Symptom
You notice a difference in how Approvals for Invoices are processed depending on how they were created: Manual Customer Invoice creation or Customer Invoice coming from a Project Invoice request. For Manual Invoices, the approval process is triggered as expected however, for Customer Invoices coming from a Project Invoice request, the invoice is submitted automatically. You expect that any Customer Invoice should be sent for Approval first.
Environment
SAP Business ByDesign
Reproducing the Issue
Prerequisite: In Business Configuration, you have scoped Approval for Manual Customer Invoicing by answering Yes to Question: Do you want to set up approval process for manual customer invoices and credit memos?
- Go to the Customer Invoicing work center.
- Go to the New Manual Invoice View in Common Tasks.
- Fill in the relevant information.
- Save the invoice and release it.
Customer Invoice ABC is created (ABC stands for the manually created Customer Invoice).
Based on the defined scoping, it is sent for Approval and an Approval task is created.
- Now, go to the Project Management work center.
- Navigate to the Invoice Preparation view.
- Select the Not Invoiced Time and Expenses.
- Select the Project DEF (DEF represents the Project ID).
- Select Create new project invoice request, fill in the relevant information and save it.
Project Invoice Request XXX is created (XXX represents the Project Invoice Request ID) .
- Return to the Customer Invoicing work center.
- Open the Invoice Request view and search for Project Invoice Request XXX.
- Click on the Invoice button.
- Save and Release your Invoice.
Your Customer Invoice is not submitted for Approval and is released immediately.
Cause
This is the expected system behaviour. There is no Approval Processes for Customer Invoices other than when created manually. Hence, a Customer Invoice created from a Project Invoice Request which is part of the automated invoicing process is not sent for Approval.
Resolution
If you require Approval for all Business Processes ending in Customer Invoicing, you can set up Approvals earlier, on the Sales Order, for instance so that you can control the information that is derived on the Customer Invoice.
See Also
The following documents can help you understand the system behaviour when handling Approvals on Customer Invoices:
KBA: 2489387
Help Documents:
Approval for Manual Customer Invoice and Credit Memo
Project Invoice Requests Quick Guide
Create a Project Invoice Request for a Customer Project.
Keywords
Project Invoice request, approval, no approval task, no BTM task, Demande de Facture de Project, tâche d'approbation, approbation, Customer Invoice, Facture Client , KBA , SRD-PRO-INV , Projects Customer Invoicing , How To