A Free Invoice Policy Template to Simplify Spending, Increase Visibility

Sales rise and fall. Economic downturns, global instability, and other uncertainties occur. Regulations and business priorities shift. It’s not easy to predict exactly what the future holds, but accounts payable (AP) plays a critical role in the ability of your business to manage spending and prepare for the change ahead. A strong supplier invoice policy is a key element in that effort to build agility.

While creating an invoice policy can be time-consuming, the benefits are well worth it for your employees, suppliers, and processes. In addition to speeding up supplier invoice approvals and processing, it will make it easier for your AP team to address exceptions and manage documentation, so suppliers get paid on time.

Tips for Designing a Policy

To help get started, consider these seven tips for creating a policy:

1. Collaborate. Find out what the various teams across your business need and discuss supplier-related challenges. They can serve as champions for the policy and its adoption.
    
2. Find better ways to work with suppliers. Study how invoices are submitted and paid and whether those methods can be standardised to speed the process (like paying by purchasing card instead of checks
    
3. Review policy drafts. Send drafts to multiple departments to make sure the policies are clear, fair, concise. If they’re easy to understand, they’re more likely to be followed by employees.
    
4. Emphasize the benefits. Tell the reasons behind the policy and how they’ll benefit departments and the company.
    
5. Put it where you can find it: The invoice policy won’t be followed unless people know about it. Send it to employees and put it up on the company intranet.
    
6. Take questions. Employees may have concerns about the time involved in following the policy or may not understand a section. Listen to them and adjust the policy if needed.
    
7. Seek improvements in AP processes. When you write such a policy, it’s an opportunity to also look at your invoice processes. Seek ways to increase efficiency and accuracy.

What Your Policy Should Include 

At its most basic, your supplier invoice policy should cover the following:

• Statement of purpose: Explain why you need an invoice policy, to whom it applies, and basic guidelines. Be sure to include the benefits of having a policy for employees, suppliers, and the business.
   
• Company expectations and policy compliance: Clarify the responsibilities of each employee when dealing with supplier invoices; rules for managing documents; policies and procedures for reviewing, coding, and approving invoices; and consequences for noncompliance.
   
• Delegation of authority and approval chains: Address common areas of confusion, such as who can approve invoices, what the purchase order (PO) process is, the rules for purchase price variances, and who can approve exceptions.
   
• Periodic policy review: Ensure your invoice policy is always up to date. Be sure to include instructions for periodic reviews of the policy with a clear designation of the role(s) and department(s) responsible for carrying them out.
   
• Subject areas: Detail the nuts and bolts of your invoice policy. Be sure to cover everything from where invoices should be sent to how to record receipts, code and send invoices to AP, manage approvals, manage exceptions, store and access documents, and any other related policies and procedures.

A Template and Technology to Consider 

Look at the complete invoice policy template to find out more about what the right supplier invoice policy can do for your business. At the same time, consider an automated supplier invoice management solution such as Concur Invoice can help end manual invoice wrangling and accelerate payments, digitise invoices and standardise data, and deliver better insights decision-making.