March 2021
Purchase Order Notifications for Approval Requests
We have added the ability to approve Purchase Orders from the notifications panel in your profile. If you have been sent a PO task approval, you can now action this from your notifications.
Here, I can tell from the icon that this is a PO - 
. Clicking on the message opens the response buttons. You can click to view the PO using the view button too.
Choose your response (Approve, Reject, or Un-assign) then click the green arrow to send it. Done.
You can also approve POs from the mobile app.
Exporting invoices in the Approvals tab
Get real-time insights into your cashflow forecasting in your accounting software. You can now export your bills directly from the Approvals tab without pushing them through the approval workflow first. Once invoices have been exported from the Approvals tab, you can then go through your normal approval workflow process. In the Signed off tab, you can then choose to Archive the invoice or export the invoices again if needed.
Activating Export to accounting software in the Approvals tab
To activate this feature, head to Company settings > Export data before approvals? > Yes
When activated, the Export button will appear in your Approvals tab.
Once invoices have been exported, an icon will appear as (like the picture below) so you can keep track of what's been exported previously, and avoid any potential duplicate records going to your accounting software.
Approval Task Enhancements
Trying to approve your Tasks but want more information on your document data? Whether you're viewing your approval requests via Tasks or as an Approval Task User, you will now have an option (set by your administrator) that will allow you to view/edit the document data in Panel 2. That way, you can simply check the coding or even correct them if required. See this article for more information on responding to Approval Tasks and how to set permissions on this view.
This will create more flexibility for approvals, visibility, and even security based on your specific business needs or a particular user's rights.
Invoice image URL link in the Archive reporting file
When generating a report in the Archive tab (Export to file), there will be an image URL link attached to each document.
When you enter the URL link, it will lead you to Lightyear and display a preview of the document image.
** Note: you will need to be a Lightyear user to be able to view this URL link.
Emailing suppliers from the Disputed tab
Lightyear users have had the ability to email suppliers from within the Approvals tab for some time, but now you can also do so from within the Disputed tab.
To do this, head over to the Disputed tab > More > Email Supplier >
Notes and Attachments Icon in Purchase Orders
When adding a note or attachment to a Purchase Order. Panel 1 will display an icon to alert you to a note/attachment.
This is the same functionality that currently exists in the Approval Workflow. The 
icon will display for a note and 
icon for an attachment.
Removing Product Code and Quantity Column in Panel 2
We have added the ability to remove the Product Code and Quantity columns from view while in the Approval Workflow and Purchase Orders. In either of these tabs, click the 3 dots to the right of panel 2.
Here you will see a list of the columns that can be added/removed from view.
Product Code and Quantity have now been added as options for you to remove. Unselecting the boxes will remove these columns from Panel 2 view.
Following the same steps and selecting either of these 2 options will display the columns again.
Removed Contact Number Prefix
When you add or edit the phone number for a Supplier or Delivery Address in Purchase Orders, you will no longer need to choose a country code prefix before entering a phone number.
Filter by 'Created by' and 'Purchase Order Date'
In Panel 1 of Purchase Orders, you are now able to filter by who created the PO and the PO date.
Assigning Rules by Description
Users can now assign GL Codes and Category Codes to automatically apply based on the description of the invoice. This is similar to how GL Codes and Category Codes are assigned against the Product Code on product line item invoices, now with the ability to work on service maps.
You can create description rules from Panel 2 in the Approval and Review tabs, or from within each Supplier. Simply go to the supplier tab, then the Product/Rules Automation tab, click 'Description' and then '+ Rule' at the bottom of the page.
When creating a rule, each description can be matched as 'Exact', 'Contains' or 'Does Not Contain'. To change this, in the Rule Type Column, you can select one of these options from the dropdown menu. These rules will ignore capitalisation and spaces.
Exact: Needs to match the entire description that has been mapped or manually entered.
Contains: Matches a word or phrase within the description.
Does Not Contain: Matches to any description that doesn't contain this word or phrase.
The Matching Text field is where you input the description rule, followed by the GL Code and Categories in the appropriate fields.
These description rules can be copied from one supplier to another. You can select the rule(s) to be copied by clicking 'Copy Rules'.
In the modal, select the supplier(s) you want the rules to be copied across to, then click Save.
If the Supplier the rules are being copied to already has a rule with the same description, the GL Code and Category Code will be updated based on the Supplier the rule is being copied from e.g. if Supplier A has a rule for Vodka set to GL Code 'Alcohol Purchases', and Supplier B has a rule for Vodka set to GL Code 'Food'. When copying from Supplier A to Supplier B, Supplier B will be updated to GL Code 'Alcohol Purchases'
You can have both Product Code and Description rules set-up, but a hierarchy exists that determines which rules will be applied first:
1. Keyword Rules
2. Product Code Rules
2. Description Rules
4. Supplier Defaults
If Keyword Rules exist for a Supplier, these will always be applied over Product Code Rules, etc.
Bug Fixes
Keyword Rules
Keyword rules will now show in the keyword rules column of the supplier page.
Some users were experiencing an issue where the keyword rules weren't loading upon opening the Supplier page. This required users to reload the page to view the keyword rules. This has now been resolved.
Product list search
When there are more than 50 items in your Product List, previously you were not able to do a search of the entire list. It would only search on the current page of the Product List. Now, this function will search the entire Product List.
This fix enhances the Product List search, allowing you to widen your search across multiple pages.
Supplier Default Category
Previously, when typing and selecting a default category on the Supplier page, the old category would remain. Now, the correct category will be selected when typing in the dropdown.
Purchase Order Email CC Validation
Previously, when entering an invalid email address into the Purchase Order Email CC field, you could only proceed by entering a valid email address. This was an issue if you didn't want to enter a CC email. Now, you can proceed by entering a valid email address, or by leaving this field blank.
Importing Large Volumes from Xero
We previously had a limit of 1000 on the amount of data that could be imported across from a Xero account i.e. 1000 Supplier Cards. Now when you import your data, this will be brought across in batches.
Users with larger amounts of data will now be able to easily import everything at once into Lightyear.
Slow App Speeds
Some users were reporting slower than usual loading times in the Approval tab due to large amounts of invoices and information being loaded at once. Enhancements have now been made to reduce the amount of information being loaded at one time, which will in turn reduce loading times.
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