How do you speed up invoice approvals across multiple sites?

Why do invoice approvals stall at multi-site businesses?

The people who approve invoices are often not at a desk. They are general managers running a venue, site managers on a build, heads of department in meetings. An invoice arrives by email, gets buried under dozens of others, and finance spends the week chasing it. When the approver is on holiday, it waits for them to come back. Month-end slips and suppliers ring to ask where their money is.

In a survey of 200 UK finance leaders and accounts payable managers by the software vendor Kefron, delays in invoice approval were the most common problem, named by 35%. A further 27% pointed to a lack of real-time visibility of where invoices are. Read the CFOtech report.

How should invoices be routed to approvers?

By the rules you already use, whether they are in your head or in a spreadsheet: site, department, supplier and value. Atlantas holds that approval matrix in its Knowledge Base and sends each invoice to the right approver. A linen invoice for one site under £5,000 goes to that site’s manager. A large one goes to the person with the authority for that amount. This is the Control step of Capture, Control, Close.

Can approvers sign off from their phone?

Yes. Each approver gets a clear email showing the supplier, the amount, how it has been coded and why it has been sent to them, with approve, reject and query buttons, so there is no hunting through a system they use twice a month. A query goes back to finance with the approver’s note. See approvals that move.

What happens when an approver is away?

Their invoices go to the cover they have named, so nothing sits waiting for someone on leave. The plain-English activity trail records who approved each invoice and when, including the cover. That record matters at audit time as much as at month-end.

How do you see who is holding what?

Every invoice shows how old it is and who it is waiting with, so finance chases the right person once instead of everyone twice. Budget holders can also ask in chat which invoices are waiting for them, oldest first, and get the link to approve. Nothing is approved on their behalf. See budget holder questions.

Does matching invoices to orders help approvals?

It removes a lot of the questions approvers ask. When an invoice has already been matched to the purchase order and the goods received, within the tolerances you set, the approver is confirming a clean invoice rather than investigating one. Price or quantity differences are flagged before the invoice reaches them. See PO and delivery matching.

Once approved, the invoice lands in your accounting system as a draft, ready for your team to post. Approval stays a human decision at every step: Atlantas routes each invoice and shows who is holding it, and your people decide. Plans start from £500 a month. See pricing.

Questions people also ask

Can approvers approve invoices from email?

Yes. Each approval email has approve, reject and query buttons, so approvers on site can act from their phone.

How does Atlantas know who should approve an invoice?

It follows your approval matrix by site, department, supplier and value band, held in its Knowledge Base.

What happens when an approver is on holiday?

Their invoices go to the cover they have delegated to, so nothing waits for them to come back.

Does Atlantas approve invoices itself?

No. People approve invoices. Atlantas routes them and shows who each invoice is waiting with.