Managing Contingent Invoices

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to describe the process of generating and viewing a contingent worker invoice in SAP Fieldglass.

Creating Contingent Invoices

The final step in any SAP Fieldglass contingent workflow is invoicing. From an application perspective, an invoice is essentially a file that includes all data required for the buyer company to pay a supplier, and the supplier to pay the worker. These invoices can be derived from a submitted time sheet or expense sheet but will reflect compensation that is owed to the contingent worker. The specific data included in an invoice file will depend on the organization's specific requirements, but the process flow and configuration options will follow a similar set up.

Details tab of a Worker Invoice, showing invoice tax information, accounting information such as rates and total amount, job posting information, and invoice details including contingent type, invoice code business unit, and other information.

Invoice Process Flow

If we look at the Contingent process flow, the necessary steps to get us to an invoice file are highlighted and explained below:

Worker's Create Expense Sheet showing the Billable section, where the worker would indicate the expenses, the merchants, descriptions of the expenses, and the expense amount. Depending on the expense, other fields may be added, such as with gasoline, which include a field to indicate the number of gallons and the cost per gallon.

1	Workers submit their Time and Expenses within the SAP Fieldglass application

Hiring Manager's view of the expense sheet, with the list of expense sheets listed on the left hand side and the details of a selected expense sheet on the right. The expense sheet includes all the expenses the worker included as well as their details. Three buttons are listed at the top right of the sheet: Approve, Reject, and View Budget.

2	Based on the approval configuration, all necessary Approvals take place

An Expense Sheet Invoice displaying the details of the expense sheet, including a link to the expense sheet itself as well as a section for any applicable tax adjustments.

3	Once the time and expense sheets are in approved status, the application creates an Invoice Line Item for each individual timesheet and expense sheet

Auto Invoicing

In SAP Fieldglass, invoices can be automated or created manually.

The recommended practice is to configure auto invoicing. When auto invoice is enabled, as soon as the item (time sheet or expense sheet) is fully approved, an invoice is generated. No manual intervention is needed from the supplier, and no approval will take place in order for this invoice to be paid.

Auto Invoice functionality is set during tenant configuration and requires an SAP Fieldglass implementation specialist to enable.

If a Buyer decides not to enable auto-invoicing, an invoice billing schedule will need to be set up, providing a window of opportunity for Suppliers to create and submit invoices. Billing schedules can be defined by Supplier, Business Unit or Site or Labor Type.

Viewing an Invoice

No matter how the invoice is created in SAP Fieldglass, the buyer may still need to review the details of an invoice and the transactional item it is derived from.

The Invoices list page, accessed from the Payments section of the transaction menu. I list of invoices is displayed, with statuses of Approved and Pending Consolidation. Columns provide details on each invoice, including ID, Code, Name, Supplier, Submit Date, and the Amount of the invoice. Above the list are filters based on Period, View, and Type. The invoice ID as selectable links.

1	Invoices can be accessed from the Payments menu of the transaction menu. Selecting Invoices will display the list of invoices.
2	Invoices can be sorted by Period, View (All, My Group, My Own), Type (SOW, Worker, Business Unit), and Group By (Status, Site, Name, Business Unit, Supplier)
3	Selecting the ID of an invoice in the list will open the details of that invoice.

The details of an invoice, which displays the status of an invoice, and includes not only the Invoice Details, such as the Contingent Type, Invoice Code, Site, Business Group, Invoice Type, and others, but the Accounting information, and Posting Information. Additional details shown are Expense Sheets. The ID of the expense sheet is a selectable link.

The invoice details include the status and next step, as well as the general information about the invoice, the accounting details, the information pertaining to who and how the invoice was submitted.

Additional details can also include the Time Sheets or Expense Sheets that triggered the invoice, Invoice Adjustments, and Invoice Tax information.

4	The Expense Sheet that prompted this invoice can be viewed by selecting the ID in the Expense Sheet section.

Marking Invoices as Paid

There is an optional step in SAP Fieldglass to mark invoices, whether consolidated or not, as paid. This helps suppliers with their audits and can assist buyers in ensuring their books are up to date. This can be done through the UI or through an upload. Many times, customers will have an integration between their accounts payable system and Fieldglass to have this updated automatically, as is the case here so no further action is required.

An invoice emphasizing the Mark as Paid Next Step notice in the header and the Mark as Paid button in the top right of the header, along with the Resubmit for Approval and Reject buttons.

Summary

An invoice is essentially a file that includes all data required for the buyer company to pay a supplier, and the supplier to pay the worker. The invoicing step is crucial for ensuring that suppliers and workers receive payments.

Key Points:

Invoice Process Flow: Workers submit time and expenses, approvals occur, invoice line items are created, and invoices are generated based on a schedule.
Invoice Creation Methods: A buyer or supplier can manually create invoices, or invoices can be generated automatically upon full approval of time or expense sheets.
Viewing an Invoice: There a two methods of viewing an invoice, either via the 'View' menu under 'Payments', selecting Invoice, or starting from a timesheet or expense sheet.
Reviewing Invoice Details: Invoices can be reviewed for corrections, revisions, specific transactional data such as time periods, rates, and subtotals.
Marking Invoices as Paid: Optional step to mark invoices as paid, which can be done manually or automatically through integration with accounts payable systems.

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