Approving Invoices

Invoice approvals in Concur are a critical step in the workflow, ensuring that submitted invoices are verified, compliant, and ready for payment. As an approver, your role helps maintain financial controls and prevent errors. The process typically follows submission by end users or AP teams, routing invoices to you based on your company's approval hierarchy (e.g., by amount, department, or vendor).

We'll cover the concepts in this logical order: first, accessing the approvals page; then, reviewing invoices; and finally, using approver functions. This sequence mirrors the natural workflow: get to the right place, examine the details, and take action.

Before you can review or act on invoices, you need to know how to reach the approvals interface. This is your starting point in the system.

Open the Approvals Page: Select Approvals and then select Invoices to view a list of pending invoices assigned to you.

This page displays key details, including the invoice number, submitter, amount, due date, and status.

Ensure your user profile has the correct approval roles assigned by your administrator. If you don't see the Approvals option, contact support to verify permissions or get in touch with your Concur Administrator.

Once on the approvals page, thoroughly review each invoice. This involves checking for accuracy, completeness, and adherence to company policies.

From the Approvals list, click on the invoice name or number to open its details and examine Key Elements, and review the following areas:

Header Information: Verify the invoice number, date, vendor details, total amount, and currency match those in the attached document.

Line Items: Check itemized details like descriptions, quantities, prices, and taxes. Ensure they align with purchase orders (POs) if applicable.

Allocations: Confirm costs are distributed correctly to departments, cost centers, or projects.

Attachments: Open and inspect uploaded images, PDFs, or receipts to validate against the entered data.

Compliance Checks: Look for any flags or warnings, such as policy violations (e.g., exceeding budget limits) or missing required fields.

Always cross-reference with original documents to catch discrepancies, such as OCR errors from Invoice Capture. This step helps avoid overpayments or fraud.

In this concept, we focus on the key actions and supporting tools that invoice approvers use in Concur to handle invoices assigned to them. Approvers play a vital role in confirming that invoices are accurate, policy-compliant, and adequately authorized before they move forward for payment.

The three primary actions available to most approvers are Approve, Send Back, and Approve and Forward.

1. Send Back: This option is used when the invoice requires corrections, missing information, or additional documentation from the submitter. After opening the invoice, you select Send Back, write a clear explanation in the comments field, such as noting a missing receipt or an incorrect cost object and submit the action. The invoice then returns to the original submitter's queue for updates and resubmission, helping maintain compliance without unnecessary delays.
2. Approve and Forward: This option lets you approve the invoice at your level while manually routing it to another approver for further review or special authorization. After reviewing the details, select this action, choose or add the next approver if the system prompts you to do so, include any relevant comments, and confirm.

   This function is especially useful in multi-level workflows or when an ad-hoc approver needs to be included. Note that the availability of Approve and Forward can vary based on how your company has configured the approval policies.

3. Approve: If you select this option, you confirm that it meets all requirements in its current state. Clicking Approve advances the invoice to the next step in the workflow, which might be another approver, a processor, or directly into payment processing, depending on your organization's setup.

In addition to these main actions, Concur provides several helpful tools to support informed decision-making. You can view the full invoice images and any uploaded attachments directly within the invoice details screen, typically by selecting the Images tab or section, allowing you to zoom in, download, or carefully examine receipts and supporting documents.

You also have the ability to view the complete approval workflow, often labeled as View Approval Flow or similar. This displays the sequence of approvers who have already acted on the invoice, your current position, and any remaining steps ahead. Seeing the flow helps you understand the routing logic and decide whether to add an extra approver when needed.

Adding comments is another essential feature. You can enter notes in the Comments section, which become part of the permanent record and are visible to the submitter, other approvers, and processors. Clear, specific comments are especially valuable when sending an invoice back or forwarding it, as they reduce confusion and speed up resolution.

Other supporting features you may encounter include viewing detailed line items, totals, cost objects, and any flagged exceptions. Depending on your role and configuration, you might also see related purchase orders or requests if your system has those integrations enabled.

To perform effectively as an approver, always review the complete invoice details, images, and workflow before taking action. Use precise comments to minimize back-and-forth communication. Approve invoices promptly to support timely payments, but never approve incomplete or non-compliant invoices. When in doubt, Send Back or Approve and Forward are safer choices than a standard Approve.

This covers the essential functions and tools invoice approvers use in Concur. Approvers serve as a critical checkpoint in the process, helping ensure every payment is legitimate and adequately supported. If your organization uses custom workflows or has additional enabled features, refer to your company's internal guidelines for any specific variations.

• Navigate to Invoice Admin > Email Reminders and select New to create an email reminder.​
• Complete all required fields to configure the reminder rule.​
• Enter the user message in the Email Message section.​
• Use site variables for user details; do not enter specific user information.​
• Build the condition, then select Save to activate the email reminder.