Set up supplier approval

Set up supplier approval to require that new and edited supplier records be approved before users can post supplier transactions.

Before you begin

When you enable supplier approval, Sage Intacct sets the state for all existing suppliers to approved. This includes active and inactive suppliers, which retain their status after approval.

Review your supplier list before you enable the feature, to make sure that you are comfortable approving all suppliers. Make any adjustments to the supplier records before you turn on supplier approval.

Enable supplier approval

1. Before you enable Supplier approvals, verify that you have the Approve supplier: List permission.

   The permission is necessary because after you enable Supplier approvals, Sage Intacct automatically updates the audit trail for all active and inactive suppliers to show them as approved. The user who enables Supplier approvals recorded as the approver.

   You can remove the permission after all suppliers are updated.

   The process of updating the audit trail might take some time, depending on how many suppliers you have. Users will not be able to add, edit, delete, or import suppliers until the process completes, so you might want to enable this feature during off hours.
2. At the top level, go to Accounts Payable > Setup > Configuration.
   Is the Enable supplier approval checkbox grayed out?

   Because this option affects all entities within your company, you must be at the top level to enable or disable approvals.

3. Under Supplier approval settings, select the checkbox for Enable supplier approval.
4. To allow users to receive notifications, select the checkbox for Email notifications.

   When Email notifications is selected, users can decide on an individual basis whether they want to receive the following:

   • Notifications of suppliers awaiting approval
   • Notifications when a supplier that they submitted is approved or declined
5. Select Save.

   Sage Intacct begins the process of updating the audit trail for existing suppliers. While the process is running, a message appears on the Suppliers list to let users know that they cannot create, edit, delete, or import suppliers at this time. Intacct notifies you by email when the update is complete.

6. Add additional approvers by assigning the Approve suppliers: List permission, as needed.

   How you update the permissions depend on whether your organization uses role-based or user-based permissions.

   Learn more about changing user-based permissions and role-based permissions.

7. If you configured supplier approval to support email notifications, let users know that they can update their preferences to receive notifications.

   Approvers can receive notifications when a supplier is ready for their review and submitters can receive notifications when suppliers they submitted are approved or declined. Users can configure notifications on their Preferences page.

All new or edited suppliers are now submitted for review. Users with Supplier approval: List permission can go to Accounts Payable > All tab > Approve suppliers to view the approval queue.

You can view the approval state for each supplier in the State field, which now appears in the Suppliers list and on the supplier record, and a new History tab in the supplier record shows the approval history.