Payables lifecycle

The payables lifecycle

A payable represents the full range of obligations owed by a business to pay off a short-term debt to its creditors or suppliers for products or services that were purchased on credit.

Each payable is allocated with a status that indicates its progress throughout the payable lifecycle, from its creation until its payment.

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The set of roles and approval conditions to change the payable status can be customized according to the business needs of the entity.

To learn more about customizing the payables workflow, please refer to Manage payable workflows and Monite script

Below, the statuses are explained:

Draft

Status value: draft

This is the initial status for all uploaded payables that have any of the essential fields set as null during their creation. The essential fields are:

• document_id
• due_date
• amount
• currency

It is possible to upload payables with any set of fields or even with all fields empty, but only after the payable is filled with all essential fields, its status is automatically changed to new.

New

Status value: new

If the uploaded payable already contains all essential fields, its initial status is directly set to new. Only payables in the new status can be sent for approval or paid.

Once the entity user validates the payable, the payable's status changes to approve_in_progress.

The entity users can also directly mark the payable as already paid.

Canceled

Status value: canceled

The canceled payables are the ones that were not validated during the entity user review.

For example, if the entity user uploads the wrong file or the document is not compliant with regulations, this payable can be canceled before being sent for approval.

There is no possible status change when a payable is canceled.

Approval pending

Status value: approve_in_progress

After the initial validation, the payable follows the approval policy defined for the entity. The following approval paths are enabled by default:

• Paid documents: Under paid status, the payable no longer requires approval.
• Immediate approval: Entity users with a specific role are enabled to select any payable and approve it immediately. The payable status changes to waiting_to_be_paid.
• Approval flows: All payables that are neither paid nor approved follow the approval workflow:
  • On refusal, the payable status changes to rejected.
  • On approval, the payable status changes to waiting_to_be_paid.

In case the workflow started for the payable requires the approval of specific entity users, reminder notifications are sent by email containing information about the payable and the link to perform the approval.

Refused

Status value: rejected

The payables that are refused during the approve_in_progress status. By adding a reason for the refusal, the entity user who uploaded the invoice knows what went wrong.

There is no possible status change when a payable is refused.

Approved

Status value: waiting_to_be_paid

Once the approval process is finished, the invoice is ready to be paid. At this point, the user who uploaded the invoice is notified by an email containing information about the invoice to be paid and a link to the payment provider.

Entity users can pay invoices through Monite or through external payment channels. If paying through Monite, the invoice is moved to the paid status automatically. If an external payment channel is used, entity users must manually convert the invoice to the paid status.

Paid

Status value: paid

Entity users can access all paid documents to view any details and export these documents for accounting reasons.

When a payable is successfully exported, its status changes to archived.

Archived

Status value: archived

All financial documents must be stored within the accounting solution. By default, archived documents are stored in the system for two years. Depending on the legislation in your country, documents can be stored for five, seven, or a maximum of ten years.

There is no possible status change when the payable is archived.