What are custom rules and how to set them up for accounts payable?

With Peakflo's Accounts Payable rules, managers and admins can have full flexibility and control over their payables.

Admins can set custom rules for bills, purchase orders, bill line items, purchase order line items, vendors, and approvals to automate payables management further. Follow the below-mentioned steps to add a new custom rule.

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How to set rules?

  1. Go to Settings and click on Rules.

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  2. You will see different tabs with different properties of custom rules.

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  3. Click on the Add Rules button on the top right to add a new rule.

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  4. A dialogue box will appear with different types of properties for rules. Select the one for which you want to create the custom rule.



  5. The page to create custom rules will appear. Enter a name to the rule.



  6. You can get creative in the way you use them. A few of its applications are: 
  • (Bill Rule) Showing certain custom fields during the creation of a bill

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  • (Bill Rule) Showing bills to users based on the vendor name or custom fields.

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  • (Bill Rule) Calculate bill Schedule Date automatically from Terms of Payment.
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  • (Bill Line Item Rule) Ensure that the vendor bill line items match the line items of the existing inventory.

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  • (Approval Rule) Creating approval rules for different departments and assigning multiple approvers based on department name.
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Important Note

  • When the custom field is on Bill/PO level you should use the "IS" operator in the "Condition" box for approval rules.
    For example, if the "Object" is "Department" which is a custom field for bill, the condition should be "IS".
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  • When the custom field is on Bill/PO line item level you should use the "AT LEAST ONE LINE IS" operator in the "Condition" box for approval rules.
    For example, if the "Object" is "Tax Type" which is a custom field for bill line item, the condition should be "AT LEAST ONE LINE IS".
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  • (Vendor Rule) Creating rules based on vendor information

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Click on the Save the Rule button and the custom rule will be created.

 


 

How to Set Rule Priority?

If multiple rules exist with the same condition but different values, the first rule listed will take precedence over the others.

To adjust the priority of the rules, simply click and drag one rule to position it above or below another rule. Check out the video below.

Now let's take an example to understand this better. Suppose you have created two rules for bill approval:

  • "Rule 1" which will assign "RA-Test" as bill approval policy if the "Invoice Description" is equal to "WO"
  • "Rule 2" which will assign "Finance-Test" as bill approval policy if the "Invoice Description" is equal to "WO" and the "Department" is equal to "Finance".

Scenario 1: "Rule 1" listed over "Rule 2"

In this scenario, "Rule 1" is at a higher priority than "Rule 2". This means if the condition "Invoice Description" is equal to "WO" is met, the system will automatically assign "RA-Test" as the bill approval policy.


When a bill has an Invoice Description of "WO" and the Department is "Finance," the system will apply "Rule 1," which uses the "RA-Test" approval policy. This means that as long as the Invoice Description is "WO," the bill will follow the approval steps in "Rule 1," no matter what other conditions are present.

Even if the bill also qualifies for "Rule 2," which uses the "Finance-Test" approval policy and includes an extra condition for the Finance department, "Rule 2" won’t apply because "Rule 1" has higher priority.

Scenario 2: "Rule 2" listed over "Rule 1"

In this scenario, "Rule 2" has been positioned higher in priority than "Rule 1." This means that if both the conditions, i.e., Invoice Description of "WO" and the Department is "Finance" are met, the system will automatically assign "Finance-Test" as the bill approval policy.

Now, if a bill has an Invoice Description of "WO" and the Department is "Finance," the system will recognize that "Rule 2" is the applicable rule due to its higher precedence, then "Finance-Test" will be assigned as the bill approval policy.


FAQ

1. How can I set a rule so that bills over a certain amount can't be submitted unless an approved PO is matched to it?

To make PO and Bill matching mandatory for bill submission over a certain amount, take reference from the image below:

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Here, a new bill rule is created which entails, that when the bill is equal to 5000 and the currency is SGD, then a Purchase order is mandatory.