Invoice receipt book: Set up release processes

Release processes

With release processes (also known as approvals or incoming invoice workflow), you control who receives an incoming invoice for checking. In addition to a release process marked as standard, you can create any number of processes.

The process consists of several stages, which have the types "factual check" and "payment release" for better differentiation. Once the last process stage has been completed, the check is considered "completed".

Create new approvals

First click on "Approvals" to display an overview of the existing approval processes. You can create a process via Add.

First assign a name in the upper area (1). It is advisable to enter the test content or the testers and the validity date. This allows you to distinguish it from processes with the same name that have since been replaced, as such processes can be active in parallel for a short time.
Examples are "Commercial management from 20240612" or "Travel expenses sales from 12.01.2024".

You can also describe the process in more detail in the field below.

You can also limit the process in terms of time by selecting a start and end date (e.g. in the case of a vacation replacement) or only assign a start date.

By default, "No" is selected under "Standard process". As there can only be one standard process, the attribute is removed from a process if you switch to YES.
You are not forced to make a process the standard process.

Invoices to be verified are automatically assigned the valid standard process (without the influence of rules). Therefore, the standard process should correspond to the most frequently used approval process in your company.

The more different responsibilities you have in your company, i.e. the more processes you want to map, the less sense it makes to work with a standard process.

Only when you set the "Active" field to "YES" can the process be assigned to an invoice and used.

Once used, processes can no longer be "removed" in order not to violate the documentation obligation according to the GoBD. To stop the process from being available for selection, simply deactivate it.

The notification on completion allows you to automatically inform other users, regardless of their involvement in the checking process.

Approval process - define test steps

A new row is created via "Add". The individual columns can be grouped into several areas (see screenshot above).

Release level and release type

The release level is particularly important as it determines the order of the test steps. If several test steps have the same level, they are of equal value; only one test per level must be successful in order to move to the next level.

In the example above, we have assigned testers from the user administration ("Tester" column) and created a 4-step process: First Mr. Goebbels has to check, then Mr. Dippel.
The document is then submitted to Ms. Blum and Mr. Beyer at the same time (both steps have stage 3). If only one of them checks it, it goes on to Mr. Wilke. The process is completed once Mr. Wilke has checked the document.

Determine the reviewer in the release process

The "Reviewer" column (3) opens a list of all persons created as users in Scopevisio who must have at least a REBU or SCOPEVISIO2GO license.

Under"Auditor organization chart" , you can designate the holder of a position or an entire department as responsible instead of a specific employee, regardless of which employee is currently filling this position. To use this, you need a maintained organization chart (license and rights required).

This prevents delays caused by possible absences or departmental changes of an individual responsible person. You also do not have to deactivate or set up new processes when employees change.

Under "Check project role", you can assign the approval process directly to the respective role holders, such as the project manager or project assistant, on a project-specific basis. This assumes that the project has already been assigned to the invoice during verification.

Amount-dependent restriction of the check

By setting a maximum amount, a verifier can be automatically skipped for higher invoice amounts and the verification goes to another verifier at the same approval level.

By setting a minimum amount, you can, for example, focus the management's view on relevant invoices. In the example below, Mr. Adolphs and his team leader, Mr. Dippel, carry out the factual check. Mr. Dippel does not even see invoices under 1,000 and invoices over 5,000 are not displayed to Mr. Adolphs.

Mandatory fields for check steps

You can make the entry of a cost dimension such as the cost center mandatory. The ordering party can often assign the cost center or cost object more precisely than the financial accountant, which is why the entry can be marked as mandatory as part of the check.

If you have activated the entry of mandatory fields, please ensure that you do this in all check steps of a release stage.

Once you have completed your new approval process, save your entries by clicking on the yellow diskette symbol in the top right-hand corner. You can then exit the page by clicking on the link arrow next to it and you will be back in the "Invoice receipt settings" tab.