How to Approve and Complete Supplier Invoice | Latner Software Documentation

Completing a Supplier Invoice is the point where Latner accepts the supplier's charge as payable and pushes it out to your accounting system, and approving is how a disputed invoice gets released so it can be completed.

Overview

Every supplier invoice starts life as Open, whether you keyed it in by hand or Latner raised it from a Purchase Order, a Sub Hire Order or a Finance Schedule. Open means nothing has been committed yet: you can still add lines, change the reference number, or hand it back to whoever ordered the goods. Completing it draws the line under all of that.

Open invoices can be edited, have lines added or removed, be disputed, or be completed.
Complete Invoice stamps the invoice with the date and the user who completed it, and pushes it to every active accounting integration on the invoice's company.
A Disputed invoice cannot be completed. It has to be approved first, or reopened back to Open.
Approve Disputed Invoice moves the invoice to Approved and offers to complete it in the same breath.
Once an invoice is Completed, Paid or Cancelled, the Complete Invoice option disappears - a completed invoice can only be reversed by cancelling it.
An invoice moves from Completed to Paid on its own, once supplier payments cover the balance outstanding.

Before You Begin

Completing and approving are separate permissions, so check you have the right one for the job.

Requirement	Where to Find It
Supplier Invoice screen permission	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups - Supplier › Screen. Needed to open the Supplier Invoices screen at all.
Edit Supplier Invoice permission	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups - Supplier › Option. This is the permission that controls Complete Invoice.
Approve Disputed Supplier Invoice permission	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups - Supplier › Option. Controls Approve Disputed Invoice.
Reopen Disputed/Approved Supplier Invoice permission	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups - Supplier › Option. Only needed if you want to send an invoice back to Open instead of approving it.
Allow Invoices for Unreceived Purchase Orders setting	Security › Settings › Financials. Decides whether a Purchase Order invoice can be completed before the goods are receipted.

The Allow Invoices for Unreceived Purchase Orders setting - unless it is set to Allow Completed Invoices, Latner blocks completion until the Purchase Order lines have been receipted

The Allow Invoices for Unreceived Purchase Orders setting has three values. Never and Open Invoices Only both mean an invoice can only be completed for quantities that have actually been receipted against the Purchase Order. Allow Completed Invoices relaxes that to the quantity ordered, so you can complete an invoice ahead of the goods arriving - but you still cannot invoice more than was ordered. If the setting has never been set, Latner behaves as though it were Never.

Completing an Open Supplier Invoice

Step 1 - Open the Supplier Invoices screen

Go to Suppliers › Supplier Invoices. The list shows every invoice and credit note with its Status and Source, so you can see at a glance which ones are still sitting Open and which are already Completed. Use Quick Filters or Filter by to narrow the list down to Open invoices for a single supplier.

The Supplier Invoices screen - Source tells you where each invoice came from, which matters because Purchase Order invoices carry the extra receipt check

Step 2 - Open the invoice and check it

Click the invoice number to open it. Confirm the Status reads Open and that the header is right before you commit to it:

Reference Number - the supplier's own invoice number. It has to be unique for the supplier, so if the supplier has sent you the same number twice, Latner will have stopped you at creation.
Invoice Date and Due Date - the due date is worked out from the supplier's payment terms.
Supplier Invoice Total - compare it against the Purchase Order Total shown just above it.

An Open supplier invoice - Completed Date and Completed By are empty until the invoice is completed

Step 3 - Check the invoice lines

Scroll down to the Details tab. Every line the invoice will post is here, with the Purchase Order it came from, the quantity, the unit cost and the tax. This is your last chance to fix anything: while the invoice is Open you can still use Options › Add Details or Options › Add Purchase Order Details to bring more lines on, or edit and delete the lines that are already there.

The Details tab of an Open invoice - one invoice can draw lines from more than one Purchase Order, and each line shows which one it came from

Step 4 - Complete the invoice

Click Options › Complete Invoice. There is no confirmation prompt, so be sure before you click - the invoice is completed straight away and you'll see a Supplier Invoice Completed message.

Options on an Open invoice - Complete Invoice sits alongside Dispute Invoice, so the same menu handles both outcomes

Complete Invoice is greyed out when the invoice has no detail lines - the tooltip reads "Invoice details are required to complete an Invoice". It is also greyed out while the invoice is Disputed. Add the lines, or approve the dispute, and the option comes back.

The status changes to Completed, and Completed Date and Completed By are filled in with the moment you clicked and your own name.

The completed invoice - Latner records who completed it and when, and the Balance Outstanding now sits waiting for payment

Approving a Disputed Supplier Invoice

When Accounts Payable disputes an invoice, it goes to Disputed status and is assigned to someone to look into - usually whoever raised the Purchase Order. Once that person is satisfied the charge is fair, the invoice needs approving before it can be completed.

Step 1 - Open the disputed invoice and read the dispute

Open the invoice from Suppliers › Supplier Invoices. A disputed invoice grows an extra Dispute Details card showing Date Disputed, Disputed By and the Dispute Notes that explain what the argument was about. Date Approved and Approved By are still empty.

The Dispute Details card - the dispute notes tell you what needs settling before the invoice can be approved

Click Options. On a disputed invoice the menu changes shape: Complete Invoice, Add Details and Add Purchase Order Details are all greyed out, and two new options appear - Approve Disputed Invoice and Reopen Invoice.

Options on a Disputed invoice - Complete Invoice is greyed out, so the dispute has to be settled one way or the other first

Approving is not the only way out. If the invoice genuinely needs changing - a line removed, a quantity corrected - use Reopen Invoice instead. That sends it back to Open so it can be edited, and it works from both Disputed and Approved.

Step 3 - Approve the dispute

Click Approve Disputed Invoice. Latner shows an Approve Supplier Invoice prompt that repeats the dispute notes back to you, so you can check you're approving the thing you think you are. Click Yes.

The approval prompt - the original dispute notes are quoted underneath the question

The invoice moves to Approved, Date Approved and Approved By are stamped, and the person who raised the dispute gets a Supplier Invoice Dispute Approved notification.

Step 4 - Complete it

Straight after the approval, Latner asks Would you also like to Complete the Supplier Invoice? Click Yes and the invoice is completed in the same go.

The follow-up prompt - approving and completing are separate actions, so Latner offers to do the second one for you

Answering No leaves the invoice sitting at Approved, which is perfectly valid - you can come back later and use Options › Complete Invoice, which is available again now the dispute is settled.

The finished article - the invoice is Completed and the Dispute Details card keeps the full audit trail of who disputed it and who approved it

After Completing

The invoice status becomes Completed, and Completed Date and Completed By are recorded on the General Details card.
Latner pushes the invoice to every Active accounting integration on the invoice's company. The attempt is recorded on the Integration Syncs tab with its type, status and the user who triggered it.
If a sync fails, Options › Sync Invoice retries it. That option only appears once the invoice is Completed or Paid.
Create Credit Note from Invoice becomes available - credit notes can only be raised against a Completed or Paid invoice.
The Purchase Order's invoiced quantities were already updated when the invoice lines were created, not when you completed it, so the Purchase Order may well have moved to Invoiced before this point. Cancelling the invoice releases those quantities again.
If Allow Invoices for Unreceived Purchase Orders is set to Open Invoices Only, completing the invoice also locks the receipt: a Purchase Order receipt cannot be reversed once its quantity sits on a Completed or Paid invoice.
When supplier payments cover the Balance Outstanding, the invoice moves itself to Paid. If a refund later leaves a balance again, it drops back to Completed.

There is no "uncomplete". Reopen Invoice only works on Disputed and Approved invoices, not Completed ones. If you complete an invoice in error, the only way back is Options › Cancel Supplier Invoice, which needs a cancellation note and will also void the invoice in your accounting system if it synced. A Paid invoice cannot be cancelled at all - you'll need to reverse the payment first.

FAQs

Complete Invoice is greyed out. Why?

Two reasons. Either the invoice has no detail lines yet - add them with Options › Add Details or Options › Add Purchase Order Details - or the invoice is Disputed, in which case it has to be approved or reopened first.

Complete Invoice isn't in the Options menu at all. Why?

Either the invoice is already Completed, Paid or Cancelled - the option is hidden once an invoice is closed - or you don't have the Edit Supplier Invoice permission. That is the permission behind Complete Invoice, not a separate "complete" one.

I get "You cannot Complete an Invoice for Purchase Order quantities that have not been received". What now?

The invoice is trying to bill more than has been receipted against the Purchase Order. Receipt the outstanding lines on the Purchase Order and try again, or reduce the invoiced quantity to match what has actually arrived. If your business genuinely needs to pay ahead of delivery, set Allow Invoices for Unreceived Purchase Orders to Allow Completed Invoices - but note that even then you cannot invoice more than the quantity ordered, which raises "You cannot Complete an Invoice for Purchase Order quantities greater than what is ordered".

Does the person the dispute was assigned to have to be the one who approves it?

No. The assignment is there so the right person gets the notification and knows to look, but anyone with the Approve Disputed Supplier Invoice permission can approve it. The notification when it is approved goes back to whoever raised the dispute.

I approved the invoice but said No to completing it. Did I lose anything?

No. The invoice sits at Approved with its approval details recorded, and Options › Complete Invoice is available whenever you are ready. Reopen Invoice is also still there if you change your mind and want it back at Open.

I completed the wrong invoice. Can I undo it?

Not directly - there is no reverse for Complete. Use Options › Cancel Supplier Invoice, which requires a cancellation note and releases the invoiced quantities back on the Purchase Order. If the invoice had already synced to your accounting system, Latner will try to void it there too. Then create the invoice again correctly.

The invoice is Completed but hasn't appeared in Xero or MYOB. What should I check?

Open the Integration Syncs tab on the invoice. Every push attempt is listed there with its status and error message. If it failed, fix the cause and use Options › Sync Invoice to try again. If the tab is empty, there is no Active accounting integration configured for that invoice's company.

Why did my Completed invoice turn into Paid on its own?

Because supplier payments now cover its balance. Latner flips a Completed invoice to Paid as soon as the Balance Outstanding reaches zero, whether the payment was entered in Latner or pulled back from your accounting system. Paid invoices cannot be cancelled.

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