Many companies have to deal with large numbers of purchase invoices and credit notes. Your administration will accept the majority of these purchase invoices and credit notes without problem. However, discrepancies may arise between the amount to be invoiced and the amount actually displayed on the invoice.

You want to make sure that these invoices are inspected more closely before being posted into your administration. Additionally, many companies want to check invoices with large amounts manually. It would not be good practice if all staff were authorised to post these larger amounts. To prevent this happening you want to set authorisations for approving invoices with higher amounts. However, you want to perform these extra checks without any extra unnecessary administrative actions.

SI Foodware

The Food and Beverage industry is characterised by specific requirements which can often not be catered for by a standard company-wide solution. For this reason Schouw Informatisering and Technology Management have combined their many years of knowledge and experience into SI Foodware®. In combination with Microsoft Dynamics® NAV, SI Foodware® forms a fully integrated standard company-wide ERP solution specifically for food and beverage companies.

SI Foodware is under continuous development and meets the latest industry requirements. This creates a specific solution, where costs remain manageable as the amount of customisation is reduced to a minimum. SI Foodware has been recognised by Microsoft with the highest quality label: 'Certified for Microsoft Dynamics'. SI Foodware consists of a number of integrated solutions, one of which is SI Foodware - Mailroom. The mailroom solution will enable you route those purchase invoices and credit notes that cannot be automatically routed through the organisation for manual approval by authorised users.

Register the Purchase Invoice on the Financial Administration

There are various scenarios the system will consider when deciding whether an invoice or credit note need to be approved manually through the mailroom:

1. If the maximum amount is exceeded

When a purchase invoice is posted in the financial administration and the maximum amount that can be posted by the user is exceeded, Dynamics NAV will signal that the invoice must be routed through the mailroom for manual approval.

2. The invoice does not match with the goods received

When a purchase invoice is posted and there are discrepancies with the goods received, Dynamics NAV will give a message indicating where differences are found. Once this error message is displayed the posting cannot be made automatically and manual checks must first be carried out. The invoice will be routed through the mailroom for manual approval.

3. Cost invoices

When a purchase invoice is posted based on a general ledger account and/or charge, Dynamics NAV gives a warning that the invoice must be manually approved and it will be routed through the mailroom.

Release for Mailroom

In all the scenarios mentioned above, the invoice will be routed through the mailroom. Which means that the finance department cannot post the invoice until feedback is received from the owner of the purchase invoice. The invoice owner, the person who must approve the invoice, can then retrieve the invoice in the mailroom, conduct checks on the invoice before giving feedback.

Feedback can be given in various ways. First of all, the user can 'Approve' the purchase invoice. If the invoice is approved, it can subsequently be posted in by the finance department. A second option is to 'Reopen' the invoice. This returns the invoice to the finance department with comments as required.

At this stage procedural measures have to be taken. A third option is to 'Reject' the purchase invoice, which blocks it and thus it cannot be posted by the finance department. The fourth and final option is to 'Forward' the invoice, which changes the owner of the purchase invoice. The purchase invoice will remain in the mailroom. The maximum amount that can be posted by the invoice owner is also checked.

Posting the Purchase Invoice at the Financial Department

Once the invoice has been approved by the owner, it will be removed from the mailroom and the invoice can then be posted. At this point a final check is made on the total invoice amount. When the purchase invoice was created the control amounts (value including VAT and VAT amount) were registered. Purchase invoices may only be posted if the sum of these amounts equals the control amount.

Next, a number of general checks will be performed such as posting date, the supplier's invoice number and if necessary, the inspection status of the lot number. When all requirements have been met, the purchase invoices can be posted. If required this last step can be performed using a batch function.