Approval workflow in Accounts Payable

MARICOR JAVELOSA
MARICOR JAVELOSA
Fourth Anniversary
in Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT® General Discussions
WE are in the process of migrating to FENXT and just found out that approval workflow is NOT available in Accounts Payable and only in Expense Module.  Approval in AP is done by only one person and i am curious to know how does this work especially if you have different level of approvers depending on the amount of the transactions? 

Comments

  • Sylvia Cook
    Sylvia Cook
    Sixth Anniversary Kudos 5 Name Dropper Participant
    We use the Webpurchasing tool and that has the approval rules. You are correct that in NXT Accounts Payable, the approval rules are not available. I'm hoping in the future they will be.

    We still use a mix of FE and NXT, but there still is a lot that has to be done in FE, that NXT can't do. More than I thought at least.


    Sylvia
  • Wadih Pazos
    Wadih Pazos
    Ninth Anniversary Participant Facilitator 1
    There are also marketplace applications that integrate seamlessly with Blackbaud which do have robust approval options like multi approvals with various thresholds and configurable routing.


    Wadih. 
  • Kim Szalkus
    Kim Szalkus
    Seventh Anniversary Kudos 2 Name Dropper Facilitator 1
    Expense management is fairly inexpensive (compared to other BB modules).  We use it for expense reports and will be migrating to all A/P entered via this module in the coming months.  It has some quirks, such as the ability for items to get stuck in the approval process and no way to view them/push them through.  I think that BB is working on that.  There are also some issues with dates.  However, i It has helped us tremendously during the pandemic and working from home.
  • Sylvia Cook
    Sylvia Cook
    Sixth Anniversary Kudos 5 Name Dropper Participant

    Wadih Pazos:

    There are also marketplace applications that integrate seamlessly with Blackbaud which do have robust approval options like multi approvals with various thresholds and configurable routing.


    Wadih. 

    Hi Wadih,

    Can you tell me which ones you know about and what your experiences has been?


    Sylvia

  • Lora Yanagawa
    Lora Yanagawa
    Fifth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Boomerang (2024)
    We were using AVID (which I do not recommend).  We have were trying to implement BB's Expense Management module but it has too many flaws.  We are looking for a good approval software as well.  And a billpay software.  I really like Bill.com, however, it won't work with BB.  REALLY hoping someone has a good solution!! Changing software cannot be done for another year or so.
  • Karen Edwards
    Karen Edwards
    Eighth Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Participant
    Lora, can you explain why you think Expense Manangement has too many flaws.  W are using BB Web purchasing portal for approvals, but I want to move some of these to expense management.  I'm curious what you are finding as problems.  Thanks!
  • Lora Yanagawa
    Lora Yanagawa
    Fifth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Boomerang (2024)
    Hi.  1. Expense management does not tie into AP, meaning that it does not default to the vendor profile and populate saved preferences (terms, g/l coding, etc).  You need to set up "Expense Categories' in the Expense Management module (double work). The line on the invoice defaults to the expense category.  Often, I need to go into FE and change the invoice description so it makes sense when running a g/l.

    2. There is not way for anyone other than the person who initiated an invoice for approval to see the status of the invoice.  I have asked for a report - but no can do.  If the invoice is stuck in the approval process, we don't know.  AND, there is no way to push the invoice along the approval process if the approvers are out.

    3.  Expense management module does not warn for duplicate invoices

    4  If you have numerous accounts for a vendor (for instance, we have 20 accounts with a utility vendor), you can not easily see the vendor id when entering the invoice.

    Those are my top issues.  I am trying to get refunded for the module as I think it is a terrible solution.

    What is the web purchasing portal?

    I am very actively looking for a better ap approval and bill pay solution!
  • Karen Edwards
    Karen Edwards
    Eighth Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Participant
    The web purchasing module is actually still on the old platform, and it has some of the issues you refer to.  It also has what they call web invoicing in it, which we are not using because it seemed like it was more geared to reimbursements for staff and those categories you mentioned.   I don't know for sure, but I was assuming that Expense Management was supposed to be an upgrade for that.  The web purchasing portal allows those you give rights to see all requisitions, but it does not allow a supervisor or approver to see the reqs of his staff (it's all or nothing).  We give all fiscal staff the right to see all requistiions, so we can see where a req is being held up in the approval flow.  It also allows us to forward reqs for approval to someone else if an approver is gone.  As an admin, I can go in and go that also if the approver forgets to do it.  I though Expense Mgmt as supposed to have that feature, so that surprises me.  I also would not want the description for an invoice to be a canned description.  I prefer meaningful descriptions in the G/L.  I was hoping to implement Expense Mgmt for those purchases that have already been made but need to go through an approval and coding process and then continue with the web purchasing portal for purchases that need a purchase order generated.
  • Lora Yanagawa
    Lora Yanagawa
    Fifth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Boomerang (2024)
    Karen - thank you for your feedback.  I am surprised that EM didn't fix some of the issues they have with webpurchasing.  Seems like the developers really need some accountants involved to help write better solutions.
  • Stephanie Maxwell
    Stephanie Maxwell
    Sixth Anniversary Facilitator 1
    Hi Lora,


    I was going to view a demo of AVID as we are looking to go completely paperless and I'm curious to know what problems you had with AVID..


    Thanks,
  • Stephanie Maxwell
    Stephanie Maxwell
    Sixth Anniversary Facilitator 1
    Hi Wadih,


    I am also curious to know what other vendors are out there.

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