In Spend Cloud, you can optimize the invoice processing workflow in several ways. By streamlining and automating this process wherever possible, you can expedite invoice processing.
One important feature that can assist in this regard is 'Automatically Process Invoices.' With this feature, you can set specific steps in the invoice processing workflow to be automatically handled for a given relationship if the full coding is automatically populated. To access this function, select a relation via Application Management / General / Relations / Edit and scroll down to the 'Invoice Processing' section.
When the 'Automatically Process Invoices' feature is enabled for a particular relation, you can configure specific settings to skip the 'Coding' which are described below. The invoice for this relation can then be directly submitted for assessment or even automatically approved and exported if configured.
Automatic Coding
To automate invoice coding as much as possible, you can take several steps:
- You can create a standard template for each relationship and have it automatically populated. For more information on adding templates, refer to the following article: Adding Templates
- For each relation, you can set a default general ledger account, VAT, and payment condition. You can then link or set the following values for the general ledger account as defaults: cost center, cost unit, client, organizational unit, employee, action (to assess/externally code). This can be done using a workflow and the coding matrix. If these details are set as defaults for a general ledger account and the general ledger account, VAT, and payment condition are configured for the relationship, all this information can be automatically populated when recognizing the relationship by extracting data from the PDF/XML. For more information on setting up the coding matrix and workflows, see the following articles: Coding Matrix and Workflows.
- If an invoice is automatically matched to a purchase order, the coding can be automatically populated based on the order. For more information on matching orders to invoices, please refer to the following article: Matching Orders
Note: If the 'Automatically Process Invoices' feature is enabled, you won't need to manually review these invoices in the 'Coding' section.
If the coding cannot be fully populated based on the above settings, the invoice will still need to be manually completed in the 'Coding' section. In such cases, enabling the 'Automatically Process Invoices' option won't be beneficial.