Approval of purchase invoices
Who approves purchase invoices and in what order: the category approver, the administrator check and multi-step approval rules.
Before a purchase invoice is paid, someone has to approve it. eProtokol offers three levels that can be combined:
- Standard approval - the invoice is approved by one person according to the expense category, for projects by the site manager. It does not need approval rules, only an approver set for the expense category (or subcategory) and, for projects, a site manager.
- Administrator check over 50,000 Kč - a switch for the whole company.
- Approval rules - multi-step approval by category and amount.
Everything is set up in Nastavení firmy → Doklady a platby → Schvalování nákladů (Company settings → Documents and payments → Expense approval) (administrator only). You save changes to the switches with the Uložit změny (Save changes) button at the bottom, each rule is saved separately.
Standard approval
When no rule fits the invoice, it goes for approval to:
- for an expense category of the Stavba (Project) type and for the Zálohová faktura (advance invoice) document type, the site manager selected on the document,
- for other categories, the subcategory approver, and if none is set, the category approver (set in Expense categories).
The default categories of a new company have no approvers. If an approver is missing (for projects, the site manager), the document goes for approval to the company's first administrator. Therefore, set approvers for all categories you use and site managers for projects, so that documents do not all end up with the administrator.
The invoice is in the Čeká na schválení (Awaiting approval) status, and the approver is shown in the Status column of the expense list. After approval, it moves to the Čeká na zadání platby (Awaiting payment order) status.
Administrator check over 50,000 Kč
The Schvalování nákladů administrátorem (Expense approval by administrator) switch: invoices over 50,000 Kč excluding DPH (VAT) must be approved by the administrator, they are in the Čeká na schválení adminem (Awaiting admin approval) status. The administrator finds these documents in the Purchase invoices list with the Status filter (Čeká na schválení adminem) and approves them with the icon in the list or in the document detail. For now, they do not see them on the Dashboard or with the To be approved by me switch, and cannot select them for Schválit výběr (Approve selection), unless they are themselves the category approver or the site manager on the document. The category approver or the site manager, on the other hand, sees them on the Dashboard but cannot approve them.
This check is used only when no approval rule fits the invoice. Do you need a limit other than 50,000 Kč? Create a rule with Částka od (Amount from) filled in and a single step Administrátor firmy (Company administrator).
Approval rules
A rule determines which invoices it applies to (conditions) and who approves them one after another (steps).
Creating a rule
- In Nastavení firmy → Schvalování nákladů, click Nové pravidlo (New rule).
- Fill in the Název pravidla (Rule name), e.g. "Materials over 100,000 Kč", and the Priorita (Priority).
- In the Podmínky (Conditions) section, optionally narrow down the Kategorie (Category), Podkategorie (Subcategory), Částka od and Částka do (Amount to).
- In the Kroky schvalování (Approval steps) section, select the approver of the first step and add more with the Přidat krok (Add step) button. You change the order with the arrows and remove a step with the cross (at least one must remain).
- Save the rule.
In the rule list, you see the priority, conditions and steps of each rule. You can Upravit (Edit) or Smazat (Delete) a rule.
Conditions
| Condition | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Kategorie | The rule applies only to invoices in this expense category. |
| Podkategorie | Further narrowing down to a subcategory. |
| Částka od | The invoice must have at least this amount. |
| Částka do | The invoice may have at most this amount. |
A condition left empty means no restriction. Amounts are compared excluding VAT.
Priority
Rules are tried from the lowest priority number (1 before 100). The first rule whose filled-in conditions are all met by the invoice is used, the others are no longer evaluated. A more specific rule does not take precedence on its own, only the priority decides.
For an exception (e.g. Materials over 100,000 Kč) to win over a general rule without conditions, it must have a lower priority number. Give the rules different priorities, with the same priority the order is not guaranteed.
Approver types in a step
| Type | Who approves |
|---|---|
| Vedoucí projektu (Project leader) | The site manager selected on the invoice. |
| Vedoucí kategorie (Category leader) | The approver of the invoice's expense subcategory, and if none is set, the category approver. |
| Konkrétní uživatel (Specific user) | The selected user. |
| Role | Active users with the selected Role. |
| Administrátor firmy | Any active administrator of the company, one of them is enough. |
For the Konkrétní uživatel and Role steps the selection is mandatory, a rule cannot be saved without a selected user or Role.
When a Role step falls to several people, the Režim více schvalovatelů v kroku (Mode for multiple approvers in a step) switch decides:
- off (NEBO, meaning OR, the default) - it is enough if any one of them approves,
- on (A, meaning AND) - the step is done only when all of them have approved.
The Administrátor firmy step always runs in the NEBO (OR) mode. Administrators have no Role assigned, so a Role step cannot reach them - use the Administrátor firmy step.
How a rule proceeds
- Steps follow one another, the next one starts only after the previous one is finished. The last approval moves the invoice to the Čeká na zadání platby status.
- A step for which no approver is found (an invoice without a project, a project or category without a manager, a role without active users) is skipped.
- If no approver is found for any step of the rule, the rule is not used and the invoice waits for standard approval: over 50,000 Kč with the administrator check (if it is turned on), otherwise with the category approver or the site manager, and if there is none either, with the first administrator. The document is never approved automatically by this.
- Rules are evaluated when the invoice is created and again with every saved edit after which the invoice is to wait for approval. A change of the amount or category can therefore move the invoice under a different rule.
What does not go through approval
- the document types Ostatní závazek (Other liability, card payment) and Pokladna (Cash) - they are paid as soon as they are created,
- documents with a zero amount,
- documents saved with the Uhrazeno (Paid) switch,
- documents for which an already loaded payment with the same variable symbol and amount is found when saving (they are saved directly as Proplaceno (Paid), see Purchase invoices),
- documents in an expense category of the Zálohová faktura (Advance invoice) type (not to be confused with the Zálohová faktura document type, which is approved as usual).
A document saved with Zařadit později (Classify later) waits in the Čeká na zařazení (Awaiting classification) status and enters approval once you classify and save it.
Invoices from e-mail and from the eProtokol invoice
Two switches determine whether the rules also apply to documents that were not created in the expense form. Both are on by default:
- Pravidla i na faktury z e-mailu (Rules also for invoices from e-mail) - an invoice from receiving invoices by e-mail goes through the same approval as a manually entered expense. When the switch is off, the invoice is created for the designated reviewer.
- Pravidla i na náklad z faktury za eProtokol (Rules also for the expense from the eProtokol invoice) - an expense created from our subscription invoice goes through approval like any other.
Approval preview
The Náhled schvalování (Approval preview) button opens the Jak projde náklad schválením (How the expense goes through approval) window. You enter a test document (expense type, category, subcategory, amount excluding VAT) and see a diagram of the flow step by step: which rule is used, who will approve and what follows after approval. The preview saves nothing and is useful for checking the rules before you start using them.
Approval in practice
Where the approver finds the invoices
- On the Dashboard in the For approval → Expenses overview (with the number of waiting documents).
- In Purchase invoices with the To be approved by me switch (everyone whose Role opens the page has it).
- In the mobile app: the administrator and site managers on the dashboard in the For approval block. Other approvers find them in the mobile app in the Received invoices section if they have the čtení (read) or editace (edit) level for Purchase invoices in their Role (with the editace vlastních (edit own) level, they see only documents they created themselves). Otherwise, they find them on the Dashboard in the web app.
Approval
The approver opens the document, checks it including the attachment and clicks Schválit (Approve), in the detail or with the icon in the list. In the expense list, the administrator can approve several documents waiting for them at once with the Schválit výběr (Approve selection) action. For an invoice in a multi-step rule, you approve only your own step, even if you use the icon in the list or Schválit výběr. If another step follows yours, the app tells you that the expense is moving on to the next approver.
Rejection
For invoices that go through an approval rule, the approver can reject the document - on the Dashboard with the cross icon or in the mobile app. The reason for rejection is required.
The invoice moves to the Vráceno k opravě (Returned for correction) status and the author of the document gets a notification with the reason in the mobile app. On the dashboard, they find it in the For approval section on the Returned for correction tab. After it is corrected and saved, the whole evaluation starts again from the first step.
Reminders of waiting expenses
The Upozornění na náklady čekající na schválení (Reminders of expenses awaiting approval) switch sends approvers a reminder in the mobile app about documents in the Čeká na schválení or Ke kontrole (For review) status that have the set Počet dní do splatnosti (Days before due date) or fewer left until the due date (including overdue documents). The reminder is sent daily at the set Hodina odeslání upozornění (Reminder sending hour).
After approval
An approved invoice waits in the Čeká na zadání platby status. You pay it by exporting a payment order (Export ABO; ABO is the Czech bank payment-order file format) or with a payment proposal to the bank. With a bank integration, the payment proposal can be sent to internet banking automatically right after approval. See Purchase invoices and Payments.
Setup examples
Two-step approval of materials over 100,000 Kč
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Rule name | Materials over 100,000 Kč |
| Priority | 10 |
| Category | Materials |
| Amount from | 100,000 |
| Step 1 | Vedoucí projektu (Project leader) |
| Step 2 | Konkrétní uživatel (Specific user), e.g. the finance director |
Administrator approves everything over 20,000 Kč
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Rule name | Over 20,000 Kč |
| Priority | 50 |
| Amount from | 20,000 |
| Step 1 | Administrátor firmy (Company administrator) |
General rule for other invoices
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Rule name | General approval |
| Priority | 100 |
| Conditions | none |
| Step 1 | Vedoucí kategorie (Category leader) |
Invoice flow
New invoice → Rule fits? ── yes → Step 1 → Step 2 → ... → Awaiting payment order → Payment → Paid
│ │
│ └─ rejected → Returned for correction → correct and save → again from step 1
│
└─ no → over 50,000 Kč and check turned on? ── yes → Awaiting admin approval ─┐
│ ├→ Awaiting payment order
└─ no → Awaiting approval (standard approval) ────────────────────┘