XBert Type: Standard
Accounting Software: Xero
Country Restriction: All supported countries
Risk Type: Data Quality Risk
Business Function: Purchases
Overview
This XBert finds purchase orders that have been sitting in a Draft or Awaiting Approval (Submitted) status for some time. A purchase order that never moves forward can mean an order was forgotten, a cost has not been committed, or a supplier is still waiting. Reviewing these keeps your purchasing accurate and up to date.
What it does
It looks at your purchase orders over a rolling twelve-month period and finds the ones that are still unapproved. It groups them by the month they are dated, then shows how many there are and their total value for each affected month, so you can quickly see what is outstanding.
How it works
XBert raises this alert when a purchase order is still in one of these two states:
Draft – the order has been started but not yet sent for approval.
Awaiting Approval (Submitted) – the order has been sent but no one has approved it yet.
To keep the alert relevant and avoid noise, XBert ignores:
Purchase orders that have already been approved, billed or deleted.
Purchase orders with a total value of zero.
Very recent orders – XBert gives them time to be approved, and only reports months that are at least a month or two old.
Older history – only the most recent twelve-month window is considered, not orders from years ago.
Once you approve or delete the flagged purchase orders so that none remain in Draft or Awaiting Approval for that month, the XBert resolves itself automatically the next time your data syncs.
Example/Use Case
Bruce at Dewey, Cheatem and Howe Lawyers raised a purchase order for a new $4,200 office printer back in February and submitted it for approval. Senior management decided to hold off on new purchases until the end of the quarter, and the order was never approved or cancelled. Months later it is still sitting as Awaiting Approval. XBert flags it so Bruce can either get it approved at the price he negotiated or delete it if the purchase is no longer going ahead – keeping the purchasing records clean and the supplier informed.
Accounting software
This XBert runs on Xero.
Which countries it supports
All supported countries where Xero is used.
Processes
This XBert falls under the Purchases (Accounts Payable) area. To resolve it:
Open your purchase orders and review the items listed as Draft or Awaiting Approval.
For each one, decide whether the order is still going ahead.
If it is, approve it so it moves to an approved status.
If it is no longer needed, delete or cancel it.
Once every flagged purchase order has been approved or removed, mark the XBert as resolved – it will also clear automatically once your data syncs.