Approval Routing

Approval routing is a crucial step in any organization’s procure-to-pay cycle. Accounts Payable needs to confirm that every invoice is authorized and accurate to maintain control over their company’s spend — and to maintain compliance with industry regulations.

However, collecting approvals is a time-consuming process. Even companies with well-designed business processes can have a hard time managing a high volume of transactions. And the more people or departments that are involved, the harder it gets.

To make things easier, many companies are investing in automated approval routing software. These internal control solutions provide a reliable way to get documents where they need to go without delay as well as check in on the status until the invoice has been approved.

Approving Invoices With Workflow Automation

Let’s say that a manufacturer receives an invoice for 50 sheets of stainless steel. The products were needed for a last-minute project, so a Purchasing Manager never created a Purchase Order. When the invoice is received in Accounts Payable, it’s over the cash payment approval limit, which means it needs to go through a series of approvals before being paid.

With workflow automation software, that invoice can be sent through the right approval steps automatically. In addition, the invoice can even be GL coded in the field. This makes the entire process much more straightforward.

Process-Specific Invoice Approval Software vs. Enterprise Workflow Solutions

There are quite a few standalone solutions for invoice routing. But, those solutions only work in Accounts Payable. They can’t be used for other workflows, such as getting PTO requests approved in HR or sending an engineering change request to Production.

Enterprise-level workflow management systems, on the other hand, offer solutions for virtually any approval route. And when you consider how many of your company’s core business processes depend on reviews and approvals, a broader, more flexible solution is ideal.

IntelliChief’s Approval Routing Software Offers Versatile Features for Your Entire Organization

At IntelliChief, we’ve created a workflow software program that can send any document to any user at any time. Whenever a document requires approval, IntelliChief automatically executes the corresponding routing rule to send to the appropriate user’s inbox. The approver can even be alerted via email that action is required.

Your employees can also approve documents on the go using a smartphone, tablet, or an ordinary computer. If needed, they can send the document back to the previous processor for a re-work, and they can add electronic notes to speed up the review. As soon as the document is ready for re-submission, it goes through the exact same process.

If there are multiple steps in your approval route, you can easily create a corresponding process with our user-friendly workflow tools – no coding is required. Once the final approver confirms that the document is ready to go, its status is changed in your system, and the data is exported to your ERP to create the voucher.

Another key feature: if one employee is out of the office, dynamic approval routing lets you send it to another employee who can take care of it right away. This means faster responses, greater productivity, and improved collaboration across your entire office.

To learn more about transforming your business with our automated approval routing software, contact us today.