Send an approved invoice to accounts payable
Process approved invoices through AP batches and deliver them via email, download, or web services in spreadsheet, summary, or original invoice formats.
Tracker provides several options for sending approved invoice information to accounts payable. Your Tracker Coordinator has created a process that may be fully automated or may involve certain actions by users.
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Depending on your company's process and your particular system role, you may have limited access to some of the procedures discussed in this topic. If you have any questions, contact your Tracker Coordinator, whose name is shown at the bottom of each page.
After invoices are fully approved in Tracker and ready for payment, the approved invoice information needs to be sent to the accounts payable (AP) department. All invoices are assigned to an AP route, which determines how the invoice information is sent to AP. To make files available for delivery or download, the AP batch needs to be run first. When the AP batch is run, the approved invoice information will be processed and made available in 3 formats: the invoice spreadsheet, the Invoice Summaries, and the approved invoices themselves.
You can manually run AP batches by company system administrators, or they may be scheduled to run automatically at a prescribed interval. Even if the AP batch run is automated, company system administrators can still run batches manually at any time. The AP batch can be run at different intervals for different AP route s. Company users who are designated as AP route managers can sign in to Tracker and download the AP batch files anytime.
After the AP batch has been run, it can be delivered one of 3 ways (the delivery options are different from the formats):
- Email: Tracker sends an email message with attached invoice information. The recipient doesn’t need to be a Tracker user.
- Download: Tracker sends an email message notifying users that the AP batch has been run and the AP batch files are available for download. Users can then sign in to the system and download the AP batch files.
- Web Services: This is a fully automated process for delivering the AP batch. Depending on how the Tracker Coordinator configures your system, the AP batch may still need to be run manually before the Web Services transfer. Alternatively, the AP batch may run on an automated schedule, in which case company users don’t need to take any action.
Types of approved invoice data that can be sent to accounts payable
There are 3 types of approved invoice data that can be sent to an AP department (or downloaded by a Tracker user): invoice spreadsheet, invoice summary, and the invoice itself.
Invoice spreadsheet: Approved invoice information
The format of the invoice spreadsheet is a comma-separated-value (.csv) file. Users can open this file with Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, and any other spreadsheet or database program. The invoice spreadsheet has all information that is needed to pay an invoice, including vendor information, invoice number, total approved, final approver, any accounting code allocations, and many more fields (there are a total of 68 fields of information).
The invoice spreadsheet is generated for a specific period of time and then is locked down within the Tracker system. For example, assume the last invoice spreadsheet was generated on April 4, and then a new invoice spreadsheet is generated on April 9— the new invoice spreadsheet will have all invoices approved since the last invoice spreadsheet on April 4. If another invoice spreadsheet is generated on April 15, then it will contain all invoices approved since April 9. Once an invoice spreadsheet is generated, it is locked down and can be retrieved at any time, but the date ranges for an invoice spreadsheet can't be changed.
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Excel sometimes removes leading zeros in spreadsheet files. If the leading zeros in any of your values are removed when you export the .csv invoice spreadsheet file to Excel, you can correct this problem by formatting the content as text.
Invoice Summary
Whenever an invoice is approved in Tracker, the system generates an invoice summary, which contains information about the invoice and how it was approved. For example, it contains the firm name, address, and remittance address; the final amount approved and a list of users who approved the invoice; any accounting code allocations; and more information. Invoice summaries are compressed and sent as a ZIP file. You can also include the supporting documents in the ZIP file.
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Invoice summaries are sometimes included in the ZIP file of approved invoices.
If a vendor submits a non-LEDES invoice but doesn’t include an attachment, then Tracker creates an invoice summary for that invoice and includes it in the ZIP file of approved invoices. For this reason, it is important that you are familiar with the invoice summary format even if you don’t intend to include Summaries in your AP batches.
Actual approved invoice
The invoice that was submitted by the law firm or vendor, and any changes to the invoice, can be accessed and sent to accounts payable or printed and sent to accounts payable. If you select to send approved invoices to your AP department, they’ll be compressed and sent in a ZIP file. You can also include the supporting documents in the ZIP file.
You can select whether the Invoice Summaries and approved LEDES invoices files are zipped in the .html or PDF file format.
Run the AP batch
Required role:
Only a Company System Administrator can run the AP batch, while users in the AP department who are designated as recipients can receive the AP batch files via email and can sign in and download the AP batch files at any time.- Open the Financial module, and then select theAP Exchangetab.
- UnderManually Run AP Batch, select whether you want to run the batch for all AP Routes or for a particular route. If for a particular route, select it from the dropdown list.
- SelectRun.
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Run for a specific AP route may not be available. If you haven't enabled the AP batches to be run automatically, you'll need to manually run the AP batch for all AP Routes.
Rerun the AP batch
The AP batch can be rerun to correct administrative and formatting errors. Whenever you run an AP batch, Tracker saves the Invoice Spreadsheet as a permanent file so that historic Invoice Spreadsheets will be unaffected if the AP route is changed in the matter profile.
However, sometimes information about an approved invoice needs to be corrected and then the AP batch run again. For example, an Accounting Code Reviewer can change the accounting codes for an invoice, in which case you would want to rerun the AP batch for the affected invoice.
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Don't rerun an AP batch if you only need to download a copy of a previous AP batch file. Download the batch file from the Download AP Batch section of AP batches and Reverse Feeds.
Required role:
For AP Routes that don’t use the Automated Transfer (web service) delivery method, Company System Administrators can rerun AP Data Batches. For AP Routes that use the Automated Transfer (web services) delivery method, only Tracker Coordinators and Backup Tracker Coordinators can rerun AP- Open the Financial module, and then select theAP Exchangetab.
- Under Rerun a Previous Batch, select theAP Routefor the Batch.
- Select the particular Batch you want to rerun.
- SelectRerun.
Download the AP batch files
Required role:
Only a Company System Administrator or AP Route Manager can download the AP batch files.- Open the Financial module, and then select the AP Exchange tab.
- Under Download AP Batch, select the AP .
- Select the Batch for which you want to retrieve files.
- If the Batch has been rerun, select theRun Datefor the Batch you want.
- Under Download, selectHTMLorPDF(along with the font size and page orientation settings) to select the file format (and size and page orientation) for downloads of LEDES invoices and Invoice Summaries. Then, select the button for the type of files you want to download.
- To download more than 1 type of file, repeat the previous steps.
Send the AP batch files after the AP batch has been run
After an AP batch has been run, there is no direct way to send an email with the AP batch files. However, if you have the proper system permissions, you can download the ZIP files and then email them to any user.
You don’t need to email the AP batch files if your company uses email delivery.
If you have any questions about whether the AP route uses the email delivery method and if so, to whom the email is delivered, contact your company's Tracker Coordinator.
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Don’t send manual invoices to your AP department if your company has created an automated process. If you have any questions about whether your company has set up an automated invoice routing process, contact your company's Tracker Coordinator.