Invoice approval workflows

Invoice approval workflows enable budget management and oversight by allowing designated individuals to approve invoices before payment.

In this article:

An approval phase is a step in which designated people review and approve an invoice. An approval workflow combines these phases to determine who approves an invoice and when.

Approval phases can run in sequence or in parallel. Once all required approvals are complete, the invoice is marked Approved. To learn how approved invoices reach Accounts Payable, see Sending invoices to Accounts Payable.

1. If you're a LawVu Administrator, go to Settings > Approval workflows > Invoice approvals.

2. Customize your workflow:

We recommend locking the phases that must always apply. Once locked, the phase cannot be edited by users.

Add any remaining phases. You can arrange approvals to happen in sequence or in parallel. Optionally, you can set up conditions for when you want your approval to apply.

3. Apply the workflow to one or several matter types by clicking Assign workflow and then selecting the matter types to which you want the workflow applied.

NOTE: You cannot apply a workflow template directly to a matter - it must be applied to a matter type; when a new matter of that type is created, the workflow will be applied accordingly.

If you need to reuse a workflow, you can quickly duplicate it from the ellipses menu:

Select the teams whose members will be responsible for approving the invoices and choose the approval requirement:

Conditional approval workflows enable you to create and assign workflows based on more than just approvers and phases. These workflows can be tailored to specific scenarios, such as when invoices are over a certain amount or when third-party invoices require a different approval process.

To begin, click the + Plus icon and choose either a Simple or Advanced condition. Advanced conditions allow you to create multiple paths based on defined rules.

Select Simple condition to set a rule for an approval path. In the panel on the right, choose a field and the value that determines when that path applies.

When using an Advanced condition, you can design more complex workflows by defining multiple paths based on the value of the controlling field. You can also add additional conditions as needed.

Choose what happens when the condition is not found (e.g., when the field is removed from a matter type, the field library). You can choose to skip to the next phase of the workflow or send the invoices to one or more allocated approvers.

Incorrect Rules: If there's an issue, like assigning duplicate values to a conditional field or conflicting paths, a red warning sign will appear, and you won't be able to save the workflow until the logic is corrected.

Undo Changes: Use the "Undo workflow changes" button (bottom left) to revert edits in the current session. Once you navigate away or save, the history is cleared.

Duplicating Condition Paths: Reusing condition paths can simplify your work when a certain setup is needed.

When an invoice requiring approval has been posted, the approver will receive an email and an in-app notification.

If the approver declines the invoice, they can provide a reason, and a notification is sent to the legal service provider.

When an invoice is posted, LawVu creates its approval phases from the workflow assigned to the matter. Depending on their permissions, authorized users can make these changes in the invoice approval panel:

Completed and declined phases cannot be edited or removed. If the workflow configuration changes after the invoice is posted, the existing approval path does not update automatically.

Contact LawVu Support if the invoice’s workflow needs to be reset to use the current configuration.

You can track the status and history of invoices you've sent for approval using the Invoice details pane on the right-hand side of the invoice.

This helps you easily see if there are people who still need to approve the invoice or if it's already been approved or declined.