Do supplier invoices require approval?
By default, supplier invoices, like all other purchase types (e.g. expense claims, business card purchases, etc.) flow through the same approvals process and require approval.
You can change this in approval settings so that supplier invoices don't require approval - see this separate help guide article to learn more about how to customise approvals in ExpensePlus.
However, here are some reasons why we recommend that you require approvals for supplier invoices and have set this as the default:
1) Spending the organisation's money requires approval
How someone spends the church or charity's money should not influence whether or not approval is required. For example, if a church holds an event in a local cafe, it's the church's money that is being spent. Therefore, it's good to have an accountable process for this regardless of whether an invoice is sent to the church and paid, a staff member pays directly on their business card, or a staff member uses their own money and enters an expense claim.
The budget approval process ensures that good financial controls are in place for all purchases, and one-click email approvals in ExpensePlus mean that it's quick and easy for budget holders.
2) The approval process is part of managing expenditure
Budget approval in ExpensePlus is more than just an 'I'm OK with this purchase'. For example, if someone has bought £50 worth of children's craft materials, the budget holder doesn't just give the 'okay' to the purchase, as may have happened previously.
ExpensePlus offers a brilliant and simple way for budget holders to actually manage expenditure in live time.
Auto-approving purchases based on purchase type would mean that rather than budget holders seeing all purchases for their budget area along with an up-to-date view of the current budget expenditure each time, they would only see some of the purchases for their budget area - taking away their ability to actively manage their budget and expenditure.
In addition, budget holders would then have the legitimate excuse if their budget was overspent as they may not be aware of expenditure through supplier invoices.
To help you better understand the Approvals module as a whole, please visit the module overview page here.