In this guide we will cover:
– Enabling Recurring Invoice Approvals
– Creating an Approval Process
– Following the Approval Process
Admin Guides:
Related Guides:
Note: This is available from v2.176.1 onwards.
Enabling Recurring Invoice Approvals
In Configuration > Billing > Recurring Invoice Approvals, enable approvals with the "Enable Recurring Invoice Approvals" checkbox, and then select the approval process you wish to use and a ticket type. The ticket type cannot start an approval on its own as it will be linked to the recurring invoice and used for its approval process.
Note: The ticket type cannot have any mandatory fields.
Fig 1. Enabling recurring invoice approvals.
Creating an Approval Process
You will need to create an approval process to use. These approvals are regular ticket approval processes, so you can use a pre-existing one as well if you wish.
Go to Configuration > Tickets > Approval Processes > Setup Processes > New.
Here you can name your approval process and click "Add" to create the steps.
Fig 2. Creating a new approval process.
Here you can add an approval step. In this example, using "Determined by Approval Process Rules" as the criteria for "Approve by" means criteria based on recurring invoices can be used.
Press the "Add" button to add this criteria.
Fig 3. Setting approver based on approval criteria.
You can then set rules based on characteristics of the recurring invoice. Here, approval is required if made by the agent James Brown, and it will be approved by agent Leah Craigon.
Fig 4. Approval rule.
There is a list of options available for recurring invoices, based on either who created it, or pricing margins.
For example, if the line discount is over a certain amount it may require approval from a manager.
Not every recurring invoice will meet the threshold for approval, like if below the line discount threshold. If the criteria is not met for whatever reason and no alternative criteria is set, a ticket will still be opened, but it will use automatic approval. Upon refresh, the agent can then send the invoice as normal.
Fig 5. Recurring invoice approval criteria.
Following the Approval Process
Following the rules in Fig 4, James created an invoice and thus the "Request Approval" button appears.
Fig 6. Creating a recurring invoice.
Clicking this will allow you to choose an approval process if the "Choose Approval Process" option was used in Fig 1 (bypassed if set one is chosen).
Fig 7. Choosing an approval process.
A ticket is created for the approval process that shows in the "Approval Details" section, and the recurring invoice shows in the "Review required" area until it is approved.
Clicking on the ticket ID shown here will take you to the ticket used for the approval, created with the ticket type set in Fig 1.
Fig 8. Approval Details on a recurring invoice.
Clicking onto the ticket shows the approval process has started.
Fig 9. Approval process started on a new ticket.
The relevant process will then take place on this ticket. In this case, the agent can approve but multiple stages and CABs can be used in the same way as ticket approvals.
Fig 10. Approving the process.
Upon approval completion, the ticket will show the change has been accepted.
Fig 11. Change Accepted system action.
This will then show the "Approved" status on the recurring invoice in the "Approval Status" dropdown.
Fig 12. Approved status.
The recurring invoice will now move from "Review required" into "Ready for Invoicing".
Fig 13. Recurring invoice in Ready for Invoicing area.
Here you can then select to create an invoice from the recurring invoice as usual.
Fig 14. Creating an invoice from the approved recurring invoice.
The invoice is then created and can be sent out to customers.
Fig 15. Invoice created from the approved recurring invoice.
