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Start an approval every time an invoice is captured

The moment an invoice lands in Content Central, put it on the approver's queue automatically — one Content Capture trigger, one Start Process action, one rule — plus the checkbox that does the same job with no rule at all.

Catalog administratorsContent Central 7.8+15 minutesVerified 2026-09-05

Before you begin

  • An approval process already exists on the invoice document type (see Set up an approval process)
  • You can open Administration > Catalogs & Document Types

When you're done, every invoice that enters Content Central — scanned, emailed, dropped in a hot folder, or uploaded — starts its approval process by itself and appears on the first approver's Approval tab within seconds.

The planDocument type scope
  1. Trigger
    1. Content Capture › Content Captured in this Document TypeAny source, any format, no field condition
  2. Action
    1. Approval Process - Start ProcessAssignment Type: Single Approval Process · Approval Process: your invoice process
  3. Rule
    1. "Invoice captured → start approval", enabled

The shortcut you might not need a rule for

Every approval process has its own switch: Automatically start this process on all captured content of this document type, under Options on the process details page. If every invoice should enter the same process with no conditions, turn that on and you're finished — no trigger, no rule.

Build the rule below when you want any of these:

  • A condition — only invoices from a certain source, in a certain format, or with a certain field value (that's the second-approver recipe).
  • More than one thing to happen on arrival — start approval and email someone, and stamp a field.
  • One place to switch the automation on and off, with a name that explains it.
Important

Don't do both. If the process's auto-start checkbox is on and a rule starts the same process, you'll get duplicate assignments. Pick one.

Build the trigger

  1. Go to Administration > Catalogs & Document Types. In the selectors at the top, pick the Catalog and the invoice Document Type, then click the Workflow tile.

A document type's Workflow area
Triggers, Actions, and Rules each get a card with a live count. Everything you build here applies only to this document type.

  1. Click the Triggers card, then New Trigger.

  1. Under Type:, choose Content Capture in the first box and Content Captured in this Document Type in the second.

  1. Give it a Trigger Name: you'll recognize in a list — Invoice captured.

  1. Leave the conditions at their defaults: Source Evaluation: All Sources, Format Evaluation: All Formats, Field Evaluation: No Field Evaluation, Capturing-User Evaluation: All Users and Groups.

  1. Click Save.

What you should see: the trigger in the Triggers list with Type Content Capture, Sub-Type DocType, and Event Live. Live means it fires the instant a document is filed — there is no schedule to wait for.

The Triggers list for a document type
The Event column tells you how a trigger fires: Live triggers react to an event as it happens; Scheduled triggers run on an interval. Used By shows how many rules depend on each trigger.

Build the action

  1. Back on the Workflow page, click the Actions card, then New Action.

  1. Under Type:, choose Approval Process - Start Process.

  1. Action Name: Start invoice approval.

  1. Assignment Type: Single Approval Process. Approval Process: pick your invoice process.

The Approval Process - Start Process action
Two settings do all the work: Single Approval Process, and the process to start. The process itself decides who approves and in what order.

  1. Click Save.

Note

If the Approval Process: list is empty, the document type has no approval process yet. Build one first: Set up an approval process.

Wire the rule

  1. Click the Rules card, then New Rule.

  1. Leave Enabled checked. Rule Name: Invoice captured → start approval.

  1. Click Add Trigger and pick Invoice captured.

  1. Click Add Action and pick Start invoice approval.

  1. Click Apply.

A new rule before its trigger and action are added
A rule is just a name, an Enabled switch, one trigger, and the actions to run. Add Action stays disabled until a trigger is chosen.

Test it

  1. Capture one invoice by whatever route your office really uses — scan it, email it to the capture address, or drop it in the hot folder — and code it into the invoice document type.

  1. Ask the first approver to open Queues and check the Approval tab.

  1. Open the document's View History.

What you should see: the invoice on the approver's Approval tab, and a history entry reading Process started by workflow rule.

If nothing happened, the usual causes in order: the document went to the Coding Queue and hasn't been committed yet (capture triggers fire when the document is filed, not when it lands in the queue); the rule is disabled; or the document was filed under a different document type. For scheduled-style problems, see A scheduled workflow didn't run.

Variations

Want this insteadChange this
Only invoices that came from the scannerTrigger: Source Evaluation: DirectScan Upload (or Capture-Form Submission, XML Capture Job, and so on)
Only PDFsTrigger: Format Evaluation: Selected Formats, then list pdf under File Extensions
Only invoices with no PO numberTrigger: Field Evaluation: Selected Field Lacks Value, Field: your PO field
Start approval when a coded item is committed from the Coding Queue insteadTrigger type Coding-Queue Commit › Committed in this Document Type
Also email the AP team on arrivalAdd a second action, Send E-mail, to the same rule (recipe)
Different process depending on the amountRoute large invoices to a second approver