Vendor-based approval—AP bills in Accounts Payable

Designate bill approvers for individual vendors and streamline approval routing using vendor-based approval. You can assign bill approvers to some or all vendors. Sage Intacct bypasses the vendor-based approval rule type for bills from vendors who do not have a designated approver.

About vendor-based approval

To set up vendor-based approval, add the Vendor-based approval rule type to your bill approval policy in your Accounts Payable configuration. After you add the rule type, Intacct adds the Bill approver field to the vendor record. You can then assign approvers to individual vendors.

Assign bill approvers by editing vendor records directly or by updating vendor records using CSV import. The Bill approver field is available for vendor import only when the Vendor-based Approval rule type is present in the bill approval policy.

How vendor-based approval works with other rule sets

When multiple rule types are present in your bill approval policy, Intacct executes them in the order that you list them.

Bills are always routed normally for User Level and Value Approval rules. However, Vendor-based Approval interacts differently with Value Approval - Transaction Department, based on the bill that is submitted.

The following table shows that when both Vendor-based Approval and Value Approval - Transaction Department are present in the bill approval policy, the bill is routed using one rule type or the other, depending on whether a bill approver is designated on the associated vendor record. This is true regardless of how you order the rule sets in the approval policy.

Approval routing when vendor-based approval and departmental approval rules are present

Approval policy	Vendor record associated with the bill	Validation when you submit the bill	How the bill is routed
Vendor-based Approval Value Approval - Transaction Department	No designated bill approver	All lines must be coded to the same department	The bill is routed for department approval. Vendor-based approval is bypassed
Vendor-based Approval Value Approval - Transaction Department	Bill approver designated	Lines can be coded to different departments	Routed for vendor-based approval. Departmental approval is bypassed.

Example of vendor-based approval combined with department approvals

Say that your organization regularly receives health care bills with line items that you frequently code for different departments in the company. The Human Resources (HR) manager needs to approve these bills and department managers do not. For all the other bills that you receive, you code line items with a single department in each bill. Department managers need to approve these bills, not the HR manager. Both types of bills are subject to value approval.

To manage this scenario, you can do the following:

1. Add three rule sets to your bill approval policy: Vendor-based Approval, Value Approval - Transaction Department, and Value Approval rule sets. Place them in the order that makes sense for your workflow. Configure the department and value approvals based on your needs.

2. Assign the HR manager as the bill approver for vendors who generate health care bills that are coded across departments. Do not assign bill approvers for vendors who submit other types of bills.

When you record bills from health care vendors, you can assign line items to any department, as needed. When you submit the bill, Intacct recognizes that a bill approver was assigned to this vendor. The system bypasses department approval and routes the bill according to your rules for vendor-based approval and value approval.

When you submit bills from vendors who do not have bill approvers, Intacct recognizes that these bills need to go through department approval and validates them to ensure that they’re coded to a single department. The system bypasses vendor-based approval and routes the bill according to your rules for department approval and value approval.

Who can you designate as the bill approver for a vendor?

You can designate either a user or a user group as a bill approver. If you select a user group, any user in the group can approve or decline a bill and only one is needed.

Users you designate must meet the following criteria:

• Be either a business or employee user

• Be subscribed to Accounts Payable and have the necessary Approve bills permissions

• Have no department or entity restrictions

Add the Vendor-based Approval rule type

1. At the top level, go to Accounts Payable > Setup > Configuration.
2. Under Bill approval policies, select Manage.
3. In the Rule type column on an empty line, select Vendor-based Approval from the dropdown list.
4. Grab the reorder icon on the left of the line item and drag it up or down to position the rule in the list to position it.

   For example, if you want this rule type to be run first, drag the row to the first position in the list.

5. Select Save.

Assign bill approvers to vendors

1. Go to Accounts Payable > All > Vendors.

2. Find the vendor that you want to update.

   If you're having trouble finding the vendor, filter the list by vendor name.

   Records designated as Inactive do not appear in the list by default. To view these records, select Filters at the top of the list and select Remove next to the Status filter to remove it.

3. Select More actions > Edit at the end of the row.

4. Select the Additional information tab.
5. In the Bill details section, select a user or user group from the Bill approver list.

   If you do not see a user in the list, double-check to make sure that the user has the correct permissions and is unrestricted. If you're looking for a user group, remember that all members of the group must meet the same criteria as individual users to be selectable in the list.

6. Select Save or Submit.

   If you have vendor approval enabled, this change takes effect after the vendor update is approved.

1. Go to Accounts Payable > All > Vendors.

2. Select Edit next to the vendor you want to update.
3. Select the Additional information tab.

4. In the Bill details section, select a user or user group from the Bill approver list.

   If you do not see a user in the list, double-check to make sure that the user has the correct permissions and is unrestricted. If you're looking for a user group, remember that all members of the group must meet the same criteria as individual users to be selectable in the list.

5. Select Save or Submit.

   If you have vendor approval enabled, this change takes effect after the vendor update is approved.

Remove the Vendor-based Approval

1. Go to Accounts Payable > Setup > Configuration.

2. Under Bill approval policies, select Manage.
3. On the line containing the Vendor-based Approval rule type, select Delete (Trash can).
4. Select Save to close the approval policy.

The rule type is removed from the approval policy and the Bill approval field no longer appears in the vendor record. If you later add vendor-based approval to your policy, Intacct restores your previous bill approver selections on vendor records.