Approve invoices

Step 4 of 9
Approving an invoice certifies that the invoice is correct and ready to send to a customer. After you approve an invoice, Smile:
  • changes the status of each invoicing period to Closed
  • adds the invoice value to the account balance
  • adds the invoice to the dispatch queue
  • schedules an automatic payment, if configured to do so
  • makes the invoice available to customers in CAT

If an invoice is incorrect, for example if it contains an excessive usage charge, you can cancel the invoice and fix the error. After you cancel an invoice, Smile changes the status of each invoicing period in the invoice to Open.

Warning: You cannot change an invoice after it is approved.

This task explains how to approve invoices. Because the Generate Invoices page displays unapproved invoices by billing run, we recommend that you use this page to approve invoices rather than the Invoice Approval and QA page. Generally, the Invoice Approval and QA page does not group unapproved invoices by billing run.

  1. On the Smile menu, click Billing, then click Generate Invoices.
    The Generate Invoices page appears, and displays each billing run that contains unprocessed or unapproved invoices.
  2. Click Approvals next to the earliest billing run in the list.
    The Pending Approvals page is displayed. We recommend that you approve all invoices in an earlier billing run before you move to a later billing run.
  3. Click View next to the invoice you want to review.
    The Invoice tab of the Approvals page is displayed.
  4. Review the information on the Invoice page and check the:
    • Invoice tab to ensure all invoice items are correct
    • Transaction tab to review when the invoice was generated
    • History tab to ensure the value of this invoice is consistent with previous invoices
  5. Do one of the following:
    • Click Approve to approve the invoice.
    • Click Approve and defer to approve the invoice and defer it until the next invoicing cycle.
    • Click Regenerate to reprocess this invoice after you have corrected an error in the associated account.
    • Click Cancel Approval to cancel the invoice.
    • Click View Account to view the account associated with the invoice.
    Smile removes the approved or cancelled invoice from the Pending Approvals page.
  6. If there are multiple approvers working on the same billing run, click Refresh Approval List regularly.
    After you click Refresh Approval List, Smile removes invoices approved by other people from the page.

To approve or cancel invoices in bulk, tick the checkbox next to the appropriate invoices and click Approve Selected or Cancel Selected.