Approvals - ask for a second pair of eyes
Require approval before important actions such as voiding an invoice, then review and decide the requests.
With approvals, an important action does not happen straight away. A request is filed and someone else decides. Open Approvals from Company > Approvals. You need the Approvals view permission to see it, and Edit to approve or reject.
The page has two parts: Approval Policies (which actions need approval) and Requests (what is waiting).
Turn on approval for an action (owner only)
Only the company owner can change policies. A non-owner who tries sees "Only the company owner can manage approvals."
- In Approval Policies, find the action. The list includes, for example, Void a Sales Invoice, Post a Sales Invoice, Void a Purchase Bill, Post a Purchase Bill, Record a Payment, Void a Payment, credit note and debit note actions, Post a Reconciliation Adjustment, Accept a Change Order, and the Provider Settlement actions.
- Tick Enabled. The change saves immediately.
- Optionally set a Threshold Amount. Leave it blank to require approval every time. With an amount, approval is needed only at or above it.
- Keep Require Separation ticked if the person who asked must not be the one who approves. It is ticked by default.
Nothing needs approval until you enable it. Companies that never set a policy see no change.
Decide a request
- Use the status filter at the top of Requests: Pending (the default), Approved, Rejected or All.
- Read the row: When, Action, Entity (invoices and bills are links you can open and check), Requested By, Status and Decided By.
- Select Approve or Reject. You are asked for an optional note.
Approving carries out the action at once, using the same checks as doing it directly. Rejecting leaves everything as it was.
When a request is filed, the company gets an "Approval needed" notification. The person who asked is told if it is rejected. See Notifications.
Messages you may see
| Message | Meaning |
|---|---|
| You cannot approve your own request. | Separation is on. Ask a colleague to approve. (You can still reject your own request to cancel it.) |
| This request has already been decided. | Someone else got there first. |
| You don't have access to decide this request. | The request belongs to a branch your role cannot use. |
Good to know
- With a branch picked in the sidebar, the list shows that branch's requests only. Choose All branches to see everything.
- The dashboard card Pending approvals counts waiting requests and links here.
- Each request and decision is recorded in the Audit log.