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Accessing and Approving Invoices in iLab
Access, review and approve invoices within Blue Services, powered by iLab.
Last Updated: July 17, 2025
In this Section
Principal Investigators and Cost Approvers tasked with reviewing and approving invoices are considered invoice owners and receive emails with PDF invoices or the option to log in and view the HTML version of an invoice. Invoices can also be accessed by selecting Invoices from the sidebar in iLab.
Figure 1 - Select Invoices from the left siderbar of the iLab landing page to view invoices.
Invoice Window Layout
Figure 2 - The layout of the Invoices Window in iLab.
1. Filters
Displays filters for narrowing down invoices in the Invoices List. See Apply Filters for more information.
2. Invoices List
Displays all invoices or only invoices matching the selected filters.
Apply Filters
Invoices can be filtered on a wide variety of other attributes using the Filters panel. If the filter panel is not visible, click the Show Filters link. To use filters, click the filter category name or the adjacent arrow to expand it and click the checkbox next to the filter or filters to apply.
Figure 3 - The filter list of the Invoices Window in iLab.
With the selections made, click Apply Filters and the Invoices List will refresh with invoices matching the selected criteria. To remove all filters, click Reset Filters.
View Invoice Information
Figure 4 - Viewing invoice information.
1. Invoice Selection
Each invoice has a corresponding checkbox to include or exclude the invoice from the current selection. Clicking the checkbox in the column header row selects all invoices if none are selected, or clears the selection if any invoices are selected.
2. Invoice Attributes
Displays various attributes of the invoice.
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| Created On | The date the invoice was created. |
| Core | The core that issued the invoice for services rendered. |
| Invoice Number | The unique number assigned to the invoice. |
| Lab | The lab that is responsible for payment of the invoice. |
| Owner | The person responsible for this invoice within the lab. |
| Payment Numbers | The various funds used to pay for charges on this invoice. |
| Price Types | Each service is charged at a specific price type depending on the nature of the customer. This may be overwritten by the core administrator. |
| Total Cost | Total amount charged on the invoice. |
| Past Due | Reders to the number of days the payment is overdue from its original due date. |
| Status | The status of the invoice. Either PaidÌý´Ç°ù Not Yet Paid. |
| Approval Status | Certain institutions require that the lab formally approves the invoice. In these cases, the approval status is listed in this column. Otherwise, it shows Not Required. |
3. View Invoice Details
Click the magnifying glass icon to view the corresponding invoice's details.
Figure 5 - An example of the invoice details display.
Approve Invoices
When an invoice is ready to be reviewed, the invoice owners receive an email with a link to the web version of the invoice as well as an attached PDF of the invoice. To view the web version, click the link and log into an iLab account.
Figure 6 - An example of an emaill Invoice Owners receive when an invoice is ready for review.
To approve an invoice, review the contents and click Click here to approve if everything is correct. The invoice automatically records who approved it and the time when it was approved.
Figure 7 - Click Click here to approve to approve an invoice after reviewing the information.
Modify Payment Information
The Invoice Items table displays the charges broken down by lab member. The invoice owner can review the charges and the payment assigned to a charge by clicking the dollar icon of the corresponding project details.
New payyment information can be added to those charges by:
- Clicking the checkbox of the corresponding individual charge.
- Selecting or entering new payment information.
- Pressing the save button.
All saved charges will be updated to the new payment information.
Figure 8 - Modifying payment information.
Invoice Disputes
Principal investigators and invoice owners may dispute line-item charges on invoices. A charge can be flagged for dispute if the invoice has not been paid and as long as the billing file has not been sent to the institution's financial system. Users can review the dispute and adjust the line charge, if necessary.
1. View the Invoice
Click the magnifying glass icon on the far right of the invoice. You can also click the link in the email if you received one asking for review.
Figure 9 - Viewing an invoice.
2. Select a Charge to Dispute
Hover over the individual line charge to see the orange Invoice Dispute flag. Click the orange Invoice Dispute flag to initiate the dispute process.
Figure 10 - Initiating a dispute.
3. Fill In Dispute Information
Select a reason for initiating the dispute from the Dispute reason drop-down list and then click Initiate dispute.
Figure 11 - The dispute information pop-up.
Once a dispute has been initiated, all selected contacts receive an email notification with a direct link to the disputed invoice. The orange flag remains displayed with a note indicating the charge is in dispute.
Figure 12 - The orange flag denotes a charge is being disputed.
When a dispute is resolved by an instutional or financial administrator or core administrator, the orange flag becomes a green flag with the tooltip, "This charge was under dispute, but not it's resolved."
Figure 13 - The orange flag will become green to denote the dispute has been resolved.