Electronic Approval of non-POM (manual) invoices
Electronic Approval Process
This process of approving invoices is currently only in place with invoices from the Students Association.
The notes below are designed to outline the planned process and should be read in conjunction with the Electronic Invoice Approval Flowchart (PDF, 12 KB).
1. Order travel (School / Unit)
Staff will be required to quote the Cost Centre and Analysis Code / Research Grant number when ordering business travel from the Travel Service. Please note that personal trips cannot be charged to the University under any circumstances, even with the intention of reimbursing the University. Non-business travel can be arranged through the Travel Service, but it must be paid directly to the Travel Service and not through the University.
2. Send invoice (Travel Service)
Invoices will be sent centrally to Accounts Payable (Finance) and not to the ordering School or Unit. There will be no exceptions made to this part of the process so please do not ask the Travel Service to send invoices directly to your School or Unit.
3. Register and Scan invoice (Accounts Payable)
As the Cost Centre and Analysis Code have already been provided, the invoice will be registered on APTOS with those details and scanned into Aptos. If, for any reason the invoice does not contain the required coding details then it will be returned to the Travel Service.
4. Approve invoice (School / Unit)
Once the invoice has been registered APTOS will create a work flow task which will appear in the task list of every approver set up for that cost centre.
We would recommend that regular approvers log into Aptos and open their workflow task screen on a daily basis to check if they have any invoices awaiting authorisation as invoices will not be released for payment until they have been approved.
Approvers will have the ability to approve, dispute or reject an invoice.
A reason for the dispute or rejection must be recorded on APTOS. This is essential to ensure a clear audit trail and allow staff to follow up on any issues.
All invoices will be scanned when they are registered so approvers will be able to view an image of the invoice before approving the spend.
5. Pay Invoice (Accounts Payable)
An approved invoice should be automatically included in the weekly supplier payment run following the due date of the invoice. The due date of the invoice is calculated automatically by the system and for Travel Invoices this is 30 days after the invoice date.
Exceptions
Any invoices which are for Heads of Schools or Units will still have to be signed off manually as these have to go to a member of the Principal's Office. Similarly any invoices for a member of the Principals Office must be signed off by the Principal. These invoices will still all be sent centrally to Accounts Payable by e-mail, but will be forwarded on to the staff member who has travelled to check and pass for authorisation.
Help and advice
If you are unsure of who has been set up as an approver on APTOS for a particular cost centre you can contact aptosadmin@st-andrews.ac.uk.
If you have any other queries please contact a member of the Accounts Payable team on ext 3094 or e-mail accpay@st-andrews.ac.uk.