SAP Accounts Payable Workflow

User Guide

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction to the Accounts Payable workflow Page 3

Accessing a Workflow Inbox Page 4

To Access your Workflow Inbox Page 4

Managing your Workflow Inbox Page 6

Scenario 1: Price or Quantity variance on Invoice with a PO Number Page
6
Scenario 2: Credit Notes Quoting a Purchase Order Number Page 10
Scenario 3: Price or Quantity Variance on Invoice without a PO Number
Page 12
Whose Invoice is it? Page 12
Approving an Invoice with No PO Number Page 13
Requesting a Credit Note with No PO Number Page 14
Credit Notes with No PO Number Page 16

Reminders Page 17
Working with Reminders Page 17

Setting up a Workflow Substitute Page 19

Ending a Substitution Page 22
Role of the Substitute – Actions Page 22

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Introduction to Accounts Payable Workflow

The purpose of this document is explain the accounts payable workflow process
and to give clear instruction on how to manage your Workflow inbox.

The first misconception people have is that the Outlook email inbox and the
Workflow inbox are one and the same – this is not the case. To access your
Workflow inbox you must first logon to SAP. You will not receive Outlook email
messages regarding invoices and workflow (unless in desperation the AP dept.
email you separately!)

The Accounts Payable workflow process only applies either when there is a
discrepancy, i.e. the goods receipted don’t match the purchase order or the
invoice amount exceeds the agreed tolerance against the purchase order. If both
the invoice and the purchase order match, then the invoice is paid automatically.

OR

If no purchase order is quoted on the invoice, the workflow will be invoked to seek
approval to pay.

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD AN

ORDER BE PLACED WITH A SUPPLIER WITHOUT A PURCHASE ORDER
NUMBER BEING ISSUED. AS YOU WILL SEE, MANAGING YOUR
WORKFLOW IS MORE TIME CONSUMING WHEN NO PURCHASE ORDER
EXISTS, BOTH FOR YOU AND THE ACCOUNTS PAYABLE DEPARTMENT.

Please ensure that you check your Workflow Inbox at least once a day.

There are 3 different Workflow scenarios:

1. An invoice discrepancy where a purchase order number is quoted
2. A credit note discrepancy where a purchase order number is quoted
3. An invoice discrepancy where no purchase order number or signed off
invoice is available

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 ACCESSING A WORKFLOW INBOX

To Access Your Workflow Inbox

1. Log into the SAP system.

2. Click on the “SAP Business Workplace” icon (commonly referred to as the

Workflow icon) as shown below:

SAP Business
Workplace icon

The workflow screen will then be displayed, see below.

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Inbox Icon

3. Double click on the “Inbox” icon to display your incoming items.

1. All the items waiting to be actioned are listed on the right of the screen.
Double click on an item to view the message.

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MANAGING YOUR WORKFLOW INBOX
Scenario 1 – Price or Quantity Variance on Invoice with Purchase Order
Number:

If there is a price or quantity variance on an invoice a message will be generated

to the appropriate person, either Cost Centre Manager, Project Manager, Goods
Receipter or Purchase Order Creator. To view and deal with a message:

1. From your Inbox double click on the “Approve/Reject Invoice” message;

you will see a screen similar to the one below. Note: The header will tell
you what is being queried either a price variance or quantity variance, in
the example below this is a quantity variance.

Click on this link to

view the invoice
details.

2. If you wish to view details of the invoice first, click on “Incoming

Invoice xxx” under the heading “Objects and attachments”. From
here you can click on the purchase order number and view details of
the original order. You may also click on the “Purchase Order
History” tab which will show more clearly where the discrepancies
are, see screen on next page.

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 Purchase Order History tab. You
may need to click on the scroll
arrows to view this tab.

3. If you wish to pass the invoice for payment (click on the back button
until you return to the Approve/Reject screen), click on the “Approve
Invoice” button, the payment block will be removed from the invoice
and the workflow will end. The invoice will now be fully approved and
available for payment when it falls due.

4. If the invoice is incorrect and a credit note is required, you must first
attach a message that will inform Accounts Payable of the request.
To do this, click on the “Create” button, enter the message title and
click the green tick. In the text box that appears enter the text of
your message i.e. why the credit note has been requested. Click on
the “Save” button, followed by the “Back” button. The message will
now appear under the heading “Objects and attachments”.

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 Create button

5. To request a credit note, click on the “Reject Invoice – Request Credit

Memo” button, a further message will be sent to you to request a
credit note from the vendor as shown below. It is your
responsibility to request the credit note, not Accounts
Payable.

Back button

6. When you have read the message above, click on the back button,
then click on “Complete Work Item”. A further message will appear
in your inbox “Please request a credit note from…”, to remind you to

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 request the credit note. When you have opened this message, click
on the back button, followed by “Complete Work Item”. Note: you
should not “Complete Work Item” until you have contacted the
vendor and requested a credit note.

Complete Work
Item button

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Scenario 2 – Credit Notes Quoting a Purchase Order Number

All credit notes will be sent to the original approver to confirm that the credit note
is correct or to allow the approver to request a further credit note if required.

1. From your Workflow inbox, double click on the Approve/Reject Credit Note
message.

2. You will see a message similar to the one on the one below. If you wish to
view the credit note, click on the document under “Objects and
attachments”. Click on the back button to return to the previous screen.

3. If you wish to approve the credit note click on “Approve & Remove the
payment block” button.

4. You will then see a screen similar to the one below, use the horizontal
scroll bar to display the Price and/or Quantity block fields. Click on the
yellow tick, another icon will appear in the yellow tick box. (In the example
below the credit was raised due to a price discrepancy). If the “Blocking
Reason Price” box is displayed, click on the green tick.

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 4. Click
Save
button

3. Click
Blocking
reason
button

1. Click here to
remove
price/quantity
block.

2. Click green tick,

if this screen
appears.

5. Click on the “Blocking Reason” button then click on “Save”. A further

message will be displayed; click on “Complete Work Item”, the payment
block is now removed.

6. If the credit note isn’t correct, click on the “Reject and Request a further
Credit from Vendor” button, the payment block on the original invoice will
remain and you will receive a further message in your inbox “Please
request additional credit note”.

7. Click on the back button and then click on “Complete Work Item”. Please
ensure that you have contacted the vendor before you do this, if you
haven’t, please click “Cancel”. The message will remain in your inbox.

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Scenario 3 – Price or Quantity Variance on Invoice without a Purchase
Order Number:

Whose Invoice is it?

If an invoice is received with no purchase order number, Accounts Payable will

make a judgement on who the invoice belongs to. If you receive an
“Approve/Reject invoice” message but it isn’t your invoice, please follow these
steps, but only if the invoice isn’t doesn’t belong to you:

1. Double click to open the message; you will see a screen similar to the
one below:

Click on the
“Create” button

2. Click on the “Create” button and in the small dialogue box enter the
title of the message e.g. “ Message to Accounts Payable”, and click on
the green tick.

3. Type the text of your message in the blank screen (note: Accounts
Payable will write back to you if you don’t type a message), click on the
“Save” button, as per the screen below:

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 Click on the “Save”
button when
finished

Type your
message here

4. Click on the back button and you will see your message under the
heading “Objects and attachments”.

5. Click the “Send document to Accounts Payable for modification”

button. The invoice will now be redirected.

Approving an Invoice with no Purchase Order Number

If you correctly receive an invoice and wish to approve it, follow these steps:

1. Double click to open the “Approve/Reject” message.

2. Check the invoice first by clicking on “Parked document” under the

heading “Objects and attachments” (note, the number displayed is not
the invoice number but an automatically generated SAP reference).

3. To view a copy of the scanned image of the invoice, click on the

“Services for object” icon. This will display a toolbar, from here click on
the “Attachment List” icon. This will show a line item, double click on
this to display the scanned invoice (it may take a few seconds to
appear).

4. When you have checked the invoice click on the back button and click
on “Approve the document”.

Note, if there is no scanned image available (as per the example over the
page), contact Accounts Payable for a paper copy of the invoice.

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Services for
Object icon

Attachment
List icon

Scanned invoices
appear here if available

Requesting a Credit Note with No Purchase Order Number

If a credit note is required against an invoice with no purchase order number,

follow these instructions:

1. From the screen shown on the next page, click on the “Create” button to
first type a message to the Accounts Payable department informing them
that you are requesting a credit note. (See page 9 for details on creating
messages). However, do not click on “Send the document to
Accounts Payable for modification”. This should only be clicked on
when you are rejecting an invoice or credit note because it isn’t yours.

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2. Now you can request your credit note. Click on “Request a credit note
from the vendor” button.

3. Once you have read the message, click on the back button, then the
“Complete Work Item” button.

4. Another message will appear in your Workflow inbox saying “Please

request additional credit note”, double click to open this message, it will
look similar to the message shown on the next page.

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 5. Click on the back button, then click on “Complete Work Item” button if you
have already requested the purchase order from the vendor.

Credit Notes with No Purchase Order Number

1. Credit notes without a purchase order number on do not have to have

any payment blocks removed. To approve a credit note simply click on
the “Approve the document” button. If a further credit note is required
follow the steps on page 13 under the heading Requesting a Credit
Note with No Purchase Order Number.

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REMINDERS
Reminders are sent out when a Workflow message has been outstanding for 7
days. A further reminder will be sent out after 10 days. At this point a message
will also be sent to your line manager to chase you on behalf of the Accounts
Payable department.

Once 3 reminders have been sent the invoice will sit in the Workflow Inbox
awaiting action. Normally the next chase comes from the supplier awaiting
payment.

As a line manager if you receive a reminder please ensure you do speak with the
authoriser to ensure they process the invoice or credit note. Simply completing a
reminder does not chase the authoriser to complete the task.

Working with Reminders

If you receive a reminder, it will appear in your Workflow inbox:

1. Double click to open the reminder, it will look something similar to the
screen below:

Click on the back button to move to

the next step

2. Once you have read the reminder and understand what is being chased
for action/payment by the AP department, click on the back button.

3. You will then see a screen similar to the one on the next page, if you
wish to see details of the invoice/credit note query, click on the
document listed under “Objects and Attachments”.

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 4. From here you can view details of the discrepancy and also click on the
purchase order number to view details of the original order.

Now take one of the following courses of action:

5. If you are a line manager review the query with your colleague and
ensure action is taken, then click on the button “Complete work item”,
(you should click on “Cancel” if you haven’t spoken with your colleague
regarding the query, and then complete the work item once you have
actioned).

6. If you are the owner of the discrepancy, ensure that you deal with the
discrepancy then click on “Complete work item” (you should click on
“Cancel” if you haven’t dealt with the query, and then complete the
work item once you have actioned the query).

Click on the
“Complete Work
Item” button

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SETTING UP A WORKFLOW SUBSTITUTE
If you are away from the office and unable to pick up your Workflow messages it
is important that you arrange for your Workflow messages to be forwarded to a
substitute. Please be aware that the substitute must be someone of the same
level as you or the person who officially covers your job when you are out of the
office.

In order to do this work through the following steps:-

1. From the Workflow screen, select “Settings”, “Workflow settings”,

“Maintain substitute”, as shown below:

2. A screen similar to the one on the next page should now be displayed, click
on “Personal substitutes” and then click on the “Create substitute” button.

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 Create substitute button.

3. The search term box, as shown on the next page, will now be displayed.
Type in the surname of the user you would like to nominate as your
substitute. (You may use wildcards * if you wish). Click on the green tick
to continue.

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4. Amend the date fields to those that you would like the substitution to be
active for.

5. Click on (tick) the “Substitution active” box.

6. Click on “Save” icon at the bottom of the “Detail Screen Substitution” box.
The substitute is now active.

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Ending a Substitution

1. A substitution can be deactivated by clicking on “Settings”, “Workflow

settings”, “End Substitution”.

Role of the Substitute – Actions

In order to access your Workflow inbox in addition to their own, the substitute
must do the following:

1. Click on “Settings”, “Workflow settings”, “Adopt substitution”.

2. Click on the name of the person whose workflow they are going to
access and click on the green tick.

3. To view their own Workflow again, the substitute must do the following:
click on “Settings”, “Workflow settings”, “End substitution”

4. The substitute will need to repeat the above steps each day until the
period of substitution ends.

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