Invoice Approval Automation: Stop Chasing Invoices and Start Managing the Process
If your Accounts Payable team spends part of every week emailing managers, checking spreadsheets and asking, “Has this invoice been approved yet?” there’s probably a lot more manual work happening behind the scenes than anyone realizes.
I see this when we start digging into how invoices actually move through an organization. The accounting or ERP system may work perfectly well once an invoice is approved and ready for payment. Getting the invoice to that point is often where things get messy.
An invoice arrives. Someone in AP reviews it, figures out who needs to approve it and sends it along. A few days pass. Nothing happens, so AP follows up.
The manager approves it, but Finance needs additional information. Or the amount requires another level of approval. Or the person who needs to approve it is out of the office.
Meanwhile, AP is keeping track of everything through some combination of email, spreadsheets, Teams messages, folders, flags and personal reminders.
None of those things seem like a major issue on their own. But when you're processing hundreds of invoices a month, all of those little manual steps add up quickly.
That's usually where I start looking for opportunities to simplify the process with Microsoft 365.
What Is Invoice Approval Automation?
Invoice approval automation is a digital process for routing invoices to the right people for review and approval, tracking where they are, sending reminders when action is needed and recording what happens along the way.
For organizations already using Microsoft 365, I can often build that process around technologies such as SharePoint, Power Automate, Microsoft Teams, Power Apps, Dataverse and Power BI.
But the technology isn't where I start.
I want to understand how invoices move through the organization today, where employees are spending their time and where things tend to get stuck.
That tells me much more about what we actually need to build.
The Real Work Often Happens Before the Accounting System
When I look at an invoice approval process, one of the first things I want to understand is how much manual work happens before an invoice ever reaches the accounting system.
How does AP know who needs to approve an invoice? How does the approver know something is waiting for them? What happens when an invoice requires two or three levels of approval? What happens when someone is out of the office? How does AP know which invoices are still outstanding?
And one of the most important questions I ask is simple:
How much time does AP spend following up with people?
If the answer is “a lot,” I want to understand why.
In many cases, I don't need to replace the accounting or ERP system. I want that system to continue doing what it does well.
I'm interested in improving everything that happens before the invoice gets there.
Email Works Until the Process Outgrows It
There’s nothing inherently wrong with approving something through email.
If you process a handful of invoices and only one person needs to approve them, email might work perfectly well.
Things change as the process grows.
Different departments may have different approvers. An invoice over a certain amount may require another approval. A specific vendor may need additional review. A non-PO invoice may follow a completely different process than a PO-backed invoice.
Before long, someone in Accounts Payable has to know where every invoice needs to go, whether it got there, whether the person responded and what needs to happen next.
That's a lot of administrative work surrounding something that happens every day.
What Does an Automated Invoice Approval Process Look Like?
I want the process to handle as much of that administrative work as possible.
When an invoice enters the process, I can capture the information the organization needs and associate the actual invoice document with the record.
From there, the workflow can determine where the invoice needs to go based on the organization's rules.
A department manager may receive the first approval. If the invoice exceeds a certain dollar amount, it can automatically move to another approver. If Finance needs to review it, that becomes the next step.
If someone doesn't respond within a defined period, the workflow can send a reminder. If necessary, it can escalate the request or route it to another person.
At every point, AP can see what's happening.
They can see whether an invoice has been received, is waiting for approval, needs additional information, has been rejected or is approved and ready for the next step.
Instead of another email asking, “Does anyone know what happened to this invoice?”, AP has a place to find the answer.
That's a much bigger improvement than simply automating an email.
How I Use Microsoft 365 for Invoice Approval Automation
One reason I like solving these problems with the Microsoft 365 stack is that many organizations already work in Microsoft 365 every day.
I don't want to introduce another application simply because I can. I want the solution to fit naturally into how people already work or with tools they already own and use.
For one organization, that might mean SharePoint stores the invoices and associated information while Power Automate handles routing, approvals, reminders and status changes.
For another, Microsoft Teams might be important because that's where employees spend most of their day. Approvals and notifications can surface there instead of requiring employees to constantly check another system.
If the process is more complex, I may use Power Apps to give AP or other employees a better interface for managing invoice information. Dataverse can make sense when the solution requires more sophisticated data relationships, security or application functionality.
Power BI can then turn the information generated by the process into something management can actually use.
I don't try to force every Microsoft tool into a solution. I use the pieces that make sense for the way the organization actually works.
The Approval Rules Shouldn't Live in Someone's Head
This is one of the biggest warning signs I see in manual processes.
One employee knows how everything works.
They know invoices from one vendor go to Susan, anything over $25,000 also needs John's approval, invoices for Operations go somewhere else and anything without a PO needs Finance to review it first.
Then that employee goes on vacation.
Or leaves the organization.
A well-designed invoice approval workflow takes those business rules and makes them part of the process.
An invoice below a certain amount can follow one approval path. If it's above that threshold, another approval can automatically be added. Departments, locations, vendors, expense categories and other information can determine where it goes next.
Your employees still make the decisions. They just don't have to remember every routing rule along the way.
Give AP One Place to See What's Happening
This is where invoice approval automation becomes especially valuable.
I don't just want to automate sending an approval request. I want AP to have visibility into the entire process.
Instead of searching Outlook, checking Teams messages and updating another tracking spreadsheet, AP can have one place to see outstanding invoices.
Which invoices are waiting for approval? Who has them? How long have they been waiting? Which ones need attention? Which have already been approved?
Once we're capturing that information consistently, we can start answering larger questions too.
Which departments take the longest to approve invoices? What's our average approval time? Where are invoices consistently getting stuck? How many invoices have been sitting longer than five business days? Which vendors generate the most invoice volume?
Now the organization has useful information about a process that may have previously existed across inboxes, spreadsheets and people's heads.
Invoice Automation Doesn't Mean Giving Up Financial Controls
When I talk about automating invoice approvals, I'm not talking about automatically approving every invoice.
People still make the decisions that require judgment.
Was the product received? Was the work completed? Is the amount correct? Is this an authorized expense? Should we approve payment?
Those are decisions I want people making.
What I don't want is employees spending their time forwarding emails, updating spreadsheets, sending reminders and figuring out who needs to do something next.
That's where automation can do the heavy lifting.
The technology handles routing, reminders, notifications, status tracking, documentation and history. Your employees handle the decisions.
You May Not Need to Replace Your ERP
Organizations sometimes assume improving Accounts Payable means replacing or heavily customizing the system they already have.
It may not.
If your accounting or ERP system handles the financial side of the process well, I don't necessarily want to replace it.
Microsoft 365 and the Power Platform can potentially act as a workflow layer around that system. An invoice can move through intake, review and approval before the approved information reaches the accounting system for payment and financial processing.
That changes the conversation.
Instead of immediately asking what new accounting system you need, I want to understand what's making the current process difficult.
Sometimes the answer has very little to do with the accounting software.
Is Invoice Approval Automation Worth It?
That depends on your invoice volume and how much manual effort your current process requires.
I look at how many invoices you process each month, how many require approval outside AP, how many people may be involved, how often AP sends reminders and how much time employees spend tracking invoice status.
Then I look at the exceptions.
What happens when someone is out of the office? What happens when an invoice is rejected? What happens when information is missing? What happens when nobody responds?
Those situations often tell me more about the real complexity of a process than a workflow diagram does.
If you're processing a meaningful volume of invoices every month and employees are manually routing, tracking and following up on them, it's worth taking a closer look at the process.
Where I Would Start
I wouldn't start by opening Power Automate and building a flow.
I'd start by sitting down with the people who actually handle the invoices.
Show me what happens when one arrives. Show me where you save it. Show me the spreadsheet. Show me the emails you send. Show me what happens when somebody doesn't approve it.
And show me that weird exception that “only happens occasionally” but everyone in AP immediately knows exactly what you're talking about.
That's usually where we find the real requirements.
Once I understand the process, we can determine what should be simplified, what should be automated and which Microsoft 365 technologies actually make sense.
That's how we approach business process automation at Talanoa Group.
Your AP Team Shouldn't Be Your Invoice Follow-Up Team
If your Accounts Payable team spends too much time searching through emails, updating spreadsheets and reminding managers to approve invoices, I wouldn't accept that as simply “how AP works.”
I'd take a closer look at how the work moves from the moment an invoice arrives until it's ready for payment.
There may be opportunities to eliminate manual steps, give AP better visibility and make the entire process easier to manage using Microsoft technology your organization already has.
At Talanoa Group, we help organizations design and automate business processes using Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Power Automate, Power Apps, Teams, Dataverse and Power BI.
If your invoice approval process is creating delays or taking too much of your team's time, let's look at how it works today and see where we can make it better.
Spending Too Much Time Chasing Invoice Approvals?
If invoices are getting stuck in email, AP is constantly following up with managers, or you're relying on spreadsheets to track what's been approved, let's take a look at how your process works today.
We'll help you identify where Microsoft 365 and Power Automate can simplify the process, improve visibility and reduce the manual work your team is doing every month.
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