Page 1 of 5 Invoice Approval Process Introduction Invoices must go through an approval process before they are finalized. There are six invoice statuses in Aleph: N Not approved A Preliminary approval B Approved and printed F Frozen (ADJ) for internal adjustment invoices R Released (REG) for AP feed invoices P Paid not in use at Harvard due to issues related to foreign currency conversion Revised: October 19, 2011 2007-2011 President and Fellows of Harvard College Distributed by the University Library Office for Information Systems http://hul.harvard.edu/ois/systems/aleph/docs/invoice_approval_process.pdf
Invoice Approval Process Page 2 of 5 Steps 1. A staff member creates the invoice, which has default status N (Not approved) and sends it to the Approval Unit. Most staff members cannot change invoice status at all. 2. An authorized operator in the Approval Unit reviews the completed invoice (according to rules developed in that Approval Unit) and manually changes the status from N to A (Preliminary approval). If the invoice has an error, the operator either fixes it or returns the invoice to the originating unit for correction. Once the correction has been made, the approval process starts again. You cannot make changes to an invoice with status A, but an authorized operator can change the status back to N so changes can be made. 3. Every night, OIS runs two batch jobs (acq-10) for every Approval Unit: one for Invoice Type REG (regular) and one for Invoice Type ADJ (adjustment). This batch job looks for invoices with status A (Preliminary approval), assigns an Approval Number (batch number) and changes the status from A to B (Approved and printed). This batch job produces a file that contains one report for each invoice. The file is made available for printing in the Approval Unit. You cannot make changes to an invoice with status B, but an authorized operator can change status back to N so changes can be made. If changes are needed, the steps are Change status to N Remove the Approval Number (batch number) Make corrections as necessary Change status to A again 4. An authorized print operator prints the batch reports (see print operator instructions). 5. An authorized operator reviews the invoices and approves the batches.
Invoice Approval Process Page 3 of 5 Approving REG (AP Feed) batches 1. From the Acquisitions module, click on the Services menu. 2. Select Other, then Invoice report (acq-10). See Appendix on p.5 for a screen capture. 3. Enter the report parameters as follows: NOTE: If you release more than one REG batch in the same day, you must add a letter (a,b,c, etc.) after date in report name (Example: 265apfeed20020715a). * Report File [ApprUnit]invrpt[YYYYMMDD].OISONLY Example: 430invrpt20110908.OISONLY use OISONLY here!!! * Summary Report File [ApprUnit]apfeed[YYYYMMDD].OISONLY Report for Single Invoice Update Database Retrieve Using Approval Number Approval Number Approval Department Type Retrieve by Approval Department Retrieve by Invoice Type Example: 430apfeed20110908.OISONLY use OISONLY here!!! MUST BE IN THIS FORM FOR AP FEED! No [enter batch number] NOTE: INCLUDE LEADING ZEROES! Invoice Approval Department All Retrieve by Payment Status None Change Payment Status to Report Format Run Time At Library Print ID Report Language Released (REG) Standard Today HVD50 NOTE: The first time you run this report, the Save History box will be checked. This will save the parameters you have entered for the first batch job. The next time you approve a batch, you can click on the History button and open the previous report. You can then change the parameters as necessary (dates in file names and approval number) and submit the new batch job. You should check the Save History box on all jobs (the box is checked by default on the first one but not on subsequent jobs) so you ll have a record of all batch jobs submitted. This is useful for problem-solving. 4. Click the Submit button to send the job to the batch queue
Invoice Approval Process Page 4 of 5 Approving ADJ (adjustment) batches 1. From Acquisitions module, click on Services menu. 2. Select Other then Invoice report (acq-10). See Appendix on p.5 for a screen capture. 3. Enter the report parameters as follows: NOTE: if you release more than one ADJ batch in the same day, you must add a letter (a,b,c, etc.) after date in report name (Example: 265adjustment20020715a). * Report File [ApprUnit]adjustment[YYYYMMDD].OISONLY Example: 430adjustment20070606.OISONLY use OISONLY here!!! * Summary Report File [ApprUnit]adjsummary[YYYYMMDD].[YourPrintID] Example: 430adjsummary20070606.[YourPrintID] use your print ID here!!! Report for Single Invoice Update Database Retrieve Using Approval Number Approval Number Approval Department Type Retrieve by Approval Department Retrieve by Invoice Type Change Payment Status to Report Format Run Time At Library Print ID Report Language No [enter batch number] NOTE: INCLUDE LEADING ZEROES! Invoice Approval Department All Frozen (ADJ) Standard Today HVD50 NOTE: The first time you run this report, the Save History box will be checked. This will save the parameters you have entered for the first batch job. The next time you approve a batch, you can click on the History button and open the previous report. You can then change the parameters as necessary (dates in file names and approval number) and submit the new batch job. You should check the Save History box on all jobs (the box is checked by default on the first one but not on subsequent jobs) so you ll have a record of all batch jobs submitted. This is useful for problem-solving. 4. Click the Submit button to send the job to the batch queue.
Invoice Approval Process Page 5 of 5 Final batch processing 1. Every night, OIS runs a program which looks for files with apfeed in file name. This program reformats the data for export, and sends it to Accounts Payable. 2. Approval Units receive the following reports: AP feed Adjustments Invoice Import Reports (IIRs) come via email attachments from Accounts Payable (this is the document that must be signed and returned to AP). Any rejected invoices appear in the Pre-Invoice_Import_Report.rtf file Aleph summary report sent for printing by a print operator (this is for internal use only; see print operator instructions) AP provides a monthly HOLLIS Report that provides a cumulative view of Aleph payment batches received and released by the University's Accounts Payable office. Library staff should view the report to confirm the status of the batches they have released in Aleph. Appendix Aleph Acquisitions Services Menu