How to set up an approval workflow?

Envoice provides the option to set up approval workflow for purchase invoices, expense reports and travel reports (incl. travel requests). In approval flow, any purchase document or report created by a user will be submitted to the predefined list of approver(s) or manually selected approver(s). 

In addition to approving, workflow members can add other purchase/expense related or accounting related information to the document. Like cost category, project, account, or just comment on the document.

Workflows can be initiated manually or they can start automatically if defined so.

Process of approver workflow setup: 

Make sure to check your account is set up correctly so that you can set up the approval workflows. 

Check or adjust your subscription

1. Go to Settings and select Subscription 
2. On Subscription summary section you will see your active subscription plan
3. Make sure your active subscription plan is Business
4. To change your subscription, click Manage Subscription and select Expenses plan Business

Check and change user roles

To participate in a workflow, an Approver or Reviewer role has to be assigned to the user. 

A user with Reviewer permissions can participate in the workflow, but cannot be a final approver. Instead, a user with an Approver role can be assigned to any step of the workflow, including a final approver. After final approval, the document is considered to be in finished status and it will be automatically forwarded to the accounting software.

1. Go to Settings and select the Users tab
2. Click on the name of the user. The user's profile page will then open.
3. Change roles by selecting Reviewer or Approver user role.
4. Click Save

Check and adjust recording requirements

If Envoice is used for recording the document, coding and cost allocation can be part of the workflow. 

To allow users participating in the workflow to add any tracking category (project/object) or accounting (account) information, additional user privileges have to be assigned to the user. 

1. Go to Settings and select the Users tab
2. Click on the name of the user. The user's profile page will then open.
3. Check if Approve and Code is selected.
4. Click Save

Setting up the workflow

When all your settings have been reviewed then you can set up the automatic approval workflow:

1. Going to your Envoice Settings and select the Purchases tab
2. Clicking on Workflow Templates
3. Clicking on Add new
   
4. Choose if the template is general or supplier based.
   If you choose supplier based then select a supplier, all invoices from this supplier will have this template available.
5. Fill out any voluntary feels
6. Choose whether the template is applied automatically 
7. Choose whether whether the approvals are automatic
   

Check a more detailed guide about how to set up automatic approval workflows from here.