Payment Method Approvals (Xero)
The Payment Method Approvals feature provides a robust and secure method for managing changes to vendor bank account information within FISPAN Sync. This approval process ensures data accuracy, minimizes the risk of errors, and enhances security by requiring authorization for changes to your vendor's banking data.
Enable Payment Method Approvals
Login in to the FISPAN Portal
An ERP administrator or ERP consultant must first access the FISPAN Portal by logging in at sys.fispan.live.
Select Workflow
Once logged in, select the Payment Method Approvals tile. You'll be prompted to begin creating your workflows.
A summary pop-up will appear. Click Enable & Configure to complete the setup.
Once enabled, you will be prompted to begin creating your workflows.
Creating a Workflow
To create your Payment Method Approvals workflow for your ERP utilizing FISPAN Sync, please follow these steps.
Go to Payment Method Approvals
From the FISPAN Portal, click on the Payment Method Approvals tile. You'll then be prompted to start creating your workflows.
Create a Workflow
Once you are on the Vendor Record Approvals page, click Let's Get Started.
Start by giving your workflow a clear, descriptive name for easy identification later. Next, select the entities you want the approval workflow to apply to:
- Addresses: Applies to addresses added via the Vendors page or changes made to the native ERP vendor record address.
- Bank Accounts: Applies to bank accounts added via the Vendors page.
- Email Groups: Applies to email groups added via the Vendors page or changes made to the native ERP vendor record emails.
Add Approvers to Workflow
Next, you need to define the approvers for your workflow.
In the first level, enter the approver's email address exactly as it appears on their user record in the ERP system.
Add another level for approval and additional approvers, if needed. You can set up to three levels of approval.
At each level, you can add up to five potential approvers. You can also decide how many individual approvals are required per level (e.g. Level 1 requires 2 approvals, Level 2 requires 3 approvals, Level 3 requires 1 approval).
NOTE: Important Considerations:
- No Self-Approval. You cannot approve your own Vendors. Keep this in mind if a single user frequently acts as both the Vendor creator and an approver.
- Best Practice for Approvers. To avoid delays, we suggest:
- Avoid having a single approver in a level.
- Adding more approvers than the required approvals (e.g., include 4 approvers in a level that requires 2 approvals). This ensures the process can continue even if someone is unavailable.
IMPORTANT: To approve changes, users in the workflow must have access to FISPAN Sync and the necessary plugin permissions to view Vendor Approvals.
Save Workflow
Once you have configured your workflow, click Save New Workflow.
Your workflow is now active. All changes made to vendors through FISPAN Sync will now follow this approval process.
Editing a Workflow
You can edit or delete a workflow, but only if there are no vendor record changes pending approval for that workflow. This prevents any confusion or errors with changes currently going through the approval process. In the event you need to edit a workflow with associated open vendor record changes, process or cancel any outstanding changes associated with the workflow.
Select Workflow
You can edit existing workflows to adjust them. Click on the workflow you would like to modify.
Edit Workflow
Make your desired modifications, and click Save Changes.
Editing Restrictions
Modifying the entities associated with a workflow will disable any other workflows that were previously applied to those entities. Similar to making edits to workflows, all future requests for these entities will go through the new workflow; existing requests will remain unaffected.
Deleting a Workflow
Workflows with pending approvals cannot be deleted until those approvals are resolved. Deleting an active workflow can be done following these simple steps.
Select Workflow
Select the workflow to delete. Then, click Delete Workflow.
Confirm Deletion
A pop-up will appear. Confirm deletion by clicking Yes, Delete Workflow.
Disabling a Workflow
To disable a workflow, toggle Enable Flow. Then click Save Changes.
Payment Method Approvals
Accessing Pending Approvals
From FISPAN Sync, navigate to Approvals → Payment Method Approvals.
By default, you'll see all pending approval requests for your organization.
The Approvals page table provides a comprehensive overview of each payment request, with the following key details:
- Request Date: The precise date when the payment was initiated within the plugin.
- Vendor: The name of the vendor that had their record modified.
- Entity: The type of data changed. It will be either address, bank account or email group.
- User/Requested By: The name of the user who submitted the payment request.
- Source: Indicates where the change originated. Displays either Plugin UI (the change was made in FISPAN Sync) or ERP (the change was made in Xero).
- Approval Progress: A tracker which provides context to where a payment is within the approval process.
To view only the requests assigned to you, click the Show Assigned To Me Only filter.
To review a specific request, click View. This will display key information such as:
- Type of Change: Whether it's an update to existing details, a new vendor bank detail, or a deletion of a vendor bank detail.
- Requested Date: The date and time the change was submitted.
- Requester: The user who initiated the change.
- Detailed Breakdown: A comprehensive view of the proposed changes to vendor details. Each request falls into one of three categories:
- Update: Modifications to an existing vendor's details.
- Addition: A new vendor being added.
- Deletion: An existing vendor being removed.
Approval Process
To approve a request:
Click Approve to authorize the proposed changes.
The request will either advance to the next tier in the approval workflow (if multiple tiers are configured) or, if you are the final approver, be applied directly, updating the vendor's bank details on the Vendors page.
To reject a request:
Click Reject to decline the proposed changes.
The request will be closed and no changes will be made to the vendor's details.
IMPORTANT: Rejection is a terminal action. If a change is rejected in error, the initiating user will need to resubmit the request.
You will be required to provide a rejection reason.
Since rejections are terminal, the request will not be routed to any other approvers and the proposed changes will be reverted.
ERP Synced Changes
- Rejection Disabled: For changes that originate from your ERP system (ERP-synced changes), the Reject button will be disabled.
- Rationale: This restriction is in place to prevent accidental overwrites or conflicts with the data in your ERP. Maintaining consistency between the plugin and your ERP is crucial.
- Resolution: If an ERP-synced change needs to be reversed or modified, the initiating user must make the necessary adjustments directly within the ERP.
IMPORTANT: Only vendor address and email changes made in Xero appear in the Vendor Approvals flow. Bank account changes made in Xero are not synced and will not appear, bank account changes must be initiated from within FISPAN Sync under the Vendors page.
NOTE: If you would like ERP synced changes to not be eligible for Approval, please reach out to the support team.
Impact on Workflows
When an approval request is created by modifying a vendor's bank details, the following updates occur within FISPAN Sync.
Pay Bills Page
While a vendor has a pending change, payments cannot be processed for that vendor. This ensures the vendor's information is fully up to date before any payment is made.
A warning icon and a greyed-out checkbox indicate that the vendor is not eligible for payment until the pending change is resolved.
Vendors Page
On the Vendors page, a vendor with pending changes is marked with an icon.
Clicking the vendor highlights the specific record that has been changed.
Opening the record shows all fields greyed out and locked from editing until the pending change is resolved.
Payment Method Approvals History
The Payment Method Approvals History page maintains a comprehensive log of all approval requests, including both those that were approved and those that were rejected.
To view more details about a request, you can click View and see the following:
- Date and Time: When the approval or rejection occurred.
- User: The individual who approved or rejected the request.
- Reason: Any comments or explanations provided for the decision.
- Source: The origin of the change request (e.g., manual update, import).
Approvals History Export
You can export the Approvals History for record-keeping or analysis. The export file includes:
- Modified On: Date the change was made
- Vendor: Vendor Name
- Type of Change: Updated, Added, Deleted
- User Email: User who initiated the change
- Reviewed By: User emails who approved or rejected the change
- Approval/Rejection Time: Time when the final approving user reviewed the change or rejection was sent
- Status: Approved or Rejected
- Previous Entry: What the entry looked like before it was changed
- This would be EMPTY if the history log item is for a new record being created
- Proposed Entry: What the entry looks like after a change was initiated or rejected
- If entry was rejected, this is the change that was proposed
- If the entry was approved, this is the change that was accepted
- Reason for Rejection: The rejection reason provided by the rejecting user
- This will be empty if the record is an approved item
To generate this export, click the Export button on the Approvals History page.
