How to add a business rule for invoices?
Tip: If you are looking for how to add a business rule for expenses, read this article.
Tip: If you are curious about the most commonly used business rules for invoices, read this article.
A business rule is a rule that allows you to perform certain actions automatically under certain conditions, such as changing the status of an invoice, sending notifications and triggering an authorization flow.
In this article, we'll cover a business rule that triggers an authorization flow.
Tip: Read [this article}(LINK) if you want to know more about how to use a business rule to make certain values mandatory.
Note: for some invoice flows it is more efficient to (partially) manually select authorization flows, because you can not always make a valid rule for every invoice. Read in this article how to manually select an authorization flow.
Note: adding a business rule is only possible for a user with admin rights.
Make sure you are logged into the Klippa Web App as a user with "admin" rights.
In the left menu, navigate to Settings and then Company. You are now in the company account settings.
Then click on Company Settings / Business Rules and at the top right on the green button Add.
As an example, we have already added a number of business rules in our overview (see above). Hereby a brief explanation of how our business rules are implemented. The rule with the lowest order (1) is executed first. In our fictitious company we have two entities (Klippa Netherlands - NL and Klippa Romania - ROM). Below you can see what each business rule does and in which order.
1) Check whether mandatory fields are completed, otherwise status is incomplete.
2) For invoices from Klippa ROM, trigger an authorization flow for the financial director of the Romanian entity to approve
3) For invoices from Klippa NL of more than 5,000 Euro, trigger an authorization flow in which first the budget holder of the cost center and then the financial director of the Dutch entity must approve .
4) For all other invoices from Klippa NL, trugger an authorization flow in which only the budget holder of the cost center must approve.
The most common business rules for invoices are the following:
Start authorization flow based on cost center of an invoice (example in this article)
Start authorization flow based on a Supplier group
Tip: if you are curious about more options for business rules for invoices, read this article about the most common rules or this article about using other conditions and automatically changing a status through a business rule.
See below an example of a business rule that determines which authorization flow is triggered with an invoice for the entity Klippa NL with cost center "Operations".
In the following steps we will show you successively how to set the 5. general information at the top, the 6. conditions and associated parameters and 7. the action and the target of the business rule.
Enter the general information at the top of the business rule:
Description: clearly indicate the purpose of the business rule. In our example the approval of entity "NL" and cost center "operations", so we choose "Approval NL - Operations" as description. If you use both the expense and invoice module at Klippa, we recommend to also describe the document type, then it becomes "Invoices: Approval NL - Operations".
Active: Choose active if you want the business rule to be applied to invoices that are submitted.
Order: This determines the order in which the business rules are executed. The lower the number, the earlier the rule is executed. In our example, we choose "4" because we want to execute the rules with order 1,2,3 to be executed before this rule is executed.
Document Type: Determine which document type the business rule applies to. In our case invoices.
Skip Review: Determine whether Finance can skip the review step.
- Off: if this option is disabled, all invoices are first assigned to a Finance employee to 'check' correctness of OCR values (such as the total amount) and the smartly suggested Klippa values (such as administration and cost center). The business rule is applied when the Finance employee presses Save.
- On: If this option is enabled, the check described above will be skipped. If invoices meet the conditions of this business rule, based on Klippa OCR and the smart suggestions, the business rule is applied immediately and in our example the authorization flow is triggered.
Tip: Read more about the smart Klippa suggestions in this article and check this article about the check step when registering invoices received via e-mail to decide whether you want to enable the 'skip review' option. Of course you can always consult our support team via the chat at the bottom left.
Fill in the conditions and parameters:
With a condition you determine how the rule is applied, for example by comparing a certain value. With parameters we determine when the business rule is applied, in other words: under what conditions do we apply the rule? It is also possible not to specify any conditions. Then the rule applies to all invoices.
Conditions & parameters: in our example we choose "Compare field value", because we want the business rule to be applied only to invoices with "administration" - "equal to" - "NL", with "cost center" - "equal to" - "903 - Operations".
Tip: if you use one administration, you can leave out the upper condition.
Tip: use the plus sign to add multiple conditions, then choose AND if you want the business rule to be applied to invoices that meet all conditions. Choose OR if you want the business rule to be applied to invoices that meet at least one of the conditions.
Tip: it is possible to select comparison parameters other than "equal to", for example "one of" if you want the rule to apply to multiple values.
See below an example where the above tips (an additional condition based on amount and using comparison parameter "one of") were applied:
Enter the Action and the Aim:
The action determines what happens to an invoice if the condition(s) are met. The target concerns who the rule applies to, in other words: to which user (group) the business rule is applied.
Action: In our example we choose "Set up authorization flow", because we want the authorization flow "Approval Tessa Rover" to be triggered for invoices for entity "NL" and cost center "operations".
Note: you can only choose authorization flows of the chosen document type (in our example "invoices") or document type "Everything".
Tip: In this article it is explained how to create an authorization flow.
Goal: we choose "All users and groups". We always recommend this target for invoices.
Finally, click on Create to add the business rule.
Tip: If you are curious about the most commonly used business rules for invoices, read this article.
A business rule is a rule that allows you to perform certain actions automatically under certain conditions, such as changing the status of an invoice, sending notifications and triggering an authorization flow.
In this article, we'll cover a business rule that triggers an authorization flow.
Tip: Read [this article}(LINK) if you want to know more about how to use a business rule to make certain values mandatory.
Note: for some invoice flows it is more efficient to (partially) manually select authorization flows, because you can not always make a valid rule for every invoice. Read in this article how to manually select an authorization flow.
Note: adding a business rule is only possible for a user with admin rights.
Make sure you are logged into the Klippa Web App as a user with "admin" rights.
In the left menu, navigate to Settings and then Company. You are now in the company account settings.
Then click on Company Settings / Business Rules and at the top right on the green button Add.
As an example, we have already added a number of business rules in our overview (see above). Hereby a brief explanation of how our business rules are implemented. The rule with the lowest order (1) is executed first. In our fictitious company we have two entities (Klippa Netherlands - NL and Klippa Romania - ROM). Below you can see what each business rule does and in which order.
1) Check whether mandatory fields are completed, otherwise status is incomplete.
2) For invoices from Klippa ROM, trigger an authorization flow for the financial director of the Romanian entity to approve
3) For invoices from Klippa NL of more than 5,000 Euro, trigger an authorization flow in which first the budget holder of the cost center and then the financial director of the Dutch entity must approve .
4) For all other invoices from Klippa NL, trugger an authorization flow in which only the budget holder of the cost center must approve.
The most common business rules for invoices are the following:
Start authorization flow based on cost center of an invoice (example in this article)
Start authorization flow based on a Supplier group
Tip: if you are curious about more options for business rules for invoices, read this article about the most common rules or this article about using other conditions and automatically changing a status through a business rule.
See below an example of a business rule that determines which authorization flow is triggered with an invoice for the entity Klippa NL with cost center "Operations".
In the following steps we will show you successively how to set the 5. general information at the top, the 6. conditions and associated parameters and 7. the action and the target of the business rule.
Enter the general information at the top of the business rule:
Description: clearly indicate the purpose of the business rule. In our example the approval of entity "NL" and cost center "operations", so we choose "Approval NL - Operations" as description. If you use both the expense and invoice module at Klippa, we recommend to also describe the document type, then it becomes "Invoices: Approval NL - Operations".
Active: Choose active if you want the business rule to be applied to invoices that are submitted.
Order: This determines the order in which the business rules are executed. The lower the number, the earlier the rule is executed. In our example, we choose "4" because we want to execute the rules with order 1,2,3 to be executed before this rule is executed.
Document Type: Determine which document type the business rule applies to. In our case invoices.
Skip Review: Determine whether Finance can skip the review step.
- Off: if this option is disabled, all invoices are first assigned to a Finance employee to 'check' correctness of OCR values (such as the total amount) and the smartly suggested Klippa values (such as administration and cost center). The business rule is applied when the Finance employee presses Save.
- On: If this option is enabled, the check described above will be skipped. If invoices meet the conditions of this business rule, based on Klippa OCR and the smart suggestions, the business rule is applied immediately and in our example the authorization flow is triggered.
Tip: Read more about the smart Klippa suggestions in this article and check this article about the check step when registering invoices received via e-mail to decide whether you want to enable the 'skip review' option. Of course you can always consult our support team via the chat at the bottom left.
Fill in the conditions and parameters:
With a condition you determine how the rule is applied, for example by comparing a certain value. With parameters we determine when the business rule is applied, in other words: under what conditions do we apply the rule? It is also possible not to specify any conditions. Then the rule applies to all invoices.
Conditions & parameters: in our example we choose "Compare field value", because we want the business rule to be applied only to invoices with "administration" - "equal to" - "NL", with "cost center" - "equal to" - "903 - Operations".
Tip: if you use one administration, you can leave out the upper condition.
Tip: use the plus sign to add multiple conditions, then choose AND if you want the business rule to be applied to invoices that meet all conditions. Choose OR if you want the business rule to be applied to invoices that meet at least one of the conditions.
Tip: it is possible to select comparison parameters other than "equal to", for example "one of" if you want the rule to apply to multiple values.
See below an example where the above tips (an additional condition based on amount and using comparison parameter "one of") were applied:
Enter the Action and the Aim:
The action determines what happens to an invoice if the condition(s) are met. The target concerns who the rule applies to, in other words: to which user (group) the business rule is applied.
Action: In our example we choose "Set up authorization flow", because we want the authorization flow "Approval Tessa Rover" to be triggered for invoices for entity "NL" and cost center "operations".
Note: you can only choose authorization flows of the chosen document type (in our example "invoices") or document type "Everything".
Tip: In this article it is explained how to create an authorization flow.
Goal: we choose "All users and groups". We always recommend this target for invoices.
Finally, click on Create to add the business rule.
Updated on: 12/01/2023
Thank you!