Approval Workflow Concepts
This page explains what changes in your transactions once approval is switched on, who approves what, and the things that commonly surprise teams in the first week. Read it before enabling the settings.
The Problem It Solves
Without approval, anyone who can open the sales form can issue an invoice that immediately reduces stock and increases receivables. There is no gap between "typed" and "in force".
- Typing mistakes become official figures immediately. A misplaced zero, an excess quantity, or the wrong customer is already in the reports before anyone gets to look.
- No record of who allowed it. When an auditor asks, the only name on file is whoever typed it.
- Value limits are only a verbal agreement. "Purchases above 50 million need the manager" is guarded by nothing but memory.
What Changes Once Enabled
A document waiting for approval has no effect at all. It is saved, numbered, and can be reopened — but while it is waiting:
- Stock does not move.
- No journal entry is created, so the amount appears in no ledger, balance sheet, or profit and loss.
- Receivables and payables do not change.
- Reports that read documents — sales lists, purchase lists, collections — do not include it.
This answers the question that comes up most in the first week: "my invoice is saved, why is it not in the report?" Because it is not yet in force. Once approved, all of its effects appear at once.
The Three Document States
| State | Meaning | Who acts next |
|---|---|---|
| Pending Approval | Saved, no effect yet. | The approver — it appears in their Approval Inbox. |
| Approved | Fully in force. Stock, journal, and balances now exist. | Nobody. The document is locked against changes by anyone not authorised to approve it. |
| Rejected | Not in force, but not deleted. The rejection reason is kept. | Its creator — fix and save (it returns to pending automatically), or delete it. |
Who Approves What
Two separate settings, and both must be filled for the flow to work:
| Setting | Where | Answers |
|---|---|---|
| Forms Requiring Approval | Company → Others tab | Which document types may not take effect immediately. Applies company-wide. |
| Forms This Role May Approve | Roles | Which roles may approve those document types. |
They are deliberately separate. "Does an invoice need approval" is a property of the company procedure and does not change just because someone else happened to type it; "who may approve" is the role question.
Things That Commonly Surprise People
None of these four are faults — all are deliberate consequences. Discuss them with your team before switching on.
- Stock is not reserved while waiting. Because a pending invoice has not moved stock, the same goods can be promised to two customers. If you need stock held from the moment an order arrives, use Sales Order as the stage before the invoice.
- The cashier is not included. Sales from the POS screen are born approved and take effect immediately. Holding a counter receipt until someone approves it makes no sense for a cash sale in front of the customer.
- Closing the books is blocked while documents dated inside that period are still waiting. Otherwise such a document could be approved after the books are closed, landing its posting in a closed period.
- Approved documents are locked against changes and deletion by anyone not authorised to approve. If a change is genuinely needed, an approver opens it.
Setup Order
- Agree first on which document types actually need holding. Switching everything on at once usually ends with an overwhelmed approver and stalled operations.
- Open Approvals / Approver Work / Approval Workflow Concepts and fill Forms Requiring Approval with the agreed document types.
- Open Roles and fill Forms This Role May Approve for approver roles. Leave it empty for operator roles.
- Test with one small document: create it from an operator account, confirm no stock or journal exists yet, then approve it from an approver account and confirm both appear.
- Only once that works, set up Multi-Level Approval Rules if you need value thresholds.
Supported Document Types
Seventeen approval screens, grouped by what they affect:
| Group | Documents |
|---|---|
| Journals | Journal Entry, Revenue Journal, Expense Journal |
| Inventory | Inventory Transfer, Incoming Inventory, Outgoing Inventory, Inventory Adjustment, Product Assembly, Product Breakdown |
| Sales | Sales, Sales Return, Receivable Collection, Receivable Adjustment |
| Purchasing | Purchase, Purchase Return, Payable Payment, Payable Adjustment |
Approval for Journals and Inventory Transfer has been included at no extra cost all along. Everything else, together with the Approval Inbox, multi-level approval, and the menu badge, is part of the Approval Workflow add-on.
Not Yet Available
- Notifications outside the app. No email or WhatsApp yet. Approvers learn of waiting documents from the red count on the Approvals menu, so they need to open the app.
- Per-level trail. With multi-level approval, the document stores the last signer. A full history of who signed which level is not recorded yet.
- Approval for Orders. Sales Orders and Purchase Orders are not included, because neither affects stock or the ledger yet.