Symptom
Customers find that supplier invoice approvals all go for approval even though they did not have such approvals setup before the upgrade. This results in unexpected approval tasks to be sent to the invoicing unit manager for approval.
Cause
This occurs if the customer only had random check of supplier invoices scoped before the upgrade.
At the time, this was scoped through the question : “Do you require a random check of supplier invoices with accepted exceptions?” and was a separate question from that to configure the standard approval process ("Do you want to use an approval process for supplier invoices?") so they could be scoped separately.
Since 1308, both approval types are found and configured under the Supplier Invoice Approval Process and the random check question no longer exists.
Now, both approvals fall under the question : "Do you want to use an approval process for supplier invoices?"
As a result, during the upgrade, the system had to effectively scope standard approvals to be able to copy over the functionality of the random invoice check, creating a standard supplier invoice approval in the process.
In this particular case, the approval process post upgrade consists of 2 approval steps :
What is configured by default and what approval behavior is triggered:
STEP1 :
During the creation process, the default approval is setup without any conditions which means all invoices must go for approval.
The default work distribution rule for this step is for the Invoicing unit manager to approve the invoices.
STEP2:
The default percentage of invoices for which approval will be triggered is 100%.
The default work distribution rule for this step is for the Invoicing unit manager to approve the invoices.
Resolution
Options available to the customer:
- If the customer wants to avail of the standard supplier invoice approval, then he can retain it and configure it to suit his needs by editing the conditions and the work distribution.
- If the customer does not want standard supplier invoice approval to take place then he should remove step 1.
- If he does not want any form of supplier invoice approvals to take place (including random checks) then he should de-scope Supplier Invoice approvals altogether by de selecting the tick in the scoping question : “Do you want to use an approval process for supplier invoices?“
This will remove the "Default approval process for Supplier Invoice" entry in the Approval Processes view.
IMPORTANT NOTE : If the customer does not want any approval process for supplier invoices ti take place : Due to an internal logic within the Multi step approval process, in the case where Supplier Invoices are the only business document using an approval process in the system, the customer will not be able to simply de-scope the approval process altogether.
He can still however, remove the step pertaining to random checks.
As for the standard approval process which will be left, he can modify the conditions and introduce one that could never be fulfilled, like for example a value superior to 99999999999999999.
As a result, the condition will never be fulfilled and approval will not be triggered, rendering it effectively inert.
Options for the newly created approval tasks:
- Process the approvals as per the approval process by simply approving the Business Tasks.
- Withdraw the invoices from approval then repost them. Provided of course that approvals have been disabled then the invoices will be posted directly.
Keywords
KBA , AP-SIP , Supplier Invoice Processing , Bug Filed