Extension of the “Incoming Channel” statistic
In addition to the number of invoices per incoming channel, the sum of the invoice amounts (net) per incoming channel is now also displayed. The tabular view of the “Incoming channel” statistics has been extended by corresponding columns.
The change makes it possible to keep track of not only the number of open invoices, but also their volume at all times.
Invoice Portal > Reports and Statistics > Incoming Channel > Result > Number of Invoices and Sum of Invoice Amounts (net) per Receipt Time Period and Incoming Channel
Transfer of the “Unit Price (Net)” and “Unit Price (Gross)” to the ERP system
By default, the gross and net price of an item with order reference is only transferred to the ERP system under the condition that the field “Basis Quantity” in this item is also filled. This field is filled exclusively from the master data.
Activating the checkbox “Deviation” in a position allows a user to deviate from the master data. As a result, in this case the “Unit Price (Net)” and “Unit Price (Gross)” can be transferred even without specifying the price unit.
Invoice Portal > Tasks > Open > Invoice details > Items with order reference > Deviation
Change of key for identification of an order
In the future, only the order number will serve as the logical key for creating and updating order master data.
This means that each order number may only appear once within an organization in the “Invoice Portal”. In particular, the same order numbers may not occur with different suppliers.
The assignment of the purchase order number in the ERP system should therefore be checked if necessary.
Invoice Portal Admin > Transaction Data > Orders
Change in control of supplier data from master data
If an incoming invoice does not contain a supplier number, then up to now an attempt was made to find a supplier master data record with the possibly existing “VAT-ID” or “Tax No.”. Until now, these two values in the invoice had to match the values stored in the master data.
If in the future only the “VAT-ID” or only the “Tax No.” is indicated on an invoice, it is sufficient for the identification of a supplier if one of these values occurs in exactly one master data record.
This increases the likelihood of a successful feed of the data and thus reduces the effort required for any manual correction.
Invoice Portal Admin > Master Data > Suppliers
New option for pre-filling the field “Posting Date”
The options for pre-filling the field “Posting date” have been revised. The option “Performance Date” has been added as a supplement.
If this option is selected, the field “Posting Date” in an invoice will be filled with the same value as the field “Performance Date”. If no performance date is detected during invoice transfer, the “Posting date” field will remain empty until the service date is entered manually.
This change of the basic setting for the field “Posting Date” basically affects only new incoming invoices. In order to make users aware of the change of the basic setting also in the already received invoices, a new invoice check has been introduced: “Posting date corresponds to the general basic settings”. In the delivery state of the software, this check is configured as a warning.
If there is no need for this check, especially if the posting date in the invoices is often adjusted manually, this check can be disabled.
Another change concerns the pre-fill option “Custom”. In the future, “today” will not be entered as the posting date, but the field will remain empty and must be filled manually. If pre-filling is still desired, we recommend switching to the option “Receipt Timestamp”.
Invoice Portal > Settings > Basic Settings > General > Posting Date > Performance Date / Custom / Receipt Timestamp
Invoice Portal > Settings > Invoice Verifications > Details > Invoice without Order Reference/Invoice with Order Reference
Disabling email notifications about group tasks
In the user management (app “Invoice Portal Admin”) there is a new option: “Disable email notifications about group tasks”. If this checkbox is activated, the user will not receive email notifications about group tasks. This applies to both initial messages and notifications about escalation steps.
In the delivery state of the software, this option is disabled for all users. Activation of this setting can be done by a user of the group “User Admin”.
Enabling the option is recommended for users who do not actively work on group tasks, but only want to monitor the processing and reduce the number of automated notifications.
Invoice Portal Admin > User Management > Users > User Details > General > Disable email notifications about group tasks
Invoice Portal > Settings > Basic Settings > Notification & Escalation Management > Initial Messages/Escalation Steps
Forwarding of invoices via monitoring
Forwarding an invoice that has not yet been finally processed is now also possible via the invoice details in the monitoring overview. Previously, this was only allowed in the monitoring overview itself.
Invoice Portal > Monitoring > Invoice Details > More > Forward
Improving the treatment of allowances and charges
Improvements have been made around the setting “Allowance/Charge Distribution” by ensuring the following functionalities:
- If the option “Accounting Position for each” is selected, then a separate account assignment item is opened for each surcharge or allowance at header level of an order-related invoice when the invoice is received.
- If the “Summarizing Accounting Position” option is selected, then the surcharges and allowances are added at the header level of an order-related invoice when the invoice is received and the total is mapped in an account assignment item.
In both cases, the allowance receives a negative sign.
Invoice Portal > Settings > Basic Settings > General > Allowance/Charge Distribution
Extension of the calculation formula of the open quantity
The open quantity is calculated for the invoice verification “Product quantity is equal to the quantity still to be invoiced”. It represents the quantity still outstanding for item with order reference, taking into account the quantity verification indicator and, if applicable, the existing goods receipt and the quantities already invoiced. In the future, the open quantity calculation formula will also take into account the difference between the “Ordered Quantity Unit Code” and “Billed Quantity Unit Code”.
Invoice Portal Admin > Transaction Data > Orders / Order History Data
Invoice Portal > Settings > Invoice Verifications > Invoice with Order Reference
Changing the labels in the settings for numeric field formats
To better show the applicability of the settings for numeric field formats, the labels have been made more precise. The headings are now called:
- Amount Field (Accounting Information and Invoice Amounts)
- Amount Field (Items with Order Reference)
- Quantity Field
- Percent Field
Invoice Portal > Settings > Basic Settings > Numeric Field Formats
“Active” and “Open” invoices
To avoid misunderstandings, the definition of “active” invoices (Monitoring > Active) has been aligned with the definition of “open” invoices (Reports and Statistics). The above overviews now use an identical data basis. The following invoices are considered “not active”:
- Invoices already submitted manually or automatically to the ERP system
- Deleted invoices
- Rejected invoices
Invoice Portal > Reports and Statistics > Open Invoice Amounts / Incoming Channel / Invoices Per Supplier
Invoice Portal > Monitoring > Active
Extension of the dialogs for manual user determination
All dialogs for manual user determination (e.g. when forwarding or requesting an approval) have been extended to display the e-mail address of each user. This makes it easier to identify the user you are looking for.
Change of functionality when discarding releases
The execution of the “Discard Approvals” command (available during the “ERP-Submission” process step made by a post-processing user, regardless of whether the execution is triggered manually or automatically) will henceforth lead to the identical result as the execution of the “Reject Approval” command (available within the approval workflows): the invoice will be returned to the “Post-Processing” process status and assigned for processing to the post-processor (and, if applicable, to the group) that requested the 1st approval.
Invoice Portal > Tasks > Open > Invoice Details > More > Discard Approvals / Reject Approval
Invoice Portal > Settings > Process Settings > Process Sequence > Discard approval after invoice change
Igor Kuzmin (07252 / 96-2152, i.kuzmin@seeburger.de) and Rolf Wessel (07252 / 96-1257, r.wessel@seeburger.de) will be happy to answer any questions you may have.