Starting an approval process can basically be divided into the following three tasks:
Entering document data
Create contacts
Define the different approval steps
If you have the authorization level of either the requester, accountant or the administrator, you can request approvals from the respective colleagues for the uploaded documents.
After invoices have been successfully imported you will find them again in the Inbox view.
Capture invoice data
Candis automatically detects the relevant information on your invoice.
Depending on your Candis account, this is done either through AI or OCR (optical character recognition).
Any missing invoice data can easily be added via the input panel on the right-hand side.
Check or calculate gross, net, and tax amounts
Candis usually detects the gross amount, tax rate, and included VAT automatically.
If any of these values were not correctly identified or are missing, you can adjust them manually.
The amount calculation follows fixed rules:
If a tax rate is detected but no tax key is defined, Candis uses the detected tax rate for the calculation.
Changes to the net or gross amount cause all amounts to be recalculated.
If you change the tax amount, the gross amount is recalculated accordingly.
If you change the tax key, the tax and net amounts are recalculated based on the gross amount.
For invoices with multiple tax rates (e.g., 19% and 7%), you can select the applicable rate for each line item; Candis automatically sums up the totals.
Make sure that all amounts and currencies match the information on the invoice before starting the approval process.
Recognition confidence
The colored dots next to the captured invoice data indicate how confident Candis is in the recognition and where the data originated from:
🟢 Green = confident → previously confirmed without changes
🟡 Yellow = please review → has been modified in the past
If the invoice you’re requesting approval for is the first one from this supplier, you’ll need to create a new contact.
If no contact is created, it’s not possible to start an approval request.
Create contacts
If you can not yet find the vendor of the invoice to be released via the input mask, you must create a new contact. To do this, click on the Add contact button.
In addition to the payee name, we also maintain further information - the metadata - such as the IBAN, tax number, and the VAT ID No. This makes it possible, for example, to separate suppliers with several locations and different bank connections.
IMPORTANT: Please note that when creating the contact, the supplier is not assigned the company's own metadata. If, for example, there are several business partners with the same IBAN, Candis will be less accurate in assigning contacts!
The contact is now created via Add contact and can also be found in the menu item Contacts.
Define approval steps or use the direct approval
Once all the document data has been entered, you must select existing workflows or the Approver(s). You can also use the direct approval (Approve now) to skip the usual approval process.
The right to approve invoices immediately is included in the Administrator and Accountant user roles. If you are a Requester, you also need the Approver role.
If only one person has to approve the invoice, select only a first approval step and ignore further steps.
The approver is authorized to approve an invoice if more than one person is selected in an approval step. The approver is ultimately the person who first approves or rejects a document - the so-called deputy principle.
If you select a second approval step after the first one, the invoice must first pass through the first step before the second step can finally approve the document. Further steps also follow this logic. The next steps appear in the input mask as soon as the existing ones have been filled in.
What happens to the invoices when they are approved or rejected?
When the first and only Approver approves an invoice, it ends up in the export and is ready for data transfer.
Should further approval steps follow, it is now the turn of the following Approvers
If an invoice is rejected, the document, including the reason for rejection, is returned to the processing and can be sent to the approval process again.
Possible error sources
Approvals cannot be requested if
no contact has been selected
no contact exists, and no new contact has been created (the name has only been typed into the field)
one of the mandatory fields was not filled in (document type, payee, invoice date, amount, currency, and at least one release step)