Settings › Expenses › Second approval of expenses above. With zero, there is a single approval.

How to use it

Approve or refuse an expense

1. Open Management › Approve › Expenses to approve. The page opens as a graph (Análise de despesas, expense analysis).
2. Click the List button, in the corner of the screen.
3. Click the search arrow and, under Filters, choose Waiting for approval.
4. Open the expense. Check the Total, the Taxes, the Supplier and the attached document.
5. Click Approve. In the example, the warning “An expense with the same receipt already exists.” does not mean the expense is a duplicate: the sample documents attached to the expenses are empty, and fiscaldoo treats identical files (including empty ones) as the same receipt. The expense link in the warning shows two expenses that have nothing to do with this one (€24.60 and €38.50). With real documents, the warning only appears when another expense has the same file (see “Common problems”).
6. To refuse, click Refuse, type the Reason in the Refuse Expense window and click Refuse.

If the expense is above the limit, Approve only gives the 1st level. The expense's chatter records it and the expense stays Submitted until an Expenses administrator gives the 2nd level:

Approve a payment note

1. Open Management › Approve › Supplier payments. The list shows all outgoing payments, including those already paid.
2. Click the search arrow and, under Filters, choose Draft.
3. Open the payment and, in the Payment note tab, check the Approval state (Checked) and the bills the note pays.
4. Click Approve (ready to pay).

Expected result

• Expense below the limit: it becomes Approved. Above the limit: the 1st-level message in the chatter and, after the 2nd level, Approved. Refused: Refused. In the example, the expense “Almoço com cliente (demonstração)”, of €38.50 (below the €100.00 limit), became Approved with a single Approve from management.
• Approving does not create journal entries: the approved expense is posted later (state Posted) and the note only posts the payment when treasury issues it.
• Payment note: the Payment note tab shows Ready to pay, Approved By and Approved on. No payment is posted yet: the note says “Issuing it posts the payment and reconciles it with the bills.”, and treasury is the one who issues it.

Important notes

• Management does not block a payment note: the Block button belongs to treasury only. To stop a payment, ask treasury to block the note with the reason. Do not use Cancel: it appears, but it refuses (see “Common problems”).
• The Draft filter in Supplier payments shows together the notes still to approve (Checked) and those already approved (Ready to pay). Open each payment and look at the Approval state in the Payment note tab before approving.
• Whoever gave the 1st level of an expense can no longer refuse it or give the 2nd level. If you decide to refuse after the 1st level, ask the Expenses administrator.
• The payment note is an internal document: “Internal document without fiscal value: no fiscal series, no ATCUD.”
• The same Approve menu has Absence requests, which are not part of this article.

Common problems

“An expense with the same receipt already exists.” appears

• Cause: another expense has a file attached that is identical to one on this expense. fiscaldoo compares the content of the files, not the name: two empty files also count as the same receipt, which is why the warning appears on the example expenses.
• What to do: click the expense link in the warning. It opens the list “Despesas com um recibo semelhante ao de …” (expenses with a receipt similar to …), with the other expenses. Check whether any of them is the same expense submitted twice: if so, refuse one of them. If they are different expenses, open the document attached to each and confirm it is the right receipt and not an empty file.

Refusing after the 1st level gives “Invalid Operation”

• Message: “You cannot refuse: expense: you gave the first approval. The second approval of an expense above the limit must be given by another Expenses administrator.”
• What to do: ask an Expenses administrator to refuse or give the 2nd-level approval.

Refusing without a reason

• Message: “Some required fields are empty. Fill in the fields marked in red to be able to save.”
• What to do: type the Reason in the window and click Refuse again.

Cancelling a payment note gives “No access”

• Message: “You do not have permission to change “Payment”. This area is for: Billing, Administrator, Treasury: User, Treasury: Manager.”
• What to do: management approves the note or leaves it unapproved. To stop it, ask treasury to block it.

The lists are empty

In a company with no expenses, Expenses to approve shows “No data yet!”. Check the active company in the top bar: each company has its own expenses and payments.