Electronic invoices are submitted by vendors via BillingPoint (not via Onit) – Onit and BillingPoint are two entirely separate systems (both owned and operated by Onit).
Upon invoice submission, BillingPoint runs billing rules against the invoice and then (if no failing rules are encountered) makes an API call to Onit to create a matching Record inside of an Invoices App. At this point, the invoice is represented by both an object in BillingPoint and by a Record in Onit. Out-of-the-box configuration in the environment will keep the two objects in sync.
The invoice approval workflow is facilitated in Onit. It begins when a new invoice is submitted by a vendor and ends when an invoice is either successfully paid or is voided.
The invoice handling workflow is configured within the following Onit Apps:
- Invoices: One Record will be created in this App for each invoice object that is created in BillingPoint. This Onit Record will traverse through an approval process in Onit. In most cases, only Onit clients (not vendors) see and work with Records in the Invoices App – vendors only interface with the invoice object in BillingPoint.
- Invoice Payment: After the Invoices Record is fully approved and validated, a new Record will be created in a separate child App named Invoice Payment in Onit. All integration jobs that facilitate sending payments to an Accounts Payable Team/system will exclusively interface with Records in the Invoice Payment App. Integration jobs should never interface directly with Records in the Invoices App.
After an invoice has been submitted by a vendor, there are three parts to its lifecycle:
- Approval
- Validation
- Payment
Before you can submit an invoice to a Matter as the Vendor in BillingPoint, the client must first assign the Vendor to a Matter in Onit.
Two important pieces of information to BillingPoint are the Invoice Currency, and the Fee Arrangement.
The Invoice Currency, selected here by the client, will dictate the currency the Vendor must submit the invoice in from BillingPoint. The Fee Arrangement will decide which subset of billing rules to apply against all invoices submitted to this Matter for this Vendor in BillingPoint.
Once you click save, the Vendor Assignment to Matter (VATM) record will be created with an Open phase. An Open VATM is the trigger to create an Open Billing Authorization Request (BAR) for this Matter/Vendor relationship. The Open BAR then allows the Vendor to start submitting invoices.