An invoice approval system is bought to speed up approvals and usually delivers most of that speed from one unglamorous feature: what it does when the approver is not there. Routing rules and mobile access help, but the long tail of late invoices is dominated by requests sitting with somebody on leave, in a meeting-heavy week, or who has left the organisation entirely.
Routing that gets it right first time
By cost centre, value and category, to a named person rather than a group mailbox. Group ownership is the enemy of speed, because a request visible to five people is often actioned by none of them. Where a group is genuinely correct, the system should still assign one owner and let it be reassigned rather than leaving it floating.
Delegation and escalation
Automatic delegation during declared absence, and escalation after a defined period to a named alternative rather than to a reminder that repeats forever. Reminders that only nag the same person produce the same silence more often. Escalation with a deadline is what converts an approval process into something with a predictable elapsed time.
The record, kept outside a mailbox
Who approved, when, for how much, against which documents, and what they could see at the time. This is what an auditor asks for and it is the reason to have a system rather than a process. Approvals living in individual mailboxes are one departure away from being unrecoverable.
Questions people ask about invoice approval system
Should approval happen before or after coding?
Either, provided it is consistent and the approver can see the amount, the supplier and what it is for. Approving a bare reference number is a control in name only.
How do we handle invoices with no purchase order?
Route them down a separate path with a fuller approval, since there is nothing to match against. Mixing them with matched invoices hides how much of that work you are doing.
Is mobile approval risky?
The risk is approving without context rather than the device. Ensure the approval screen shows the invoice itself, not just a summary line.