SolaCount's Approval Workflow adds a review step to financial actions, and you decide which ones. For each action you turn on (invoices, bills, payments, journals, cash accounts, period close and more), a user submits the document, an eligible approver approves or rejects it, and only then can it be posted, paid, sent or changed. Use it when you want a second person to check money going in or out before it reaches the ledger.
Plan availability: Document Approval Workflow needs SolaCount Advanced or Enterprise, the feature turned on, and a ready workspace. Only the organization owner can configure it. If you can't see Approval Workflow under Settings, check Plans & features.
Where to find it
| What | Where | URL |
|---|---|---|
| Configure approval targets and approvers | Settings → Workflows & Automation → Approval Workflow | /workflow |
| Review requests (approve / reject / cancel) | Approval Inbox. Open it from an approval notification in the notification bell, or go to the URL directly. It has no sidebar item. | /approvals |
| Act on a single document | The Approval Workflow panel on the document's detail page (invoice, bill, journal, quote, sales order, fixed asset, payment, and so on) | n/a |
| Sales pipeline setting (not an approval) | Settings → Workflows & Automation → Sales Workflow | /settings/sales/workflow |
How it works
- The owner turns on approval for a target (for example Invoice, Supplier payment, Bank account metadata) and picks who can approve it.
- A user creates the document as usual. Saving a draft is not blocked. The message reads "Draft saved. Submit it for approval before posting."
- The user clicks Submit for approval on the document. The request appears as Pending Approval, and eligible approvers get an "Approval requested" notification.
- An approver opens the request and clicks Approve, or types a Rejection reason and clicks Reject.
- Once it is Approved, the protected actions (post, pay, send, void and so on) are allowed. If someone changes the approved financial data first, the approval is invalidated and the document has to be submitted again.
Approval status is separate from the normal document lifecycle. A document can be Draft and Approved at the same time, and you still post it yourself.
Some actions aren't documents. Settings changes, master data, period close, cash accounts and so on work as proposed changes. When approval is on for them, clicking Save (or Close Period, and so on) doesn't apply the change. You see "The proposed change was submitted for approval and has not been applied." The change is applied automatically once it is approved.
Set up approvals (owner only)
- Go to Settings → Workflows & Automation → Approval Workflow.
- Read the amber policy note: "Enabling approval applies when an existing draft is next submitted or protected; posted and completed documents are never changed retroactively."
- Use Search workflows to find a target, or scroll through the module groups (Sales, Purchasing, Payments, Accounting, Banking, Fixed assets, Master data, Settings, Rentals, Automation).
- On each target's card:
- Tick the checkbox next to the target name to enable it. The grey line under the name lists the operations it protects, for example Submit · Approve · Reject · Cancel · Post · Send · Financial edit · Delete · Void.
- In Eligible approvers, choose Organization owner, Organization manager, Organization administrator, or Specific organization users.
- If you chose specific users, multi-select them in Specific organization users. Only active users of this organization are listed.
- Click Save approval settings at the bottom of the page. You see "Approval workflow settings saved."
There are no amount thresholds and no multi-level chains. A target is either on, meaning every document of that type needs one approval, or off. One approval from any eligible approver is enough.
Approval targets for documents
These targets use the Submit → Approve/Reject flow on the document itself.
| Module | Target (as shown) | Protected operations |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | Invoice | post, send, financial edit, delete, void |
| Sales | Quotation | send, convert, create revision, financial edit, delete |
| Sales | Sales order | convert, financial edit, delete |
| Sales | Customer credit note | post, apply, refund, financial edit, delete, void |
| Sales | Sales receipt | post, financial edit, delete, void |
| Sales | Customer payment | post, allocate, financial edit, delete, reverse |
| Sales | Customer refund | post, financial edit, delete, void |
| Purchasing | Supplier bill | post, pay, send, convert, financial edit, delete, void |
| Purchasing | Expense / Direct Pay | post, pay, financial edit, delete, reverse |
| Purchasing | Purchase order | send, convert, receive, close, financial edit, delete |
| Purchasing | Supplier debit note | post, apply, financial edit, delete, void |
| Purchasing | Supplier payment | post, allocate, financial edit, delete, reverse |
| Purchasing | Supplier refund | post, financial edit, delete, reverse |
| Accounting | Manual journal entry | post, financial edit, delete, reverse |
| Accounting | Opening balance batch | post, financial edit, delete |
| Accounting | Bank transfer, Deposit, Withdrawal | post, financial edit, delete, reverse |
| Fixed assets | Fixed asset acquisition | post, financial edit, delete, reverse |
| Payments | Customer or supplier advance payment | create draft, fund, post, apply, reverse allocation, refund, reverse, delete |
Approval targets for proposed changes
These targets hold the change itself until it is approved. Some examples (the full list is on the settings page):
| Area | Examples |
|---|---|
| Cash and banking | Bank account metadata: creating, editing or deleting a cash account under Accounts → Banking → Cash accounts. Also Bank transaction rules, Release bank statement import, Create cheque book, Cheque leaf action |
| Periods and year end | Period close, Period reopen, Period lock, Fiscal-year close, Fiscal-year reopen, Fiscal-year lock, Fiscal-year settings, Generate fiscal-year periods, Accounting-period settings |
| Controls and settings | Precision, lock, and audit controls (the lock date), Accounting defaults, Posting accounts and tax modes, Discount posting mode, Currency settings, Document numbering |
| Reversals and voids | Unpost invoice, Void invoice, Reverse customer payment, Unpost supplier bill, Reverse manual journal, Unpost payment, Remove payment allocations |
| Tax and reconciliation | VAT return finalization, Reconciliation completion, Reconciliation reversal, Base-currency adjustment |
| Master data | Create, update or delete customers, suppliers, items and accounts. Tax code and rate changes, Exchange-rate changes, Price-list changes |
| Fixed assets | Depreciation run, Fixed-asset disposal, Fixed-asset transfer, plus their reversals |
Cash accounts: when Bank account metadata is on, saving a cash account shows "Submitted for approval. The cash account and ledger will be saved together after all required approvals." If you are creating a new linked ledger and Create account approval is also on, both approvals are needed before anything is created. Deleting a cash account shows "Cash account deletion processed or submitted for approval."
Submit a document for approval
- Create and save the document as a draft.
- Open the document. In the Approval Workflow panel (badge Draft), click Submit for approval.
- Confirm in the dialog ("This document will be submitted for approval."). The badge changes to Pending Approval, and your name and the submission time appear under it.
Only an eligible unposted draft can be submitted. For a journal, it must be a manual journal, not one generated by the system. After a rejection, cancellation or invalidation, the button reads Resubmit for approval.
To withdraw a pending request, click Cancel request. Only the requester or the organization owner can cancel.
Approve or reject
From the Approval Inbox (/approvals):
- Open the notification "Approval requested", or go to
/approvals. - Optionally filter by state (All states, Pending Approval, Approved…) and by target (All approval targets), then click Filter.
- Each row shows Document or change, Requester, Counterparty, Document date, Amount, Submitted, State and Actions. Expand Approval history to see every event, or Proposed change to see the exact data a settings or master-data change will apply.
- Click Approve, or type a reason in Rejection reason and click Reject. Reject stays disabled until you enter a reason.
From the document: the same Approve, Reject (with a Rejection reason box) and Cancel request buttons appear in the document's Approval Workflow panel. Every action opens a confirmation dialog first.
The requester gets a notification for each outcome: "Document approved", "Document rejected", "Approval cancelled" or "Approval invalidated".
Statuses
| Status | Meaning | What's allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Not submitted yet | Edit, save, submit |
| Pending Approval | Waiting for an approver | Approve, reject, cancel. Financial edits, deletion and protected operations are blocked. |
| Approved | Signed off | The protected operations (post, pay, send…) |
| Rejected | Declined, with a reason | Fix the document and Resubmit for approval |
| Cancelled | Withdrawn by the requester or owner | Resubmit |
| Approval invalidated | Financial data changed after approval | Resubmit |
The Inbox also uses Applied and Application failed for proposed changes. If an approved change can't be applied, the requester is told "Approved change could not be applied". The change stays unapplied until the error is fixed and it is retried.
Rules and limits
- No self-approval. You can't approve a document you requested or created ("You cannot approve your own document."). If nobody other than you is eligible, submitting fails with "No eligible approver other than the requester exists. Add another eligible organization user and try again."
- Approvers are fixed at submission. The eligible list is captured when the request is submitted. Only those users can act on it ("You are not eligible to act on this approval request.").
- Who sees what in the Inbox: you see requests you submitted and requests you can approve. The owner also sees every pending request.
- Turning a target off affects only future submissions. A request that is already pending still has to be decided or cancelled.
- Existing documents: documents that were already posted or completed before you enabled a target are not affected.
- Uploaded files can't be part of a proposed change. Attach them through the document's attachments first.
- Exchange rates: while exchange-rate approval is on, automatic rate fetching is unavailable. Enter a manual rate proposal instead.
What users see when blocked
| Situation | Message |
|---|---|
| Posting, sending, paying, voiding (etc.) without a current approval | "This document must have a current approval before :operation." For example, "...before posting." |
| Editing or deleting while pending | "Financial editing and deletion are blocked while approval is pending." |
| Approved data was changed | "The approval was invalidated because financial data changed. Submit the document again." |
| Saving a change that needs approval | "The proposed change was submitted for approval and has not been applied." |
| Rejecting without a reason | "A rejection reason is required." |
| Non-owner opening the settings page | "Only an active organization owner may change approval workflow settings." |
On an approved document, the panel warns: "Changing financial data will invalidate the current approval. Continue?"
Worked example
Al Noor Trading LLC enables Invoice and Supplier payment approval, with Eligible approvers = Organization manager.
- Sara, an accountant, drafts invoice INV-0142 to Gulf Retail FZE: AED 10,000 + 5% VAT = AED 10,500. She clicks Submit for approval.
- Omar, the manager, gets "Approval requested". He opens
/approvals, checks the amount and history, and clicks Approve. - Sara posts the invoice. The ledger effect is unchanged by the approval:
| Account | Debit (AED) | Credit (AED) |
|---|---|---|
| Accounts Receivable | 10,500 | |
| Sales Revenue | 10,000 | |
| Output VAT | 500 |
If Sara had changed a line amount after approval and before posting, the approval would have been invalidated, and she would have to resubmit before posting.
Other approvals outside this workflow
Some features have their own built-in approval steps with their own permissions:
- Quotes and sales orders: Approve on the document (permissions
quotes.approve,sales_orders.approve). See Quotes and Sales orders. - Purchase orders: approve permission
purchase_orders.approve. See Purchase orders. - Timesheets and mileage: see Timesheets and Mileage.
- Rentals: lease, cheque, deposit-settlement, owner-settlement and transfer approvals. See Rental properties & leases.
- Fixed assets: see Fixed assets.
The Sales Workflow page is not an approval. Its Require Sales Orders before invoicing setting controls whether quotes must be converted to a sales order before invoicing.
Tips and common problems
- No Approve button: you aren't in the target's eligible approvers, or you are the requester.
- Stuck at Pending Approval: ask an eligible approver to check the Inbox, or have the owner or requester cancel and resubmit.
- "Nothing happened" after Save: the change was probably submitted for approval. Check the success notice and the Inbox.
- Make sure at least two people are eligible for every target, so nobody is ever their own only approver.
Related
- Fiscal years & lock dates: period and year actions can require approval
- Accounting rules
- Invoices, Bills, Payments, Journals, Banking
- Settings
- Users & permissions