Welcome to the guide on how to set up and approve accounts payable (AP) bills in Sage for tech construction businesses. This article will walk you through the configuration process and demonstrate how to manage bill approvals effectively.

Introduction to AP Bill Approval Settings

Configuring your AP bill approval settings is crucial for maintaining control over your company's expenditures. By enabling bill approval functionality, you can ensure that each bill is reviewed and authorized by the appropriate personnel before payment is processed.

Enabling Bill Approval and Notifications

To activate bill approval in Sage Intacct, navigate to the AP configuration section and select the bill approval settings. Here, you can enable the bill approval feature and opt to send email notifications to approvers.

Managing Approval Policies

Approval policies are essential for directing bills to the right approvers. You can set up value approval rules that route bills based on their dollar amount, ensuring that higher-value bills receive the necessary scrutiny.

Value Level Approvals

Value level approvals allow you to tier approvers based on the bill amount. For instance, you might have a Level 1 approver for bills up to $1,000 and a Level 2 approver for bills between $1,000 and $5,000. The system will automatically route bills to the correct approver based on these settings.

Unrestricted Approvers

An unrestricted approver can intervene to approve a bill at any stage, which is particularly useful if the designated approver is unavailable.

User Permissions and Approver Setup

User permissions are crucial for defining who can approve bills at each level. Assign the appropriate AP bill approval role to each user to match the configured value levels.

Example of Bill Approval Process

Let's walk through an example where a bill for $810 is submitted and routed to a Level 1 approver, demonstrating the seamless integration of user permissions and value level approvals.

Department Routing Approvals

In addition to value level approvals, you can set up department routing approvals. This feature allows bills to be routed based on the department, ensuring that department-specific bills are reviewed by the appropriate personnel.

Setting Up Department Approvals

When configuring department approvals, you must assign a default approver and then specify departmental approvers for each department, such as estimating or finance.

Routing Bills by Department

After setting up department approvals, bills coded with a specific department will be routed to the designated approver for that department.

Conclusion and Next Steps

In conclusion, setting up and managing AP bill approvals in Sage is a straightforward process that enhances financial oversight. By configuring value levels and department routing, you can create a robust approval system tailored to your construction business's needs.