Approve Invoices in Chrome River or via Email

If you are part of the approval process and have invoices awaiting your approval, you will see a yellow notification bar on the Dashboard. You may approve or return invoices from within the app or via email.

Access Approvals

On the Dashboard, click the number of invoices awaiting your approval to be taken to the Approval Dashboard.

From anywhere else in the app, click the MENU in the upper left corner, then click INVOICE in the Approvals list. The yellow circle shows the number of approvals waiting for you.

You may immediately approve or return an invoice directly from the Approvals Needed screen.

1. Click on an invoice in the list to bring up a preview.

2. Click the SUBMIT button and choose RETURN or APPROVE.

Real-Time Approval Indicator

If you are a member of an approval audit group, you will see a "Reviewing" status label on invoices that are currently being reviewed by at least one other member of the group. The label will remain until the last approver has closed it.

The invoice summary will display the names of the other approvers who are currently reviewing that invoice. If the list is very long, you will need to click the "[Name] & more users" link to see all the names.

Sort and Filter Approvals

The Approvals Needed list displays all the invoices awaiting your approval.

• Use the SORT button in the upper right-hand corner to sort the list by Invoice Date, Create Date, Invoice Number, Vendor, Requester or Invoice Amount.
• The SORT button also gives you access to filters. You may filter on the various criteria determined by your organization.
• The backward arrow icon indicates an invoice that has been returned.

Depending on your organization's configuration, you may be able to bulk approve or return invoices directly from the Invoice Approval Dashboard by checking the boxes next to multiple invoices and clicking SUBMIT, then APPROVE or RETURN.

Create a Custom Filter

1. Click CREATE NEW FILTER in the Sort drop-down.

2. Give the filter a name.

3. Under Filter Rules, click ADD FILTER TYPE to select from the filter options.

• Assigned to Me Directly: Shows only those assigned directly to you, filtering out any invoices assigned via group routing.

• Assigned to Entity: Shows only invoices assigned to a specific group, based on three variables: Roles, Entity Types and Entities.

• Assigned to Vendor: Shows only invoices for the specified vendor.

4. Select the desired criteria for your filter and click SAVE.

Accessing the Invoice

Double click on an invoice in the Approvals Needed list to open it, or click EDIT in the upper left-hand corner of the preview.

Click EDIT to edit the details of an invoice before approval or return. Depending on your organization's configuration, you may only be able to add comments and/or an image before approving or returning.

You may sort the list of line items by Assignment, making it easy to find and approve only the relevant lines of invoices with multiple allocations.

An icon indicates which line items are assigned to you for approval.

A red date in front of a line item's allocation number indicates that the allocation was closed on that day and requires attention.

Clicking SAVE will save your changes without approving or returning the invoice.

Approve an Invoice

Click SUBMIT, then APPROVE.

You will have the option to select an additional reviewer from the drop-down list and to leave a comment. Then click APPROVE.

Return an Invoice

Click SUBMIT, then RETURN.

You will need to choose the person or group to whom you wish to return the invoice.

Enter the required return comment. If desired, you may check the box to clear all allocations when the invoice is returned. Then click RETURN to send the invoice back.

Other Approval Actions

Depending on your screen size, some of these options may be displayed as buttons across the top or they may appear under the THREE DOTS menu.

The IMAGES button will allow you to see any images attached to the invoice.

The PDF button gives you the option to view the invoice's full PDF report or the full PDF report with images.

Click the THREE DOTS button to access features not visible across the top.

Click AUDIT to see every action that has been taken on the invoice.

Use the drop-downs to narrow the audit history results by User, Header Fields, or Line Item Fields.

Click TRACKING to see the invoice's complete path through the approval routing process. Click SHOW PROJECTED to see the invoice's future routing steps.

Approve or Return Via Email

You will also receive an email notification for each invoice that needs your approval.

• Click the VIEW IMAGES link to view the associated invoice image. You will be required to log in to the Chrome River app if you are not already logged in on the same browser.

You may ACCEPT invoices for payment or RETURN them to the creator with questions or comments simply by forwarding the email. This can be done from any email system and software, including those on smart phones and tablets.

• Accept: Forwards the invoice email you received to approve@chromefile.com.
• Return: Forwards the invoice email you received to return@chromefile.com.

Any comments that you type in the forwarded message will automatically be inserted in the Notes section of the invoice. However, the only way to clear allocations on an invoice is to initiate the return from within the Chrome River app (see Return an Invoice, above).

Watcher Approval Feature

Chrome River offers customers the ability to allow certain users to watch specific invoices as they route through the approval process. Based on criteria defined by your organization, certain users may be CCed on the approval email notifications. They receive the same notifications an approver receives, but for Watchers there are no APPROVE and RETURN buttons. If you are interested in implementing this enhancement for your organization, contact us via the Chrome River Help Desk.