ApprovalMax and Joiin webinar FAQs
At our recent webinar with Joiin we had a lot of questions from attendees. Read this article to find answers to the most common questions on how ApprovalMax and Joiin can make the accounting function of multi-entity businesses more efficient, and how the apps work.
Watch the webinar here
Questions on ApprovalMax
Q: How does bill-to-PO matching work? What if the purchase order is raised in different software that does not integrate with ApprovalMax?
A: ApprovalMax has an Advanced matching function that allows you to match many bills to many purchase orders. Purchase orders can be raised in ApprovalMax or Xero, and bills can be submitted using ApprovalMax, Xero, or Dext. You can match bills to purchase orders from the same supplier and in the same currency. You can match open bills to approved purchase orders that are not marked as bills. Matching is reflected in the audit reports generated upon approval and published to Xero.
Learn more about bill-to-PO matching in ApprovalMax.
Q: How do you link a budget? Will ApprovalMax show the monthly or the annual budget? Is budget checking based on account code or by cost centre?
A: Your budget is prepared in Xero’s Budget manager and then pulled to ApprovalMax. The budget gets checked against the account code and tracking category. You can check your budget in the current month month or across a full year. You can also check the ‘Overall budget’ against an account code without tracking categories.
Learn more about the ApprovalMax budget checking feature.
Q: Can I add approvers outside my organisation?
A: Yes, you can add approvers who do not belong to your organisation. They will only be able to see thespecific documents assigned to them. The number of users in ApprovalMax is unlimited.
Q: Is there a solution for working with multi-currency transactions? We have invoices in various currencies that are different to our local currency.
A: ApprovalMax supports multi-currency transactions. You need to enable multi-currency transactions in Xero for ApprovalMax to process them.
Q: If a person is an ‘Approver’ in ApprovalMax, but has no access to Xero, how can they be a good decision-maker if they aren’t familiar with the transactions in Xero?
A: That’s one of the core benefits of using ApprovalMax: you don’t need to give approvers access to Xero. All the required information from the relevant bills and purchase orders is pulled from Xero and displayed in ApprovalMax.
Q: We have multiple entities and when I look for an invoice in Xero I have to go into each entity. How can I search for these in ApprovalMax?
A: ApprovalMax has a search function. Just go to the top right corner once you’re logged in, and you will be able to search for specific requests using various filters.
What is Joiin?
Joiin helps you to manage your multi-entity and multi-currency group consolidations, create great-looking financial reports and management reporting packs by using your data in Xero, Quickbooks, Sage and Excel. Connecting your companies only takes minutes, with no onboarding or training needed.
Questions on Joiin
Q: Сan we use Joiin to report on actuals vs budget/ forecasts?
A: Yes, Joiin will automatically bring in all of your budgets/forecasts from Xero and Quickbooks, or you can create your own. Then with a simple click of a button, these budgets will be applied to your reports.
Q: Can you have multiple users in Joiin?
A: You can have unlimited users in Joiin, each with their own login and security permissions all at no additional cost.
Q: Is there a way in Joiin to include consolidation journals that wouldn’t be pulled in from Xero – i.e. to remove share capital of subsidiaries, investments and add goodwilll?
A: Yes, you can manage all of your consolidation adjustments/ journals directly in Joiin.
Q: When Joiiin pulls budgets from Xero do you need a separate budget in each entity for it to consolidate or can you add a group budget in the parent company?
A: You can create a consolidated budget in Joiin that will apply to all companies. You can create budgets at the company level, Category/ Class/ Department level or group level.
Q: Do allentities need to have the same reporting structure in the accounting system in order to consolidate them accurately in Joiin? Or is there a way to organise this in Joiin? For the consolidation to work, do you need the chart of accounts for each company to be set up the same?
A: You can manage and fully customise your Joiin Chart of Accounts (COA), meaning you do not need a standardised COA across your cloud accounting apps to use Joiin.
Q: Is there an option to add commentary to the management report within Joiin?
Yes, you can add fully customised notes/ commentary to your Joiin report packs.
Q: Is the cashflow report a standard report? Where can I find that?
A: Joiin has an ‘Off-the-shelf’ Cashflow report as well as the option to create a fully customised Cashflow report.