Requests in Payhawk are a fundamental part of the end-to-end accounts payable process within a company and help businesses provide transparency when managing their resources and relationships with suppliers.
Specifics
All employees with access to the request can:
Attach request documents
Upload and link invoices to requests
Add request comments
View the request activity
Submit the respective expenses for approval
Payhawk Administrators manage the request types, the additional fields that are required for each type, purchase order numbering conventions, discrepancy rules, approval workflows, and receipt requirements for the expense categories of the request types.
Lifecycle of requests
Each request in Payhawk goes through stages managed by specific people or roles, based on workflows set by your company’s Payhawk Administrators - for example, some steps, like review or approval, may be skipped.
The following table shows the request phases corresponding to the respective tabs in the Requests app, the actions that can be taken at each stage, and who is allowed to do them.
Phase & corresponding Requests tab | Actions, roles, and responsibilities |
Submit | This tab contains requests that have not been submitted or have been returned to the requester. From here, requesters, authorized employees, and roles can:
Once submitted, the request will automatically:
|
Review | This tab contains requests that are submitted but not reviewed, or are returned to the reviewers for additional review. From here, reviewers, authorized employees, and roles can:
Once reviewed, the request will automatically:
|
Approve | This tab contains requests that are reviewed but not approved yet. From here, approvers, authorized employees, and roles can:
Once approved, the request will automatically:
|
Receive | This tab contains requests that require a receipt note and have been approved but not (fully) received. From here, authorized employees and roles can:
Once the received status of all request items has become N/A, Full, or Discrepancy, the request will automatically move under the Invoice tab. |
Invoice | This tab contains requests whose items are fully received (that is, have the N/A, Full, or Discrepancy received status), but the request is not yet invoiced. From here, authorized employees and roles can perform the same actions that are available at the Receive step. Once the invoiced status of all request items has become Full or Discrepancy, the request will automatically move under the Pay tab. |
Pay | This tab contains requests whose items are fully received (that is, have the N/A, Full, or Discrepancy received status) and invoiced (that is, have the Full or Discrepancy invoiced status), but one or more associated invoices are still not paid. From here, authorized employees and roles can perform the same actions that are available at the Invoice step. Once the invoiced status of all request items has become Full or Discrepancy, the request will automatically:
|
Close | This tab contains the requests whose items are received and invoiced (that is, have the Full or Discrepancy invoiced status), but the request is not yet close. From here, authorized employees and roles can perform the same actions that are available at the Receive and Invoice step. Once the request has been manually closed, it will automatically move under the All tab. |
All | This tab contains all requests regardless of their above-mentioned statuses. |
Matching requests with receipts and invoices before payment (two- and three-way matching)
Requests that have been set to require a receipt note for goods or services require a testimonial of delivery in the form of a Goods Received Note (GRN) or receipt note. Once the receipt note is accepted, the supplier sends an invoice to the buyer requesting payment for the delivered goods or services.
The invoice is automatically linked to the request or purchase order when Payhawk’s automation tool extracts the ID from the invoice. If the request or purchase order ID is not present on the invoice, you can manually add it by selecting the ID from the Request drop-down menu. As a result, a three-way matching accounting process is automatically performed by Payhawk, meaning that the system checks the quantity between the request and the receipt note, and then the net amount on the request and the supplier's invoice.
Requests that do not require a GRN (receipt note) trigger a two-way matching process. The Payhawk system automatically checks the net amount on the request and the supplier's invoice.
Depending on the internal policy of your company, the organization may require receipt notes for requests for both goods and services.