Improving Workflows

Feature Requests – Improving Bills Inbox Workflow, Document Management and Purchase Invoice Approval Processes

We currently use the Bills Inbox workflow for processing supplier invoices and find it a very useful feature. However, based on our day-to-day purchase ledger processes, we believe there are several enhancements that would significantly improve the workflow for businesses managing supplier invoices, purchase orders, delivery documentation and approval processes.

The suggestions below are based on practical bookkeeping requirements within a business that operates a purchase order system and requires appropriate controls before supplier invoices are approved for payment.

1. Ability to process credit notes and refunds through the Bills Inbox

At present, the Bills Inbox appears primarily designed around supplier invoices.

It would be extremely useful if credit notes and supplier refunds could also be forwarded through the same workflow, allowing the system to create draft credit notes automatically in the same way invoices are created.

This would ensure that all supplier-related documents follow one consistent process and reduce the need for manual duplication.

2. Improved document storage and categorisation

The document storage area would be significantly enhanced by allowing users to create categories or folders for supporting purchase documents, for example:

• Purchase Orders
• Delivery Notes
• Supplier Statements
• Credit Notes
• Supporting Documentation

This would allow businesses to retain a complete audit trail and make it easier to reconcile invoices against the relevant supporting documents.

For example, when reviewing an invoice, the user could easily access the related purchase order and delivery confirmation before approving payment.

3. Capture email subject and message content when forwarding invoices

A further improvement would be to capture additional information from the original email when documents are forwarded into the Bills Inbox.

Currently, the main focus appears to be extracting the attachment itself. However, the email often contains valuable workflow information.

Examples:

• "Goods received – please process"
• "Awaiting delivery confirmation"
• "Please query the attached invoice"
• "Approved by site manager"
• "Materials delivered to site"

It would be extremely useful if the following could be automatically captured:

• Email subject line
• First line or body content of the email

This information could then populate either:

• The invoice notes section, or
• A dedicated workflow notes field

This would retain important context that is currently lost when only the attachment is extracted.

4. Dedicated notes field when submitting invoices through the Bills Inbox

A dedicated notes field would be a significant improvement.

Many invoices require additional information before they can be approved, for example:

• Awaiting supplier response
• Incorrect quantities being queried
• Awaiting proof of delivery
• Waiting for project confirmation
• Pending operational approval

Having a clear notes field attached to the invoice would allow these comments to remain visible throughout the approval process.

Ideally, these notes would be displayed clearly when reviewing the invoice rather than being hidden within an email trail.

5. Custom invoice approval status dropdown

In our opinion, the most valuable enhancement would be introducing a simple approval status field for supplier invoices.

Many businesses need to record the workflow position of an invoice before it becomes payable. Currently, this often requires external spreadsheets or manual tracking.

A simple dropdown field could provide significant value.

Suggested options:

• Received
• Awaiting Review
• Awaiting Approval
• Awaiting Delivery Confirmation
• Query with Supplier
• Approved for Payment
• Paid

This would allow users to quickly filter invoices, identify bottlenecks and understand outstanding commitments.

Overall benefit

For many businesses, accounting software is not only used for recording transactions but also forms part of the wider purchase-to-payment workflow.

Enhancing the Bills Inbox with:

• Credit note processing
• Improved document storage
• Email context capture
• Invoice notes
• Approval status tracking

would:

• Reduce manual administration
• Improve audit trails
• Reduce the risk of duplicate or incorrect payments
• Improve collaboration between finance and operational teams
• Provide greater visibility of outstanding liabilities

From a development perspective, these appear to be relatively straightforward enhancements that would provide significant workflow improvements for a wide range of businesses using purchase order and approval processes.