Enhancing Financial Oversight: Developing an Approval Framework for Credit Memos

Overview

About the Client

The client is a pioneer in geophysical exploration with a focus on geoelectric equipment, magnetometers, and modern seismographs. They provide state-of-the-art solutions for sectors including oil, gas, and mineral exploration, geotechnical research, and explosive ordnance identification, with a strong emphasis on research and innovation. Their instruments are trusted globally to provide precise, dependable data for vital applications, and they are renowned for their dedication to quality and outstanding customer service. To manage their company processes, they leveraged Rootstock ERP integrated with Salesforce and its broad financial capabilities.

The challenge       

• The client required implementation of approval processes whenever a credit memo was processed for multiple reasons like payment towards an order, return of order, etc.
• Approvals in credit memos ensure adherence to regulatory standards, financial accuracy, and internal policies, minimizing risks of fraud or errors. They also establish accountability and proper authorization, protecting the organization’s financial integrity.
• They wanted to closely monitor and ensure there are no discrepancies in financials
• The customer worked with Blueflame Labs, taking advantage of their previous successful collaboration with Rootstock, to complete the credit memo approvals and utilize it in their current order fulfilment procedures.

Our Solution 

• Used Rootstock’s financial tools for Credit Memos
• Implemented a simplified Salesforce (SF) approval process on Credit memos of Sales Order Invoices, guaranteeing regulated processes for a range of financial operations.
• The approval process had layers of approval, and the approver is determined by various parameters on the Invoice.
• Developed various validation rules to eliminate invalid practices of updating the data
• Leveraged the functionality of flows to prevent the data from being updated while the Invoices are under approval.
• Rootstock imposes restriction on a lot of actions from the UI to display the relevant data and hide the other data calculated to determine the level of approval and other parameters.
• Rootstock offers actions to track every step of approval in Credit memos. These actions are controlled by custom automations to ensure only the authorized person can perform those actions.
• Setup an alert to make sure the submitter received notifications about the final status of the Invoice via email, meanwhile the approvers get the email about an Invoice pending for approval.

Technology & tools used

• Salesforce Approval Process: Enables automated and structured routing of credit memos for approval.
• Validation Rules: Ensures data integrity by preventing incomplete or incorrect submissions.
• Salesforce Flows: Provides guided workflows to ensure accurate data entry and process adherence eliminating loopholes left uncovered by validation rules.
• Rootstock implementations: Provides a complete structure to hold data and a user-friendly UI upholding internal restrictions and hiding the backend processes.
• Salesforce emails: Work as notifications for all the parties involved providing quick links to perform the actions

Results

The Impact and outcome            

• Faster Approvals: Approval time decreased by a huge margin, reducing delays and improving cash flow.
• Enhanced Accuracy: Validation rules eliminated errors, ensuring only complete and accurate credit memos were processed.
• Made the process compliant: Automated workflows provided a clear audit trail, ensuring compliance with internal policies and external regulations. Enhanced compliance by ensuring transactions are reviewed against regulatory and policy standards before execution. This structured oversight reduces errors, fraud, and unauthorized adjustments, maintaining financial and operational integrity.
• Cost Savings: Automation reduced the need for manual intervention, lowering operational costs.
• Correct delegation of Approvers: The approval workflow determines the right approver at each step, ensuring data integrity and streamlining the review process for increased efficiency.