How to Create and Approve Credit and Debit Notes in SYSPRO 7

Separation of duties is a mantra of those concerned with financial control. Yet it is hard to do with the accounting functions in a small to midsize enterprise. SYSPRO 7 Update 1 now makes this a bit easier.

There is already an Accounts Payable process that lets one person enter AP Invoices, another person to approve them, and another prepare them for payment. Yet when the accounting manager decides a credit or debit note is needed, there has been no easy way to enable this is to happen at the clerical level while still ensuring management control.

With the new process you configure SYSPRO so that clerks can enter the notes and accounting managers have exclusive authority to approve the notes.

Adding Credit and Debit Notes

The AP Registered Invoices Maintenance program allows authorized personnel to add and change credit and debit notes. It is found at Accounts Payable -> Invoice Processing -> AP Invoice Registration.

Look for the Transaction type dropdown, it will default to Invoice but it is easy to select the note type that you want to add or edit.

registered-invoices-transaction-type

You may link to an existing Invoice associated with that Supplier or to create a new Invoice number on the fly.

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Registering the credit or debit note is fast and easy and sets up the basic information … but it is still subject to tight approval control.

Approving Credit and Debit Notes

After the newly registered credit or debit note is created, you can then use the AP Invoice Posting program for your accounting manager to review and approve them.

Start under AP Invoice Posting, and select what type of transaction you want:

Approve credit note
Approve debit note

approve-credit-note

Next, follow the link to select the desired Registered Cr/Dr note to approve.

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Once approved, the Credit / Debit Notes are created and are now ready to be processed via the normal AP payment cycle.

Securing the Process

This is all nice and easy but you don’t want just anyone approving credit notes. SYSPRO 7 Update 1 delivers the added security features you need to address this.

There are several Electronic Signatures for managing who can post, maintain, and approve credit and debit notes. In addition, you can even use these Electronic Signatures to trigger notifications so that managers are alerted when a registered credit or debit note needs approval.

Electronic Signatures are accessed from the Setup tab of the Ribbon Bar.

In the Electronic Signatures Setup window, select which Operators you want to configure from the Configuration Level tab.

Then find the desired transactions in the Accounts Payable section of the Transactions tab and click to open the Transaction window.

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In this example we can set the desired security to be applied when approving a Transaction window. This could be simply a confirmation warning, or the requirement to sign off on the transaction approval with a restricted password.

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Of course, a good audit log can be handy where multiple people are involved in approvals. Simply click on the Logging and Trigger Options tab and select the Detail log required.

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You can also use the Setup Trigger to set up notifications to key users. This lets you specify who you want to notify, how you want them notified, and what the notification is to say. You can even make it such that clicking on the notification launches the approval program.

SYSPRO is trying hard to give our clients all the advantages of million dollar systems at a small fraction of the price. Financial control & security is a key part of this.