How to speed up supplier invoice approval

In many companies, approving an invoice means forwarding a PDF with a “did you order this?”. The email gets lost among a hundred others, the invoice waits, the supplier asks about payment and the month-end close slips.

Why it gets stuck

• It isn’t clear who has to approve each invoice.
• The approver has no context: no purchase order, no delivery note, no agreed price.
• The request arrives by email and gets mixed up with everything else.
• Nobody can see where each invoice stands or how long it has been waiting.
• Approval is requested for everything, even what already matches.

First: not everything needs approval

If an invoice matches its purchase order and delivery note within tolerance, the purchase was already approved when the order was placed. Asking for another sign-off doubles the work. Keep approval for what really needs a decision:

• Invoices without a purchase order.
• Price or quantity differences outside tolerance.
• New suppliers.
• Amounts above a threshold you set.

What three-way match is and how to set tolerances.

Who approves what

Before automating, write the rules down in a simple table. Four criteria are usually enough: the entity, the department or cost centre, the supplier or type of spend, and the amount. Add a deputy for each approver so holidays don’t stop the flow.

What the approver needs to decide in one click

• The original invoice, without having to look for it.
• The related purchase order and delivery note.
• The difference flagged and the reason it has come to them.
• That supplier’s history.

With that information, approving or rejecting takes one click. Without it, it takes a conversation.

Keep everything on record

Every approval should record who decided what and when. And an invoice that is already approved shouldn’t go back to pending if another copy arrives. That history is what makes the process auditable and lets you answer any question quickly. How to avoid paying duplicate invoices.

How to know it is improving

• Average time from receiving an invoice to approving it.
• Pending invoices per approver.
• Share of invoices that need manual approval: it should fall as more invoices match on their own.