Approving a Transaction

Approval is the decision point: approve, return for correction, or reject outright.

Overview

Your pending approvals appear on the dashboard and in the Pending Approval list. Each one shows the transaction, who raised it, and the full history including anything a previous approver said.

Prerequisites

Before you begin

• The party exists and is active
• The items you need exist with a unit of measure
• The financial period you are posting into is open

Opening the screen

Navigate to

1. Transactions
2. Pending Approval

Click to enlarge

The Approval screen in Project Four.

Procedure

Open the pending approval

From the dashboard tile or Transactions → Pending Approval, open the transaction.

Review the transaction and its history

Check the details against the supporting documents. The History tab shows every state change with its timestamp, user and comment.

Decide

Choose one of the three actions. A comment is mandatory on Return and Reject, and optional on Approve.

Warning

Return and Reject are not the same thing. Return sends it back for correction and keeps it alive; Reject ends it permanently. Rejecting something that just needed a date corrected makes the originator start over.

Confirm

Confirm the action. The originator is notified immediately and the history records your decision.

Expected result

The transaction moves to Approved, Draft or Rejected, the originator is notified, and the item leaves your pending list.

Field reference

Approval fields

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description	Notes
Document No.	Auto	Read-only	—	Number allocated from the Approval series when the record is saved.	Gaps are not permitted; cancel rather than delete.
Date	Date	Yes	Today	Effective date of the transaction.	Must fall inside an open financial period.
Party	Dropdown	Yes	—	The account this transaction is raised against.	Only active parties are listed.
Reference	Text	No	—	The other party's document number, for reconciliation.
Narration	Text area	No	—	Explanation carried through to the ledger and the printed document.

Approval fields

Important notes

Important

Write a real comment on a Return. “Please fix” costs the originator a guess and usually a second return; “Cost centre should be 4420, not 4402” gets it right first time.

Danger

Approval is recorded against you personally and is what an auditor will ask you to justify. Do not approve a transaction you have not actually reviewed.

Common problems

The Save button is disabled

A required field is empty or invalid. Fields in error are outlined in red with the reason underneath — scroll up, the first error is usually in the header.

You do not have permission to perform this action

Your role is missing the relevant permission for this screen. Ask an administrator to check it against Roles & Permissions.

The period is closed

The date falls in a financial period that has been closed. Either use a date in an open period, or ask an administrator to reopen it — which affects everyone, so it is rarely the right answer.

The rate comes in as zero

No price is configured for that combination of party and item on this date. Check the applicable price list, and whether its validity window covers the document date.

Frequently asked questions

QCan I approve my own transaction?

No, unless self-approval has been explicitly enabled for the transaction type. It is off by default.

QCan I undo an approval?

No. Approval is a committed decision. If it was wrong, the transaction has to be closed or cancelled through its own workflow, which is visible in the history.

QWhat if I am going on leave?

Set up delegation on your user record. Delegated approvals are recorded against both you and your delegate.

Related documentation

• Creating a Transaction
• Closing a Transaction
• Roles