Invoice exceptions

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 8 minutes to read
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    Summary of Invoice Exceptions

    Invoice exceptions are discrepancies detected during invoice processing by the Accounts Payable Operations exception engine in ServiceNow. These exceptions are automatically identified and listed in the Source-to-Pay Workspace, allowing Accounts Payable Specialists to analyze and resolve them effectively. The exception engine processes PO invoices in the "PO matching completed" or "Exceptions found" states, and Non-PO invoices in the "Accepted" or "Exceptions found" states.

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    Common Invoice Exception Types and Resolution Steps

    • Invalid or Blocked Supplier: Occurs when supplier information is missing, mismatched with the purchase order, absent in the Supplier Legal Entity Mapping table, or supplier holds are active. Resolution involves updating supplier details or removing holds with appropriate roles.
    • Insufficient Funds (Quantity or Line Amount Variance): Happens when invoice quantities or amounts exceed purchase order limits. Specialists must edit the purchase order to resolve.
    • Insufficient Goods Receipt: Raised when receipts are insufficient for invoice lines. Resolution varies depending on whether Sourcing and Procurement Operations (PSM) is installed—either by completing receipt tasks or manually creating exception tasks.
    • Valid Coding Required: Triggered by missing ledger account, tax code, or cost center on invoice lines; specialists must populate these fields.
    • Missing Required Information: Header-level exception for missing payment terms, invoice type, supplier, amount, date, or legal entity; specialists must enter the missing data.
    • Missing or Invalid Business Owner: Occurs if the business owner is missing, inactive, or mismatched; update the business owner field accordingly.
    • Tax Amount Variances (Over or Under): When supplier tax and system tax amounts differ; specialists can adjust and accept either tax amount.
    • Invoice Not Balanced: When the sum of invoice line subtotals does not match the header subtotal; corrections are needed to balance amounts.
    • Line Unit Price Variance: Due to differences between invoice and PO line unit prices; update invoice line prices to match PO.
    • Credit Memo Exceptions: Include incomplete credit memo data and insufficient billing amounts; require updating original invoice references and correcting amounts.
    • Invoice Cost Allocation: When cost allocation on lines does not equal line subtotals; specialists must correct invoice line amounts.

    Exception Engine Operation

    The exception engine is configured to run every 5 minutes by default through the Exception Monitoring Job, which is initially inactive. Customers can activate this scheduled job or run the engine manually on individual invoices for targeted checks. Manual runs focus on single invoices, while the automated engine covers all eligible invoices.

    Managing and Resolving Exceptions

    • Exceptions appear in the Source-to-Pay Workspace under Accounts Payable Workspace lists for easy tracking.
    • Accounts Payable Specialists analyze exceptions, create and assign tasks to relevant users for resolution.
    • Specialists can bypass exceptions when not applicable.
    • Related tasks and detailed invoice line information help clarify the reasons behind exceptions, especially for issues like Insufficient Goods Receipt.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    This functionality enables your Accounts Payable team to automate the detection of invoice discrepancies, streamline exception management, and ensure accurate invoice processing. By leveraging defined roles and workspace tools, you can reduce payment delays, enforce compliance with purchase orders, and maintain data integrity across invoice processing workflows.

    Invoice exceptions are issues that are identified in an invoice during invoice processing.

    The Accounts Payable Operations exception engine automatically identifies discrepancies in invoices and lists them as invoice exceptions in the Source-to-Pay Workspace workspace. The Accounts Payable Specialist can analyze the identified invoice exceptions and take appropriate action to resolve them.

    The Accounts Payable Operations exception engine is run for the PO invoices that are in either the PO matching completed or Exceptions found state.

    The Accounts Payable Operations exception engine is run for Non-PO invoices that are in the Accepted or Exceptions found state.

    The Accounts Payable Operations exception engine identifies invoice exceptions of the following types.
    Table 1. Invoice exception type
    Invoice exception Description Do these steps to resolve the invoice exception Applicable to
    Invalid or blocked supplier This exception occurs in one of the following scenarios:
    • The supplier information is missing on the invoice.
    • The supplier information on the invoice doesn’t match the information on the purchase order if invoice is of type PO.
    • The Supplier Legal Entity Mapping (sn_fin_supplier_detail) table doesn’t have a record with a combination of Invoice.supplier and Invoice.legal_entity fields
    • In the Supplier Legal Entity Mapping (sn_fin_supplier_detail) table, the supplier has one of the following attributes set to true:
      • Hold Payment: Indicates that the invoice payment is put on hold for the supplier
      • Hold Posting: Indicates that the invoice posting is put on hold for the supplier

    This exception is a header-level exception.

    		 To resolve this invoice exception, do the following:
    • If the supplier information is missing on the invoice, do the following:
      1. Log in to the application with the Accounts Payable Specialist (sn_ap_apm.accounts_payable_specialist) role.
      2. Populate a valid supplier and legal entity.
    • If the supplier information on the invoice doesn’t match with that on the purchase order, do the following:
      1. Log in to the application with the Accounts Payable Specialist (sn_ap_apm.accounts_payable_specialist) role.
      2. Update the supplier information on the invoice to match with that on the purchase order.
    • If the Supplier Legal Entity Mapping (sn_fin_supplier_detail) table, doesn’t have a record with a combination of Invoice.supplier and Invoice.legal_entity, do the following:

      1. Log in with the Supplier Enablement Manager (sn_fin.supplier_payment_info_write) role.

      2. Add a record with the combination of Invoice.Supplier – Invoice.LegalEntity fields in the Supplier Legal Entity Mapping (sn_fin_supplier_detail) table.
    • If the supplier's Hold Payment and Hold Posting attributes are set to true in the Supplier Legal Entity Mapping table, do the following:

      1. Log in with the Supplier Enablement Manager (sn_fin.supplier_payment_info_write) role.

      2. Take the necessary actions to remove holds from invoices to enable payment and posting of the invoices.
    		 PO invoice and Non-PO invoice
    Insufficient Funds (Quantity variance) This exception occurs when the total quantity of previously billed invoices and the current invoice, which is in-process becomes more than the respective purchase order line quantity.

    This exception is a line-level exception.

    To resolve this invoice exception, you must edit the purchase order. For more information, see Edit a purchase for an Insufficient Funds invoice exception.

    		 To resolve this invoice exception, you must edit the purchase order. For more information, see Edit a purchase for an Insufficient Funds invoice exception. PO invoice
    Insufficient Funds (Line amount variance) This exception occurs when purchase order lines don't have sufficient funds left to process the current invoice, which is in-process.

    This exception is a line-level exception.

    		 To resolve this invoice exception, you must edit the purchase order. For more information, see Edit a purchase for an Insufficient Funds invoice exception. PO invoice
    Insufficient Goods Receipt This exception occurs when one or more lines of an invoice don’t have sufficient receipts to process the invoice.

    This exception is a line-level exception.
    Resolving the Insufficient Goods Receipt exception when PSM is installed
    If Sourcing and Procurement Operations (PSM) is installed, and if no receipt task exists for the purchase order line, Accounts Payable Invoice Processing creates a receipt task and displays the task in the Related tasks tab of the exception form. For more information, see Invoice exception form.

    The receipt task is assigned to the user specified in the Recipient field on the PO line. The recipient must have the sn_shop.acknowledgement_task_owner role to complete the receipt task from Employee Center.

    For more information, see Confirm receipt of your order from Employee Center.

    Resolving the Insufficient Goods Receipt exception when PSM isn’t installed
    If Sourcing and Procurement Operations isn’t installed, then the Accounts Payable Specialist must manually create an exception task, which is assigned to the business owner. The business owner must mark this task as complete in Employee Center. For more information, see Mark an exception task as complete from Employee Center.
    		 PO invoice
    Valid coding required This exception occurs when one or more lines of an invoice are missing the following information:
    • Ledger account
    • Tax code
    • Cost center

    This exception is a line-level exception.

    		 To resolve this invoice line exception, do the following:
    1. Log in to the application with the Accounts Payable Specialist (sn_ap_apm.accounts_payable_specialist) role.
    2. Populate the ledger account, tax code and cost center information on all the invoice lines.
    		 PO Invoice and Non-PO invoice
    Missing required information This exception occurs when one or more fields of the following are missing on the invoice:
    • Payment terms
    • Invoice type
    • Supplier
    • Invoice amount
    • Invoice date
    • Legal entity

    This exception is a header-level exception.

    		 To resolve this invoice exception, do the following:
    1. Log in to the application with the Accounts Payable Specialist (sn_ap_apm.accounts_payable_specialist) role.
    2. Populate the following fields on the invoice:
      • Payment terms
      • Invoice type
      • Supplier
      • Invoice amount
      • Invoice date
      • Legal entity
    		 PO Invoice and Non-PO invoice
    Missing or Invalid Business Owner This exception occurs when the business owner of the invoice is missing or inactive or is different from the business owner mentioned in the purchase order (if invoice is of type PO).

    This exception is a header-level exception.

    		 To resolve this invoice exception, do the following:
    1. Log in to the application with the Accounts Payable Specialist (sn_ap_apm.accounts_payable_specialist) role.
    2. Update the valid business owner field in the invoice line.
    		 PO Invoice and Non-PO invoice
    Over tax amount variance This exception occurs when the supplier tax amount is greater than the system tax amount. To resolve this invoice exception, do the following:
    1. Log in to the application with the Accounts Payable Specialist (sn_ap_apm.accounts_payable_specialist) role.
    2. Make necessary corrections to the supplier tax, system tax on all the invoice lines.
    3. You can choose to either accept system tax or supplier tax.
    		 PO Invoice, Non-PO invoice, and Credit memo
    Under tax amount variance This exception occurs when the supplier tax amount is lesser than the system tax amount. To resolve this invoice exception, do the following:
    1. Log in to the application with the Accounts Payable Specialist (sn_ap_apm.accounts_payable_specialist) role.
    2. Make necessary corrections to the supplier tax, system tax on all the invoice lines.
    3. You can choose to either accept system tax or supplier tax.
    		 PO Invoice, Non-PO invoice, and Credit memo
    Invoice isn’t balanced This exception occurs when sum of the subtotals of the invoice lines must match the sub total amount in the header. To resolve this invoice exception, do the following:
    1. Log in to the application with the Accounts Payable Specialist (sn_ap_apm.accounts_payable_specialist) role.
    2. Make necessary corrections to the sub total so that the sum of sub totals of invoice lines match with the invoice header amount.
    		 PO Invoice, Non-PO invoice, and Credit memo
    Insufficient Funds (Header amount variance) This exception occurs when purchase order doesn’t have sufficient balance left to process the invoice. To resolve this invoice exception, do the following:
    1. Log in to the application with the Accounts Payable Specialist (sn_ap_apm.accounts_payable_specialist) role.
    2. Make necessary corrections to invoice amount so that the sum of amount of all invoices related to PO (in progress or paid) amount must be less than the total PO amount.
    		 PO invoice
    Line unit price variance This exception occurs due to difference in unit price of invoice line and PO. To resolve this invoice exception, do the following:
    1. Log in to the application with the Accounts Payable Specialist (sn_ap_apm.accounts_payable_specialist) role.
    2. Make necessary corrections to unit price on invoice line so that it’s equal to unit price of PO line.
    		 PO invoice, Credit memo
    Incomplete credit memo This exception occurs when any of the following are missing on a credit memo invoice:
    • Original invoice number
    • Original invoice
    • Purchase order
    		 To resolve this invoice exception, do the following:
    1. Log in to the application with the Accounts Payable Specialist (sn_ap_apm.accounts_payable_specialist) role.
    2. Make necessary corrections on the invoice by populating the Original invoice number, Original invoice, and purchase order fields.
    		 Credit memo
    Insufficient billing amount on purchase order This exception occurs when purchase order doesn't have sufficient billing quantity or amount to process the credit memo invoice. To resolve this invoice exception, do the following:
    1. Log in to the application with the Accounts Payable Specialist (sn_ap_apm.accounts_payable_specialist) role.
    2. Make necessary corrections to invoice line amount such that the line amount doesn’t exceed the sum of PO line amount and other credit memo (approved or pending approval) related to the PO line.
    		 Credit memo
    Invoice cost allocation This exception occurs when the cost allocated on invoice lines is not equal to the sub total of the invoice lines amount. To resolve this invoice exception, do the following:
    1. Log in to the application with Accounts Payable Specialist (sn_ap_apm.accounts_payable_specialist) role.
    2. Make necessary corrections to invoice line amount such that the line amount is equal to the sub total of the invoice line amount.

    By default, the exception engine is configured to run once every 5 minutes through the Exception Monitoring Job. This is a scheduled job, which is inactive in the state by default. For information on how to activate the scheduled job, see Activate the Exceptions Monitoring Scheduler.

    However, you can also run the exception engine manually. For more information, see Check for invoice exceptions on a single invoice.

    When you run the exception engine manually on a single invoice, it checks for exceptions only on that invoice, whereas the automated exception engine checks for exceptions on all the invoices that are valid for exception check.

    You can bypass an exception in situations where that exception is not applicable to an invoice. For more information, see Bypass an invoice exception.

    The Accounts Payable Operations exception engine finds exceptions and lists them in the list page of the Source-to-Pay Workspace. View the list of exceptions by navigating to All > Accounts Payable Operations > Accounts Payable Workspace.

    In the workspace, select the list icon (List icon) and do one of the following:
    • Navigate to Lists > My Work > My open invoice exceptions.
    • Navigate to Lists > All Work > All open invoice exceptions.

    The Accounts Payable Specialist can analyze the invoice exceptions, create exception tasks, and assign these tasks to the relevant individuals to fix the exceptions and resolve the case. For more information, see Work on an invoice exception.