How to automate NetSuite invoice approval workflows

Implementing automated invoice approvals makes good financial sense.

A structured accounts payable approval process lets your business control expenditures, fraud, and errors. It also streamlines AP processes, ensures compliance with internal controls and regulatory requirements, and provides accurate financial reporting and a complete audit trail.

Oracle NetSuite customers can benefit from NetSuite’s built-in approval automation features. They can set up basic custom workflows that automatically manage invoices and route them to approvals. However, businesses wanting more power and flexibility in managing approvals should consider automating invoice processes using an integrated financial processing automation solution with NetSuite. 

In this article, we’ll walk you through the basics and benefits of building approval workflows in NetSuite. We’ll also explore the challenges of automating approvals in NetSuite and how an integrated AP automation solution can help you overcome them.

Let’s dive in.

What is the NetSuite invoice approval workflow?

NetSuite bill approval workflows let you automate the process of approving vendor bills for payment. The basic NetSuite Vendor Bill Approval Workflow, part of the NetSuite Approvals Workflow SuiteApp, provides a pre-built default workflow to help manage vendor bill approvals. The workflow helps users identify and manage discrepancies between vendor bills and purchase orders before issuing a bill payment. You can also customize the Vendor Bill Approval Workflow to suit their needs.

What are the steps of the NetSuite Vendor Bill Approval Workflow?

NetSuite’s default Vendor Bill Approval Workflow consists of five states an invoice (called a vendor bill in NetSuite) can move through as it’s processed in NetSuite. 

Bill Validation

In the bill validation state, the workflow examines vendor bills inputted by users in NetSuite to see if they require approval. It identifies cases when there is a quantity or cost discrepancy between the bill and the purchase order.

• If the bill doesn’t have discrepancies, it moves to the Approved state.
• If the bill has discrepancies or doesn’t have a purchase order, it’s flagged as an exception and moves to the Pending Approval state.

Exceptions

In the default workflow, the vendor bill transitions to the Exceptions state if any of the following criteria are met:

• The purchase order is only partially received.
• The purchase order amount due is less than the bill amount due.
• The purchase order quantity is less than the bill quantity.

When a bill is flagged for an exception, NetSuite adds an exception message in the Memo field on the transaction and sets the bill’s approval status to Pending Approval.

Pending Approval

If a vendor bill is flagged and set to Pending Approval, a supervisor with the appropriate permission can review and approve or reject the bill.

Rejected

If an approver rejects a bill, its status is set to Rejected, and NetSuite notifies the requester of the rejection. The requester can then resubmit the bill for approval.

Approved

If a vendor bill isn’t flagged with exceptions, its status is set to Approved. NetSuite notifies the invoice requester and approver and sends the bill for payment.

Benefits of automating the NetSuite bill approval process 

NetSuite Vendor Bill Approval Workflow lets you define approval policies and roles so you can control and streamline your invoice approval workflows. Doing this provides your business with several benefits, including:

Streamline approval workflows

Automation lets you expedite invoice approval workflows in two ways. First, it eliminates slow manual data entry and approval processes by automatically routing approval requests to the appropriate approver. Approvals can easily and quickly review and approve or deny the transaction. Second, it allows you to define automatic approval limits where invoices under a specific threshold are automatically approved for payment. 

Enforce segregation of duties

Separating employee roles and approval levels reduces the risk of internal fraud and errors. For example, you can give one employee the ability to enter purchase orders and another the ability to approve invoices. Establishing this control ensures that one employee cannot create and approve purchase orders by themselves. 

Control spend amounts

You can customize NetSuite’s invoice approval process to control spending by setting maximum limits and multiple approver policies. For example, you can require payments over $50,000 to have two approvers or set maximum limits on what each user is allowed to approve.

Maintain good financial records and audit trail

It’s important to maintain records of what invoices were approved and who approved them. NetSuite and other financial automation platforms automatically keep records of approval histories, documentation, and communications, making it easy to review a bill’s approval history. Additionally, integrated AP platforms automatically synchronize invoice and transaction data with your ERP and accounting systems, ensuring your financial records are kept up to date.

By implementing a structured AP approval process, organizations mitigate the risk of unauthorized transactions and establish a robust foundation for accurate financial reporting. NetSuite Vendor Bill Approval Workflow enables businesses to streamline payment workflows, ensuring compliance with internal policies and external regulations. This level of control not only reduces errors but also provides a clear audit trail for reporting purposes.

NetSuite’s existing invoice approval workflow is more streamlined than a manual, paper-based process. However, it’s complicated and costly to set up, has limited flexibility and customizability, and doesn’t offer advanced approval routing features like dynamic workflows.

Let’s look at some of the shortfalls and explore how integrating a financial automation platform with NetSuite may be a better way for your business to automate bill approvals.

Alternatives to NetSuite for invoice approvals

Companies choose Oracle NetSuite for its flexibility and power. However, customers report challenges with its invoice processing functionality, citing complex, inflexible approval policies, complicated workflows, and a lack of visibility into invoice status. 

Integrated third-party AP solutions leverage AI and machine learning technologies to optimize invoice processes like approvals to make invoice management faster. They let your business leverage NetSuite’s capabilities while simplifying and streamlining invoice approval processes so you can make payments on time, avoid late fees, and improve cash flow. 

Let’s examine some common user complaints about NetSuite’s invoice processing processes and consider why an integrated AP solution like Stampli is a better alternative.

NetSuite approval workflows are difficult to configure

NetSuite customer reviews say users find the platform’s approval workflows difficult to navigate and customize. “With advanced customization comes problems,” says one finance director. “We often have to contact premium support or our third party technical assistance. They can help us quickly navigate any challenges and create solutions, but at times, this does slow down the workflows.”

Other NetSuite users mention they don’t have the support resources to customize workflows. “The implementation process was inadequate,” complained one customer. “There wasn’t sufficient analysis of the existing workflows by the NetSuite subject matter experts to determine (a) how NetSuite could accommodate existing workflows or (b) if existing workflows needed to change to accommodate NetSuite processes or perhaps leverage NetSuite features and functions.”

Integrated financial platforms like Stampli feature flexible, customizable AP workflows that enable you to automate invoice processing without changing your existing processes.

Stampli’s flexible approval workflow “allows our company to circulate invoices for approval with multiple departments that are spread across Southeast Alaska,” says one customer, adding that Stampli “facilitates a solid bridge to get our invoices from received to approved to paid.”

Using Stampli “mainly solves the approval routing for AP,” says another reviewer. “Without an AP automation tool, we would be either emailing digital invoices around for approval or worse, passing a physical paper invoice around for signatures…having the communication regarding each invoice within the system instead of in emails that are bound to be lost makes the auditability of our AP strong.”

As the only AP automation platform designed for how AP teams work, Stampli is the smartest and fastest way to streamline invoice approval workflows in NetSuite. “What I appreciate most about the Stampli system is its user-friendliness,” said a Stampli customer. “It allows for seamless access to invoices from various vendors, with the added convenience of always having these invoices available on NetSuite, simplifying the process of searching for information. The automation feature is particularly impressive, as it eliminates the need to manually review all invoices—Stampli takes care of this, which is fantastic! Additionally, the ability to write comments, request information, and obtain approvals from one or more individuals enhances the collaborative and efficient nature of the system.”

Complicated user interface

Large ERPs like NetSuite can be complex and difficult for customers to use. “NetSuite is so customizable that sometimes you don’t really know what you’re looking for,” said one customer, who recommended hiring NetSuite specialists to navigate setting up workflows. “This is very apparent when creating customized reports where the specific piece of information lives deep in some field that you have to find. I find myself doing a lot of trial and error in choosing which fields to bring in for reporting. NetSuite also requires that you have some back end knowledge to truly customize your experience. I have advised my companies in the past to hire NetSuite Admins to help write scripts for back end workflows.” 

Other customers complain about having to navigate through multiple screens, menus, and drop-downs. One customer said, “Building reports and saved searches can be hard to navigate and confusing. You have to go through many different drop downs to find the field you are looking for but it would be great, especially in a saved search, if you could search for the field name, even if it’s in another table.”

Leading financial automation platforms simplify invoice processing by putting everything AP teams need in one place. “What I appreciate most about Stampli is its intuitive interface and seamless integration into our accounts payable workflow,” says one financial manager. “It has significantly simplified the submission and approval of invoices, eliminating many of the cumbersome steps that used to slow us down…Its ease of use stands out; Stampli has made it possible for our team to manage our invoicing process more effectively, allowing us to allocate our time to other critical tasks. The impact on our productivity has been remarkable, making Stampli an invaluable tool in our AP processes.”

“Stampli has been a wonderful solution for our company,” says another customer. “Stampli provides a great hub for AP processing, where you can find where any invoice sits in the coding-approval-posting-payment lifecycle…Questions or issues with an invoice can be addressed and discussed all within Stampli, without the invoice losing its place in the coding-approval-posting process.”

Stampli learns and adapts to your approval process to make approval routing smarter, faster, and easier to use. “Stampli has been so much easier to use than any other accounts payable program that I have used,” says a customer, “[It] automatically fills in coding details if it recognizes and even suggests approvers.”

Visibility into the invoice approval process

NetSuite can provide useful AP data and reports to help AP departments and finance leaders get greater visibility into invoice approval workflows and invoice status. However, customers report challenges getting usable invoice data from the platform. For example, according to one user, “NetSuite has some weird quirks about what kinds of values can be drilled down and what can’t, grid/report views can be confusing at times, and building reports is not the most user friendly (as in, it’s not very obvious).”

According to another reviewer, NetSuite’s reports are difficult to customize, making it hard to find the information they’re looking for. “At times, the reports can be a bit troublesome to customize, as there’s a wide range of filters but little explanation of where that filter is derived from. I’m often having to find the right filter through trial and error, which becomes time consuming and confusing. Also, I wish there were a way to simplify income statement reports when you want to single out certain projects as opposed to using the dropdown menu, because it’s not always easy to remember which ones have already been selected when you’re going through a list of 200+ clients.”

Best-in-class AP platforms like Stampli provide KPIs and invoice processing analytics in a simple, accessible way. “Stampli makes it incredibly easy to reconcile and closely monitor all invoices in real-time while also ensuring timely approvals,” says one manager, who also highlighted how Stampli centralizes communications to streamline the approval workflow: “The approval process is not only efficient but also highly accurate, with the added benefit of a feedback section that enhances accountability…The central dashboard is yet another powerful feature that enables us to manage and track invoices with ease, providing instant visibility into the status of account.”

Optimize NetSuite invoice workflow with Stampli AP automation

Enterprises choose NetSuite for its flexibility and power in business process automation. Stampli is the smartest, most flexible, and fastest NetSuite AP automation platform. Stampli unlocks the power of NetSuite by providing complete control and visibility over invoice processing and approvals.

One financial controller and long-time Stampli customer calls Stampli “An amazing solution!” They went on to say: “We have been using Stampli for close to three years now, and we’ve literally had zero issues. The connection with NetSuite is seamless, any updates/upgrades we want to do are easy to implement and everyone in the company is very happy with the approval process.

Overall, it’s a great product that does exactly what’s advertised – Make the AP function more efficient and easier for everyone!

Finally, on the odd occasions where we needed some customer support (for trivial issues), I couldn’t have asked for a better team. They were always helpful, quick to reply and very accommodating!”

Stampli is the most powerful and efficient way for NetSuite customers to process invoices and pay suppliers. Stampli’s platform is Built For NetSuite (BFN) certified and offers an API integration that doesn’t need IT support. It automatically syncs GL accounts, suppliers, departments, locations, and even custom fields between Stampli and NetSuite ERP. 

When an invoice is approved in Stampli, a vendor bill will be generated in NetSuite. Invoices paid with Stampli Direct Pay are automatically generated in NetSuite against the open vendor bill(s) after they’ve been processed and approved in Stampli.

Cross-platform data security and integrity 

Your NetSuite data is the sole source of truth for your transactions. The security and integrity of this data are crucial to your business. Stampli’s seamless integration with NetSuite and your accounting system uses a bi-directional data sync to maintain data integrity.

Advanced AP automation workflows

Stampli supports single or multiple POs with adjustable line level detail and real-time sync of receiving status notifications. For NetSuite OneWorld customers, Stampli manages multiple locations/subsidiaries, multiple currencies, and international GST or VAT tax calculations based on your assigned tax codes. Automated invoice capture and a centralized database optimize and simplify document management.

Stampli “has been a massive win for us, from its seamless interface with our accounting software to its straightforward invoicing approval process,” raves one Stampli customer. “Its clear, user-friendly interface and exceptionally detailed layout make managing invoices a breeze. We now have more control over our budget and greater operational efficiency thanks to the system’s ability to display invoices awaiting approval, monitor overdue invoices, and provide instant access to all invoices that have been approved.”

Flexibility and scalability

You can configure Stampli’s platform with custom invoice approval workflows and templates to meet your unique accounts payable needs. For example, many automation solutions provide approval routing options, but they are often fixed and can’t be customized to meet the organization’s needs. If approval policies change or an approver is unavailable, changing approval workflows may require rework. Stampli’s AI-powered financial management solutions feature fixed and dynamic approval workflows that automatically adapt when the organization’s business processes change.

“Stampli is…superior! We used to forward and email invoices to managers for approval, and Stampli has automated that process,” says a happy Stampli customer. “The automatic coding of GL accounts; the ability to create an approval workflow based on levels of authority and dollar limits; the approval routing itself; the reporting. Also, no more paperwork! Digital copies are all available for audit purposes.”

Streamlined and centralized communications

Stampli centers all communications on the top of the invoice itself to streamline messaging, approval status tracking, and other messages between managers, purchasers, the AP team, accounting, and vendors. This eliminates missed or misdirected messages and ensures a complete AP audit trail.

The leading NetSuite integration for invoice processing

Stampli gives you full control and visibility over invoice processing. A recognized AP and invoice automation leader, Stampli is ranked #1 for Implementation, Usability, Relationship, and Results in the G2 Report for AP Automation.

To learn more about our pre-built integration with NetSuite, send a note to our team to set up a demo.