Checklist: Enable and Configure a Billing Invoice Approval Process

You can set up an approval process that requires draft billing invoices in the Billing application be submitted and approved before you final accept and generate invoices to send to clients.

If you have multiple companies in Vantagepoint, follow these steps to set up an approval process for billing invoices for each company.

Steps to Enable and Configure an Approval Process for Billing Invoices

Step	Description	Location
1	Create one or more approval workflows to use for billing invoices. Each workflow identifies the one or more employees who must approve a billing invoice and any alerts to send to keep the process moving and on schedule. Vantagepoint comes with a Default invoice approval process. However, you can create your own approval processes from scratch or copy the default and modify it as you like.	Settings > Billing > Invoice Approval Process, in the desktop application
2	Turn on invoice approvals at the company level.	Settings > Billing > Options: Select Yes for Use Invoice Approvals.
3	Specify a default invoice approval process to use for projects that require invoice approvals but the project's billing terms do not define an invoice approval process. Although this default approval process is used when no approval process is entered for a project's billing terms, the default does not prefill in the Approval Process field in a project's billing terms. You enable Invoice Approval and select an approval process at the top level of the work breakdown structure. For example, if you choose an approval process in which the project manager is the approver, the project manager for the top level of the work breakdown structure will be the approver for all lower work breakdown structure levels, too.	Settings > Billing > Options: Select a default invoice approval process in the Default Invoice Approval Process field.
4	Select whether or not to use markup on draft invoices. Using markup gives invoice approvers and billers the ability to enter annotations and comments directly on a draft invoice that is displayed as a PDF file in Vantagepoint. This is helpful when you don't give approvers the ability to make changes to invoices (changes to the fee percent or the billing status for labor, expense, and unit transaction detail). In this scenario, approvers can mark up the draft invoice PDF to show a biller the invoice changes they want the biller to make before the biller accepts and sends the final invoice to the client. Using markup on draft invoices may not be necessary when you give approvers the ability to make their own changes to invoices (changes to fee percent or the billing status for labor, expense, and unit transaction detail). In this scenario, approvers don't need to show a biller what invoice changes to make, since they are making the changes themselves. When you don't use markup, approvers and billers can still add comments for draft invoices, but the comments are not made directly on the invoice PDF. Instead, they enter comments in a separate comments pane and dialog box.	Settings > Billing > Options: Set Use Markup on Draft Invoices to Yes or No.
5	Specify the default invoice approval process settings for billing terms that prefill for each new project's billing terms. You can override the prefilled invoice approval process settings for a project's billing terms as needed.	Settings > Billing > Default Terms In the Summary pane: Enter Enabled in the Invoice Approvals field Select an approval process in the Approval Process field.
6	When you create a new project, specify in the project's billing terms whether or not you want the project's billing invoices to go through an approval process. If so, assign the approval process. If you entered approval process defaults for billing terms in step 4 above, the defaults prefill for a new project's billing terms, which you can change on a project by project basis. If you use billing groups, you enable Invoice Approvals for a billing group by enabling it for the main project. In that case, if the project manager is the approver specified in the approval process, the project manager for the top level of the work breakdown structure for the main project is the approver for all of the sub-projects in the billing group. You enable invoice approvals and select an approval process at the top level of the work breakdown structure. For example, if you choose an approval process in which the project manager is the approver, the project manager for the top level of the work breakdown structure will be the approver for all lower work breakdown structure levels, too.	Hubs > Projects > Billing Terms In the Summary pane: Enter Enabled in the Invoice Approvals field Select an approval process in the Approval Process field.