Invoice to Payment Process Flow in Oracle Payables R12

Invoice to Payment Process Flow in Oracle Payables R12

The Invoice to Payment process takes you from entering an invoice to paying the vendor.  This process includes 6 steps:
1.    Entering or Importing the Supplier Invoice
2.    Optionally, matching the invoice to a Purchase Order or Receipt
3.    Validating the invoice
4.    Resolving automatic invoice holds
5.    Running the invoice approval process and approving invoices
6.    Creating and approving payment

Step 1: Entering or importing the supplier invoice

The first step in the Invoice to Payment process will be to enter the invoice information into the Payables module.  You can perform this step a number of different ways.  You can manually enter the invoice into the Invoice Workbench form or the Quick Invoice form.  You can interface and then import the invoice.  You can also generate invoices based on your PO receipts.  To generate invoices from PO receipts, you need to run the “Pay on Receipt AutoInvoice Program” in the Purchasing module.

Step 2: Matching the invoice to a purchase order or receipt

If your invoice has an associated purchase order, you can match the invoice quantity and price to that purchase order.  If your purchase order is setup as a 2 –way match, then you match the invoice to the purchase order lines.  If your purchase order is setup as a 3-way match, then you match the invoice to the inventory receipts.

Step 3: Validating the Invoice

Once the invoice is entered into the system, you will need to run the invoice validation process.  This process can be run from the Invoice Workbench form (by clicking the Actions button) or you can validate invoices by running the invoice validation concurrent program.  The validation process performs a couple of different checks.  First, it checks to see if should apply any matching holds.  Then it will calculate and apply taxes, verify the GL period status, verify exchange rates, and verify distribution information is valid.

Step 4:  Resolving Invoice Holds

When the validation process places an invoice on hold, you must either resolve the hold or release the hold before payment can be made.  Some holds can be released (like price and quantity holds) and other need to be resolved.  These holds are called system holds and are need to be resolved to make the invoice valid.

 Step 5: Running the invoice approval process and approving invoices

After we have a valid invoice, you will need to run the invoice approval process.  This process can be tailor to your specific business needs with the Approval Management Engine (AME).  If the invoice meets the rules to require approval, AME will determine the approver(s) and send a notification.  The approver can then approve or reject the invoice online.

Step 6:  Creating and Approving payment

After we have an approved invoice, you are ready to pay the supplier.  You can create a manual payment for this invoice or you can batch all the invoices that are due for payment.  To create a payment batch, you use the Payments Process Request and select a template.  This template will identify the invoices to be paid and determines if approval is necessary.  If approval is not necessary, the payment documents will be formatted for printing (for checks) or electronic transmission.