INVOICE APPROVAL > Invoices > Non-PO Invoice Work Area
In some cases it’s not practical to create Purchase Orders for everything that you buy, in which case you can process non-PO invoices using this utility. Common examples include things like rent, utilities, etc.
For more details on the different types of invoices, see Types of Invoices and Workflow.
Based on the settings in Invoice Options, non-PO invoices can either be processed right away (e.g. to update budgets, cost center history, etc.) or, since there’s no Purchase Order to match to (i.e. no evidence that the expenditure was pre-approved), non-PO invoices can be routed for on-line approval before being processed.
Just like PO-related invoices, non-PO invoices can optionally be exported to your Accounts Payable System for processing (e.g. to cut a check to the supplier, post to the G/L, etc.).
TIP: As a convenience, you can also access this utility by selecting the [NON-PO INVOICE] button in your (PO-related) Invoice Work Area.
Related settings, utilities and reports
Non-PO Invoice Work Area Summary Screen
This screen lists each pending non-PO invoice line item (i.e. the same invoice number may appear more than once if there is more than one line item on it).
Unlike your (PO-related) Invoice Work Area that contains only the invoices that you entered yourself, the Non-PO Invoice Work Area contains non-PO invoices for all users. Note the User ID Column. However, while you can view other people’s invoices, you cannot affect them in any way.
You can add, modify or delete invoices using the various buttons at the bottom of the screen.
The Status Column indicates the current status of each invoice. See Status Column, below, for more details.
When non-PO invoices need approval
Unlike most other document Work Areas in SpendMap that only show new (unprocessed) transactions, depending on the settings in Invoice Options, your Work Area may list non-PO invoices that you have already processed and are being approved, so that you can see all your pending invoices in one place. If you attempt to modify or delete an invoice that is being approved, you may see additional messages/prompts that don’t show when working on new (unprocessed) invoices.
When non-PO invoices are rejected during the approval process, they will be “returned” to your Work Area. More accurately, the status just changes from “being approved” (or similar) to “rejected” rather than actually being “returned” (which implies they had “left” your Work Area when in fact they are visible in your Work Area while in the approval process).
In any event, when rejected invoices are “returned” to you, they can either be deleted or modified and reprocessed. Just click [MODIFY] or double-click on the line to see your options.
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When non-PO invoices are approved, they will be processed immediately (not “returned” to your Work Area), so no additional action is required on this part.
If you are a user of the (PO-related) Invoice Work Area, you may wonder why this behaviour is different (for PO-related invoices, both rejected AND approved invoices are “returned” for final processing).
The reason for the difference is the nature of the types of users that typically use each Work Area. Users that process PO-related invoices tend to be heavy/regular users of the system (e.g. Buyers or A/P staff) that process a large number of invoices and therefore are in their Work Areas on a regular (daily?) basis. Due to the large number of invoices that they process, these users typically like to keep close tabs on their pending invoices. Therefore, these users typically prefer to have approved non-PO invoices returned to them for final processing.
On the other hand, some types of users exclusively process non-PO invoices, such as department managers or other end-users whose roles are more similar to Requisitioners (i.e. casual/occasional users). Since these types of users only process non-PO invoices occasionally and are not working on invoices on a regular basis, it makes more sense to just process non-PO invoices right away as they are approved, rather than returning them.
That said, there are no rules here. If you prefer to have your non-PO invoices returned to you once approved, you can just enter the invoices in the PO-related Invoice Work Area using the [NON-PO INVOICE] button.
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Status Column
The possible options here will depend on the setting for non-PO invoices in Invoice Options.
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The options and behaviour of the buttons will depend on the setting for non-PO invoices in Invoice Options.
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Non-PO Invoice Header Screen
This screen is used to enter the invoice header fields for non-PO invoices. These fields will be the same for the entire invoice (i.e. all lines). Many of the fields will default for you to reduce data entry based on the supplier that you select or based on the defaults in your user profile.
Some of the fields are not typical of invoices and in fact don’t appear when entering PO-related invoices (e.g. FOB, ship-to, delivery date, etc.). These fields (many optional) are made available here since there is no PO from which to pull the information and since you may want to populate them for reporting purposes (e.g. you may want to record where the item was shipped to).
Once you’ve completed the invoice header fields, select [NEXT] to enter the Invoice Line Item Details Screen.
