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Recommended Setup
Here’s an overview of best practices for setting up the rules. For detailed instructions on how to add each rule, refer to the next section.
Step 1 - Enable configuration flags
Both CFGEnableFinancialControlInVIP and CFGEnableFinancialControlBasedApprovals must be set to Y in order to use this functionality. In order to enable the latter, click the + button in the Settings page and add this as a new flag.
Step 2 - Give the appropriate users security rights to set up Financial Control
Navigate to Data Center > Security. Choose the User(s) or Group(s) who should have access to the form, and go to the Access Rights tab. Under Financials > Setup, give these User(s) or Group(s) the appropriate level of rights to Financial Control and Financial Control List
Only users with Security Admin privilege (or those users part of a group with the same privilege) will be able to modify and save Financial Control.
Step 3 - Setting up a user group for all approvers
We recommend that you create one user group that includes everyone who can approve an invoice. VIP does not include an option for all/anyone because in very few situations should all VIP users have access to approve invoices. You will need to create a group of baseline approvers if you want to set up a rule like this.
Step 4 - Setting up an “All” rule for invoice type
Next, set up an “All” rule. This rule will apply to any invoice that doesn’t have a more specific rule but still needs approval. This is helpful because if the checkbox Restrict control to the list specified is checked, you must have approval rights set up for all invoice types, or you will not be able to approve them.
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To set up the “All” rules, set the Invoice Type to “All,” add one line, set the # of Approvals to one, and then set the User Group to the group of all approvers you just created in the previous step.
Step 5 - Setting up AP/AR rules as needed
Then, set up AP/AR rules as needed. For example, you could set up a rule that any AP that is greater than $20,000 needs approval by specific groups, and the same is true for AR but not until it is greater than $50,000. Select the appropriate group(s) who can approve invoices that meet the criteria you define.
Step 6 - Setting up specific invoice-level rules
Afterward, you can set up more specific invoice-level rules. For example, you could have a rule that bunker invoices that are greater than $500,000 need a second approval by someone in the Operations Manager group, while it takes a freight invoice that’s $750,000 to trigger that same process.
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Set up the more general rules first-- under All, then AP & AR-- and only use the more specific rules where things start to diverge. |
Workflow - Adding a Financial Control Rule
To add an invoice approval restriction, navigate to the Financial Control setup form under Setup in the Financials menu. Then,:
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Note: If you didn't define a number of approvals for a particular line, in order to determine how many approvals that line needs, VIP will fall back to the existing configuration flags.
Invoice approvals filter options
Filter | Description | Use Case Examples |
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Trade Area | The Trade Area of the invoice, most likely inherited from the Voyage Manager. | Operations in Trade Areas PACIFIC and ATLANTIC are run by different managers. |
Line of Business (LOB) | The LOB of the invoice, most likely inherited from the Voyage Manager. | Your company has different global offices, and each runs as a separate LOB. |
Ledger Code | The Ledger Code of the invoice. This filter only applies to Voyage Other Revenue/Expense invoices. | Voyage Other Revenue/Expense invoices require more granular approval rights; select based on the specific ledger codes in the invoice. If such granularity is not needed, select (Select All). |
User Group | The User Group to which the restrictions on each line apply. | All users in the User Group Chartering Managers have the same approval restrictions. |
Claim Type | The Claim Type of the invoice. This filter only applies for Transaction Types Claim Invoice and Claim Payment. | Claim Invoices with Claim Type Demurrage are approved by Demurrage Specialists. |
Amount From | A value above which an approval is required. If it is blank, there is no lower limit. | Invoices less than $10,000 are approved by Operations Managers (Amount From: blank) but do not require approval by Chartering Managers (Amount From: $10,000). |
Amount To | The maximum approval authority (dollar value) of this User Group for this type of invoice. If it is blank, there is no upper limit. | Invoices up to $1,000,000 are approved by Operations Managers (Amount To: $1,000,000); invoices greater than $1,000,000 are approved by Chartering Managers (Amount To: blank). |
Restrict control to the list specified checkbox
If the checkbox Restrict control to the list specified is checked, you must have approval rights set up for all invoice types, or you will not be able to approve them. Checking this box means “all invoice approvals go through this setup”, so if a matching rule cannot be found for an invoice, it will be unable to be approved.
Checking for rules by invoice type
To check for rules by invoice type, navigate to the Financial Control form, then select an invoice type from the Invoice Type dropdown field. The rules for that invoice type will then appear in the table. If no rules appear in the table, there are no rules assigned to that invoice type.
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Viewing Existing Rules and Invoice Approval Restrictions
To view existing rules and invoice approvals restrictions, navigate to Financial Control List under Setup in the Financials menu.
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Group by column header
To group by column header, drag the column header until Drag here to set row groups appears, then drop the column header there. This is a useful tool when reviewing all rules.
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Users Groups and Approvals Groups
When you include a group in the User Groups field, you are establishing that that group has approval rights for the type of invoice you have selected and can post invoices. This group must be included in the User Groups field before they can be included in the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd approval groups.
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Note: When setting up User Groups to do approvals, the order doesn’t matter in the User Groups column.
Verifying Invoice Approval Restrictions for a specific invoice
When you need to check individual invoice’s access (granted, denied, number of approvals etc.) by VIP - you can check Splunk for the following entries:
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Approval Status, Approval User and Approval Date always refers to the “last approval”.
Approval Status can be blank (if invoice has not been approved yet by anyone) - or a numeric value (“1”, “2”, “3” etc.- which refers to the number of approvals on the invoice) or “A” for the fully approved invoices (when we reach the required number of approvals for the invoice).
Approval Status 2, Approval User 2 and Approval Date 2 would be the “first approval”.
Approval Status 3, Approval User 3 and Approval Date 3 would be “second approval”.
We do not keep track of approvals beyond third - and any subsequent approval after third will just update Approval Status, Approval User and Approval Date as the “last approval”.
Additional Information
Invoice Approvals
Invoice Approvals is a mechanism in the invoice workflow where you can delegate specific groups of users to certain limits of authority (LOA) on which invoices they can approve. These limits are implemented around certain key invoice data fields.
Financial Control in VIP
The Financial Control setup form allows you to define rules around how many approvals different invoice types need, who can perform those approvals, and in what order, for specific invoice types. When determining whether an invoice is ready to post or requires approval, VIP will find matching rules based on defined criteria and the data within the invoice.
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