There are instances when a pending invoice might be stuck in a state where it is considered “in use,” even when it’s not actively being edited. This situation can occur due to various reasons:

1. Application Hang: Imagine a scenario where you were editing an invoice, and suddenly the application stopped responding. The invoice remains locked, preventing other users from making any changes.

2. Accidental Lock: Sometimes, a user might inadvertently leave an invoice open in the application, unintentionally locking it for others. If the user does not close the invoice before closing their session, it could cause the lock.

3. Invoice is submitted to batch: The invoice was submitted to batch and is pending posting.

Before you can recover vendor invoices, ensure that the configuration is enabled. Here’s how:

1. Navigate to Accounts payable > Setup > Accounts payable parameters

2. On the Invoice tab, locate the option called “Allow vendor invoice recovery”

3. Set this option to “Yes”

Once this configuration is changed, refresh you session so you can see the menu item to recover invoices in mass. 

Rather than recovering each pending invoice individually as an invoice is selected in "Pending vendor invoices", users can use the following process to release invoices in bulk.

1. Navigate to Accounts payable > Periodic tasks > Recover vendor invoices

2. Select (mark) all lines you wish to recover/release from "in use"

3. Select Recover. This will remove the invoices from the list and allow users to work with them again.

Out of the box, the "Accounts payable clerk" and System Administrator are the only roles that have access to the menu item "Recover vendor invoices." 

Custom security can be created to add this access using the out of box duty or privilege to allow users that should be able to use this functionality to do so.