The second-issuer rule for large invoices
What the R50,000 second-issuer rule in the Industry CRM set-up does, how to keep, change or switch it off, and when a second issuer is worth it.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in South Africa
Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.
When a South African business switches on Achekam's Industry CRM, the set-up wizard stops on one question that has nothing to do with pipelines or record types. It shows a rule that asks for a second person to issue large invoices, set at R50,000, and asks the administrator what to do with it.
It is tempting to click straight through. This article explains what the rule does, what each choice means, and how to decide whether a second pair of eyes on big invoices is worth the few minutes it costs.
What the rule does
In Achekam an invoice starts as a draft. A draft can be changed or deleted. Issuing it is the step that matters: it takes the next number in your invoice sequence and posts the invoice to the ledger as debtors, sales and output VAT. From then on, the invoice is part of your books, and it is ready to be e-mailed to the customer.
Billing controls in Achekam can require a second issuer above a set amount. The second-issuer rule applies that control to large invoices: above the amount, the person who prepared an invoice cannot be the only person who issues it. A colleague has to look at it first.
The idea is the same as two signatures on a large payment. Most invoices are routine and go out on one person's judgement. The few large ones get a second look. Accountants call the principle segregation of duties, and AccountingTools' definition of segregation of duties explains how giving the steps of a process to different people stops any one person from both making and concealing an error.
Keeping the amount, changing it or switching it off
The set-up wizard shows the rule at R50,000 and gives the administrator three choices:
| Choice | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Keep it | Invoices above R50,000 need a second issuer. |
| Set another amount | You choose the threshold that fits your invoice sizes. |
| Switch it off | Any one person with the right access can issue any invoice. |
How to choose the amount is a judgement about your own invoices. A useful starting point is to look at the last year's invoices and ask which ones would have hurt if they had gone out wrong: the wrong customer, the wrong price, the wrong VAT treatment. Set the threshold just below the size where an error stops being an inconvenience and becomes a real problem.
There is one honest reason to switch it off: a business with a single person who prepares and issues invoices has nobody to act as second issuer. In that case the rule would only stop work. If that is you, switch it off for now and revisit the choice when a second person joins the finance side.
The choice is recorded
Whichever option the administrator picks is recorded. That matters later. If your accountant, auditor or a new finance manager asks why large invoices were not checked by a second person, there is a record of the decision and who made it, rather than a guess about how the system happened to be set up.
Treat the choice like any other policy decision, and look at it again once a year, or whenever the size of your typical invoice changes. Write a line in your finance procedures saying what the threshold is and why, so the setting and the policy say the same thing.
How it sits with quote acceptance
The Industry CRM lets a customer accept a quotation on a link by typing their name and ticking a box. That acceptance drafts the invoice in receivables; it does not issue it.
So in the normal flow, acceptance produces a draft, a person reviews it, and the invoice is issued from there. The second-issuer rule is about that issuing step. A business can also give accepted quotations the authority to issue their invoices at once, but only with an administrator's recorded authority, which is a separate decision from the second-issuer rule and deserves its own thought.
When a second issuer is worth the delay
The cost of the rule is a short wait while a colleague looks at a large invoice. The benefit is that mistakes are caught while the invoice is still a draft.
Catching them later is harder. An administrator can void an issued invoice only if it has no payments or credits against it, and voiding reverses its journal. Once a customer has paid part of an invoice, a mistake is corrected with a credit note and a new invoice, and a conversation with the customer's accounts team. An unpaid debt that turns bad can be written off only once a partner approves.
A second issuer is most worth having when:
- one large invoice can change the month's results;
- invoices are built from quotes and price lists that change often;
- several people can issue invoices and nobody sees all of them;
- your customers are large organisations whose accounts teams reject invoices with errors and pay late as a result.
It matters less when every invoice is small and repetitive, or when the same two people already check each other's work as a habit.
For the steps either side of this rule, read how a quote accepted online is recorded and how the CRM posts to your ledger. If the second issuer's main job is checking VAT, South African VAT on invoice lines explains what to look for on each line.
Before you run the set-up wizard, pull last year's largest invoices and decide your threshold with them in front of you. The wizard then becomes a quick confirmation rather than a guess.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
