Payables Settings

Summary: This article outlines the various global payables settings, what they do, and how to access them. 

Payables Permissions: See each section below for specific access permissions. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Settings Overview
• Document Settings
• Invoice Fields
• Policies
  • Purchase Order (PO) Threshold Settings
  • Simplify PO approvals
  • Approval Policies
  • Invoice approval policies
    • Modify a policy
    • Prioritize policies
  • Payment approval policies
• Supplier Communications
• Payment Settings

Settings Overview

All of the global payables settings exist in the Settings area of Centime. To access Payables Settings, navigate to Settings > Payables. Access to each of these sections is dependent on the user permissions a full-access user possesses. See each section below for full permission details.  

Document Settings

Required Permission: Manage Document Settings

Document Settings contain the following global settings:

1. Auto-post approved invoices to General Ledger will automatically post any invoices that are approved by an invoice approver on the day it is approved. 
   • The posting period will always be the invoice date, not the day it is approved
   • Auto-post will not function for invoices that do not require an approval process; those will need to be manually posted
2. Auto-send invoices for approval will automatically send invoices for approval after capture, provided there is an invoice approval policy in place. This setting will send an invoice for approval right after the critical fields are entered. 
3. Include invoice document as attachments on notification emails for approvals: When on (default) this setting will include PDF attachments of invoice documents when sending approval requests to invoice approvers. If total attachments exceed 2MB, they will not be attached. 
4. Approver edit access: Allows all invoice approvers to edit and code invoices that are assigned to them. This setting allows users to provide edit access to all approvers, no approvers and selected approvers. 
5. General Ledger Account for Accounts Payable lets the user mark a General Ledger account as default for their Accounts Payable to help post uploaded invoices. When an account is not defined here, General Ledger defaults are usually applied to post uploaded invoices. The AP account can also be modified on the invoice level during capture and review. 

These settings are global, which means they cannot be modified by supplier, but instead will apply to all invoices for all suppliers. 

Invoice Fields

Required Permission: Manage Document Settings

Invoice fields are the fields against which uploaded invoices are coded. These fields are derived from the General Ledger. The fields that you configure here will show up on captured invoices for coding. 

The fields that are mandatory in the General Ledger are grayed out and cannot be edited. These fields are set as required by default and can only be modified in nly your accounting system. 

Additional fields that are available on the General Ledger can be added through the 'Add field' button.

Once a field is added, users can specify the category to include the field and can choose to set it as mandatory for those categories. When a field has been set as mandatory, it will have a red highlight throughout the invoice capture and approval flow. Centime, prohibits posting an invoice until this field is entered. 

Policies

Purchase Order (PO) Threshold Settings

Required Permission: Set up and manage invoice approval policies

PO thresholds allow users to adjust how their quantity, rate and amount mismatches are calculated when comparing invoice and PO lines. Mismatches that fall within the threshold set by the users are marked as threshold matches. 

• Quantity Threshold Options: Absolute & Percentage
• Rate Threshold Options: Absolute & Percentage 
• Amount Threshold Options: Absolute & Percentage

Simplify PO approvals  

Require approval on matched PO invoices : YES / NO

This setting allows users to skip the approval workflow when there are no mismatches present on the invoice.

If the above setting is marked as NO:

• The PO invoice will skip approval workflow when the lines on the invoice are perfectly matched or if the AP user resolves the mismatches.

• The invoice flow goes directly from Needs Review --> Ready to Post

If the above setting is marked as YES:

• The PO invoice goes through the regular approval workflow.

Approval Policies

There are two types of policies that exist in Centime.

1. Invoice Approval policies contain up to 3 tiers of approval and trigger during invoice approval
2. Payment Approval policies contain up to 3 tiers of approval and trigger during payment scheduling 

Each of these policies contain a global threshold. If invoices or payments are under these set thresholds, the policies will not trigger and the invoice or payment will bypass the approval step.

Note, if a payment approval policy is updated, all payments awaiting approval will revert back to ready to pay, so that they can be resubmitted for payment under the new policy.

Invoice approval policies

Required Permission: Set up and manage invoice approval policies

Invoice approval policies are triggered when the coding and dollar thresholds on your invoice match the policy. When triggered, the approvers that exist in your policy automatically populate the invoice approvals section upon capture completion. If a policy is not triggered, then the AP manager will have to review the invoice and add approvers manually. 

You can also create a global policy threshold. This is where you can define a threshold amount (in USD) and any invoices under that amount will not require approval. To create a policy threshold, click the pencil icon. If you leave the $0 default, all invoices will require approval. 

To create a specific policy, click on the + ADD POLICY button. 

Fill out the required fields of Name, Condition, and Approvers.  Each Policy can have up to 10 Approval tiers. 

To create a rule for the policy, you must define the conditions. You can create conditions based on the following:

• General Ledger account
• Supplier
• Department
• Class
• Location
• Invoice Amount*

*Including invoice amount as a condition provides flexibility for those who want to use different sets of approvers for different invoice amounts (rather than simply adding a 2nd and 3rd tier). For example:

You can also select more than one option for each condition. If you select multiple options for the condition, it creates a scenario where it will trigger this policy if any of those apply in the invoice. 

When you add additional conditions, it creates an "and" statement. In the example below, if any of the suppliers and any of the general ledger accounts are coded on the invoice, it will trigger this policy. 

Finally, add approvers to the First approval. If you add multiple approvers, only one approver has to approve before moving on to the next tier of approval. If your approver does not show, you may need to create a new invoice approver user. 

You can add Second and Third approvers in the policy along with thresholds defining the dollar amount required to trigger those second and third tiers. If "invoice amount" is being used as a policy condition, then the additional approvers will always be triggered and you will not be able to enter an amount threshold. Clicking Save will create the policy. The policy and the approvers defined according to this policy will apply to all qualifying uploaded invoices.

Modify a policy

To modify an existing invoice approval policy, click on the name of the policy from the policies list. Modify the details as desired and save.

If a policy is modified, Centime will re-run the policy logic for invoices currently "awaiting approval." 

• If the approver is modified:
  • Approval will be requested for added approvers.
  • Invoices will be removed from deleted approver queues.
• If the condition or amount is modified impacted invoices will be recalled.

Prioritize policies

Policies can also be prioritized. In the event that the coding of an invoice triggers more than one policy, the policy in the lower slot will get triggered. You can move the priorities by clicking on the policy in the priority column and dragging it to the correct position.

Payment approval policies

Required Permission: Set up and manage the payment approval policy

Payment approval policies are rules that you can create to automate your payment approval process.

To modify payment approval policies, click the pencil icon.

Next, determine your policy tier thresholds and add approvers as required. 

If you do not see your approver in the list, you may need to add them as a limited-access user or if they are a full-access user already, modify their permissions. 

Supplier Communications

Required Permission: Manage AP Email and payment settings

Users can access the Supplier communication settings from the payables settings section on the Settings page or from the Supplier Profile

Users can customize email notifications to Suppliers when a payment is scheduled and when a remittance is sent.

Primary contacts of Suppliers will receive these notifications.

Users can also establish the sender profile for these notifications where users can customize the sender name, sender email, and the sender signature.

Payment Settings

Required Permission: Manage AP Email and payment settings

Payment Settings are where you configure your default global settings for payment methods and where you can select a General Ledger account for posting Early Pay Discounts. 

To create a global default for a payment method, click the pencil icon. From there you'll have the option to define the funding account and if you want payments made with that payment method to be grouped into one for a supplier. Keep in mind that even if payments are grouped, suppliers will receive remittance information if configured on a global or supplier level. 

This is also the section where you can set a General Ledger account for posting Early Pay Discounts. If you intend to leverage discounts, you must select a GL account so it posts appropriately.