Q: Can I use Dext Prepare and ApprovalMax if I am not an accountant or bookkeeper?
A: Absolutely. Both Dext Prepare and ApprovalMax can be used not just by accounting and bookkeeping practices, but also by any type of organisation internally. Setting up an approval workflow in ApprovalMax does not require special expertise, you just need to define who needs to approve what and recreate those rules in ApprovalMax. Approving documents is even more simple: just select “approve” or “reject” after viewing the document contents.
Q: What is the sync frequency between Dext and Approval Max?
A: With the direct integration it’s almost instant: once you click on the “Publish” button in Dext, the documents show in ApprovalMax within seconds, just like they do when syncing with Xero. Dext does require some time to process documents and extract the relevant data (the average being 30 minutes) but as soon as the document has been processed and published, it will appear in ApprovalMax.
Q: Is Dext capable of pushing bills with multiple line items to ApprovalMax?
A: This depends on your country and Dext plan. You’ll find more information on this here. ApprovalMax does support bills with many line items. Line items can be related to multiple departments and we have cases where several approvers have to authorise the same bill because it affects various departments.
Q: Does an Employee Expenses report work the same way as invoices with Dext?
A: ApprovalMax accepts bill-type documents from both Dext and Xero. If you publish expense reports as bills, like most of our clients do, it will work the same way as it does for supplier invoices.
Q: Can we match bills and purchase orders in ApprovalMax when we use Dext? How does the bill-to-PO matching work in ApprovalMax? Can you match two different POs with one bill and do you get warnings if the invoice amount is over the PO amount?
A: Yes, bill to PO matching is possible –whatever the source of a bill is, it can be matched to a purchase order in ApprovalMax. The respective purchase order can be fully approved, even when the bill to be matched isn’t approved yet.
ApprovalMax supports “many-to-many” matching, which means any number of bills can be matched to any number of purchase orders. If you assign an amount to a particular purchase order, you’ll then see that amount allocated to any relevant bill when it gets approved later on. . If the total amount of all bills linked to a particular purchase order exceeds its original amount, bill approval will be blocked.
Q: What if we use Xero but not Dext? Will ApprovalMax still work in this scenario?
A: Absolutely. You can use any data entry tool and get ApprovalMax to pick up the bills that these tools push to Xero. You can also create bills manually in Xero, or just copy existing purchase orders into bills. Alternatively, just create bills directly in ApprovalMax. Whichever way, it’s not mandatory to have Dext to use ApprovalMax.
Q: Does ApprovalMax integrate with Hubdoc as it does with Dext?
A: Although we do not integrate directly with Hubdoc as we do with Dext, it’s possible to use Hubdoc with ApprovalMax in the classic solution where ApprovalMax pulls bills from Xero. You must ensure that Hubdoc publishes documents to Xero in the “Awaiting Approval” status as this triggers ApprovalMax to pick them up for authorisation. More information on using Hubdoc with ApprovalMax is available here.
Q: Do you need Dext to use ApprovalMax for QuickBooks Online?
A: The Dext to ApprovalMax integration provides a fully automated workflow, but it is not mandatory to use Dext in order to use ApprovalMax. When bills and purchase orders are created manually in ApprovalMax, all of the data you enter will be synced with QuickBooks Online. It’s also possible to set restrictions for people who create bills in ApprovalMax (e.g. only allowing particular people to create new suppliers, or specifying certain categories for bill creation).
Q: Can you email bills directly to Dext for processing?
A: Yes, Dext has an Email-in feature, which is an easy way to submit documents. When you send a receipt or invoice to your Email-in address, it will be extracted and added to the Costs Inbox automatically.
Q: Is it possible to print a report of all bills awaiting approval to determine the total amount of outstanding bills?
A: Yes, it’s possible to create a report to show all bills that haven’t been approved yet. Reports can be exported as a CSV file, which allows you to calculate the totals in Excel.
Q: How do approvers get notified? Is there a mobile app, or do they have to be on a desktop computer to approve?
A: Approvers have three options: they can approve from the email notification, via the web app or in the native iOS / Android mobile phone app.
Q: Can we use ApprovalMax for other non-financial decisions, e.g. to approve a supplier and then have them added to our supplier list?
A: Yes, with the ApprovalMax Advanced plan you can approve suppliers. Read more about this workflow here. Premium plan users can also use our Standalone workflow to approve any documents without a connection to Xero — from employees’ leave requests to legal contracts.
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