Invoice Processing

 

The Invoice review process begins when an invoice is uploaded to the Portal. This invoice is sent to the First Approver for review and is then passed to the remaining internal and external approvers. 

The Portal offers Invoice Processing features that provide Organisation Admins and Approvers with the tools they need to effectively manage invoices within the Portal. 

 

Contents

• Overview of the Invoice Review Process
• Review by the First Approver
• Review by the Internal Approvers
• Review by External Approvers
• Payment Processing

 

Overview of the Invoice Review Process

When a Service Provider has completed a Job, they must invoice the Strata Organisation by uploading their invoice to the Work Summary page.

If a Service Provider does not upload an invoice to the Portal and instead sends it by email, the email can be redirected to the portal or the invoice can be manually uploaded by the manager.

For more information, please Upload Files to the Document Management System. 

Invoices will be sent to the First Approver's Tasks as an item pending their approval. If they approve the invoice, it will be passed to any remaining Internal Approvers, then any External Approvers.

Committee Members and Owners that are External Approvers for their Building can review and provide feedback on invoices. When all of the information is correct, they should Approve the invoice. If changes need to be made, they can Message the other approvers.

When the invoice has been approved by all Approvers, it's sent to Strata Master for payment.

 

Review by the First Approver

The First Approver is a Strata Organisation employee that will receive an invoice for review before other approvers.

The First Approver can view their invoices to action by clicking the Documents Icon to go to the Document Management System, selecting the 'Invoices' tab, and toggling on 'Tasks'.

Search for an invoice by Plan Number or Contractor then click the PDF Icon to view the Invoice page.

Select the 'Edit' button to make changes to the information or click the three dots at the top of the page to view more options.

 

First Approvers review the Creditor and Invoice Details, the GL code/s, and they verify that all of the information is correct. They may make corrections to certain information or Reject the invoice and request that the Service Provider resubmit an updated version.

If there are multiple creditors with the same ABN or GST Number on the Organisation's Strata Master Database, the First Approver can select the creditor name through the Strata Master Creditor Name field. 

This will automatically populate all the payment information under Creditor Details based on what's saved in Strata Master.

If a new creditor needs to be paid, they will first need to be added to Strata Master to allow the creditor details to be saved. 

For Australian organisations, creditors don't need to have an ABN to be added under Creditor Details. For New Zealand organisations, creditors must either have a GST Number or unique email to be added under Creditor Details. 

Creditors must have an ABN/GST Number in order to be successful in the extraction process.

 

First Approvers can add a 'Due Date' on the Invoice Details.

If a Due Date is added to an invoice when the invoice is Approved, this will populate in the Creditor Invoice screen in Strata Master for the invoice.
Setting an invoice’s due date in the future is an alternate way of postponing the payment of the invoice. A creditor payment run will only pay invoices with a due date up to the current date.

 

Invoices cannot be approved without completed Row Items. When editing the invoice, the First Approver must scroll down to 'Row Items' and then click '+ Add Item'. If there is a default GL code and description set up in Strata Master for the creditor, these details will auto-populate the row items. If the invoice is linked to a Job, the Job title will auto-populate in the Description box along with the GL code added to the job (if any).

To add additional GL codes to the invoice, click '+ Add Item'. The GL code dropdown will display the five most recently used GL codes for the Plan Number and Service Provider. Prefixes for the budget fund are displayed as Admin, CWF (Capital Works Fund), or All.

 

If there's a Goods and Services Tax (GST) for the creditor, it will be automatically applied under Invoice Details and Row Items but can be overridden if required.

Note: GST is calculated depending on the country where the Organisation is based. In Australia it is 10% while in New Zealand it is 15%. The GST for invoices can be only 10%/15% or less. If the amount entered is more than these percentages, the user will get an error message. 

'Group' automatically defaults to 'None'. To select a group code on the row item, simply click the dropdown arrow and choose the correct group code. 

 

Click 'Save' to apply any changes. Verify that the information is correct then click 'Approve'.

If the contractor is non-compliant as per the organisation's compliance configuration, a warning will inform the First Approver who may cancel their approval or proceed if organisation settings allow.

 

They may decide to Cancel an invoice. Cancelled invoices can no longer be processed for payment but can be reopened if necessary.

If the invoice shouldn't be processed immediately, they can change the status to On Hold by clicking 'Place On Hold' from the 3 dots dropdown. When theiInvoice is ready to be processed, they can use the option 'Place Off Hold'.

If the First Approver approves the invoice, it's passed to the next internal approver for their review.

 

If the First Approver has received multiple invoices for review and wants to approve all of them, from their Tasks, they can click the check box in the left column of each invoice to approve, then select 'Bulk Actions' and click 'Approve [#] Invoices' from the drop-down menu.

Some Buildings may have a Recurring Rule that allows the First Approver to Override and Approve an Invoice that meets a set criteria. This option bypasses all other approvers and sends the invoice for automated payment processing.

For more information, please see How to Approve an Invoice and Add a Recurring Rule for an Invoice. 

 

Review by the Internal Approvers

The Internal Approvers are Strata Organisation employees that have been selected to review the invoice. Internal Approvers approve the invoice one at a time to validate the invoice data. 

Internal Approvers ensure that all of the information is correct and make certain changes if necessary. When all of the information has been verified, they should Approve the invoice and Pass it to the next internal or external approver.

When approving an invoice they have several options aside from Approve. They can Approve & Go to the Next Invoice, Override the Invoice or Override & Go to the Next Invoice. 

Note: The availability of the 'Override & Approve' buttons are based on user permissions and Invoice Rules.

 

When the 'Approve/Override & Go to the Next' options are selected, they can also select which invoice they should be routed to next, First Invoice in Tasks, Last Invoice in Tasks, and Same Plan Number. 

Note: If there are no other invoices with the same plan number, that option is greyed out. If there are no other invoices in the user's Tasks, all options are greyed out.

 

Internal Approvers may also decide to pass the invoice back to someone who previously approved it by selecting 'Pass back to user'.

For more information, please see Invoice Approval Workflow Exceptions.

 

Users have the option to include a Note on any action performed on the invoice, such as Approve, Place On Hold, Cancel, Delete, or Override & Approve. 

This Note will be visible in the invoice's Document History.

 

Review by External Approvers

The External Approver is a designated approver that's not part of the Organisation but is required to approve invoices before they're sent to Strata Master for payment. Committee Members and Owners may be selected as External Approvers.

External Approvers will only review an invoice if the Building Rules permit them to do so. Organisation Admins and assigned Strata Managers can make changes to the total number of Internal and External Approvers required from the Building Profile.

External Approvers can Approve and send an invoice for automated payment processing. External Approvers can Message other approvers about the invoice.

For more information, please see View & Manage Invoice Rules, Upload and Export Building Rules and Messaging and Chatroom.

 

Payment Processing 

When External Approvers have approved the invoice, it will be processed to Strata Master where the Accounts Team will issue payment to the Service Provider.

Refunds or credits sometimes need to be processed. If the invoice submitted is for a refund or a credit, there will be a negative amount under 'Amount' and 'GST'.

The Invoice Status will change to 'Approved for Payment' after a Transaction ID has been received from Strata Master as this confirms the data export was successful. There will be one Transaction ID per row item.

When an invoice has been paid in Strata Master, the Invoice Status will update to 'Paid'. The Payment Number provided is generated by Strata Master. It will also update the status of a linked Job to 'Completed' on the Work Summary page.

When the invoice has been paid, the Service Provider will be notified by email.

 

Note: Invoices that have no amount or zero dollar can't be processed for payment. If payment is not required for an invoice, the approvers can select 'No Payment Required'. 

For more information, please see Monitoring Invoice Processing.

 

Organisation Admins should contact us with any further questions regarding this process.