Document approval

With document approval on, a quotation, invoice or credit note that meets your company’s rule waits for a second person to approve it before it is issued. Until then it keeps no number and stays a draft. Approval is off until an administrator switches it on, separately for each kind of document.

Whether your company has document approval is shown on the Licence page; see When approval is not included.

Set the rules

1. Open System settings and select Approval in the Sales group.
2. Each kind has its own card: Quotations (checked when a draft is finalised), Invoices and Credit notes (checked when a draft is issued).
3. Turn on the switch Require approval for the kind. The card shows People who can approve and how many there are; Manage roles opens the roles.
4. Under Needs approval when, choose a condition:
   • Always (every document);
   • Amount at least: the amount before tax, in your base currency. An amount equal to the limit also needs approval;
   • Margin below (quotations only): a percentage from 0 to 100. A line with a price and no cost counts as needing approval.
5. To add a second condition, select Add a condition. A document is held when either condition holds (or). Remove takes a condition away.
6. Save. The page says Approval settings saved.

Changing the rules needs System Edit; reading them needs System View. A change never affects a request that is already waiting: it is decided by the rule it was submitted under.

A kind cannot be switched on while nobody can approve it: the page says why. Approval also needs your company’s roles to be on the new roles and permissions. If approval is on and nobody can approve any more, the card warns that held documents wait with nobody to decide them.

Who can approve

• Approving needs the Approve quotations, Approve invoices or Approve credit notes control in a role, at All records. The Administrator role has all three.
• An approver can decide only documents they can open (their View on that kind).
• Someone who holds the control and issues a held document themselves is not held: the document is issued at once, and the audit trail notes that the rule was skipped because they may approve.
• A request can be withdrawn by the person who submitted it, or by anyone who can edit the document.

Submit for approval

1. Finalise the quotation, or issue the invoice or credit note, as usual. The dialog has a Note for the approver field; it is optional and only sent if the rule holds the document.
2. If the rule holds it, the page says Submitted for approval and the document shows Pending approval. No number is taken.

If something would stop the document being issued, such as a missing tax line, you are told at once, as if you had issued it. If nobody can approve, the message says so; ask an administrator to give the approval control to someone.

While a request is waiting

• The document cannot be changed or deleted: Awaiting approval. Withdraw the request to change or delete this document.
• Its owner cannot be changed, alone or in a bulk transfer: withdraw the request first, or ask an approver to decide.
• It can still be opened and copied.
• The Approval record on the document shows who submitted it, when, the Requested date, the note, and why the rule held it (Held because).

Approve, return or withdraw

• Approve and issue opens the issue dialog, on a quotation or invoice set to the Requested date; the approver can change the date, never later than today. Confirming issues the document at once: it takes its number and cannot be undone.
• Return sends it back to its author as a draft, with a Reason. The author sees who returned it and why, changes it, and issues it again; the rule is checked again.
• Withdraw ends the request; the document stays a draft and can be edited and submitted again. A note is optional.

Awaiting my approval

On the Quotations, Invoices and Credit notes lists, the Approval filter has Awaiting my approval: the waiting documents you can decide. Without an approval control it shows nothing.

Notifications

• A submission tells the submitter’s manager if they can approve it; otherwise everyone who can. It is urgent: in the message centre and, unless your own settings say otherwise, by email at once.
• Approving, returning or withdrawing tells the person who submitted it. A return includes the reason. Nobody is told of their own action.
• The notice disappears once the request is decided or withdrawn. Choose how you are told under Approvals in your notification settings.

When approval is not included

On the Licence page, Modules lists Document approval as Enabled or Not included. When it is not included:

• Quotations, invoices and credit notes are issued without approval.
• The Approval settings, the approval record on documents and Awaiting my approval are hidden, and roles do not offer the approval controls.
• A request that was still waiting is closed the next time its document is issued, saved or deleted.
• The rules you set are kept. If approval is included again, they apply again as they were, and a request nobody touched in the meantime is waiting again.

Why it works this way

Checking before the number costs less than correcting after. Once a document is issued it is locked, and a mistake on an invoice takes a credit note to put right. A second person looking at a large or low-margin document before it is issued catches the mistake while it is still a draft.

A waiting document takes no number. It stays a draft until it is approved, so a document that is returned or withdrawn leaves no gap in your numbering.

What is approved is what is issued. Nobody can change a document while its request waits, so the approver decides on exactly the figures that will be issued. To change it, the request is withdrawn first, and the rule is checked again when it is submitted.

People who may approve are not held by their own rule. Asking yourself for approval adds nothing. The audit trail still records that the rule was skipped and why, so the exemption is visible to anyone who checks.

Work faster

• Work from Awaiting my approval. On the Quotations, Invoices or Credit notes list, choose Awaiting my approval in the Approval filter to see only what you can decide.
• Explain the document in the note. A line in Note for the approver, such as why a margin is low, saves the approver a question and you a return.
• Enter a cost on every quotation line. Under a Margin below rule, a line with a price and no Unit cost holds the quotation, whatever its margin. See Line items.
• Combine two conditions. Amount at least together with Margin below holds both large offers and thin ones, with one rule.
• Choose how you are told. Set the Approvals row of your notification settings so requests reach you where you work.

Examples

Lim & Co holds quotations for approval with two conditions: Amount at least SGD 10,000.00 or Margin below 25%. Daniel Lim holds Approve quotations; Mei Tan does not. The margin is the amount before tax less the cost, divided by the amount before tax.

Quotation	Before tax	Cost	Margin	Held?
Harbour Café counter	8,000.00	6,400.00	(8,000.00 − 6,400.00) ÷ 8,000.00 = 20%	Yes: margin below 25%
Orchid Bakery shelving	6,000.00	4,500.00	(6,000.00 − 4,500.00) ÷ 6,000.00 = 25%	No: 25% is not below 25%
Orchid Dental fit-out	12,000.00	7,200.00	(12,000.00 − 7,200.00) ÷ 12,000.00 = 40%	Yes: amount at least 10,000.00
Kelvin Ong feature wall	2,800.00	one line with no cost	unknown	Yes: margin unknown

When Mei finalises the Orchid Bakery quotation, it takes its number at once. The other three show Pending approval, and the Approval record of each says why under Held because.

A returned quotation. Daniel opens the Harbour Café counter from Awaiting my approval and selects Return with the reason “Use the 2026 laminate price”. Mei raises the price to SGD 8,600.00 before tax with the same SGD 6,400.00 cost: (8,600.00 − 6,400.00) ÷ 8,600.00 is about 25.6%, no longer below 25%. When she finalises it again, the rule is checked again, and it takes its number without waiting.

Common questions

• How do I set up approval for quotations? Open System settings → Approval, turn on the switch on the Quotations card, choose when a quotation needs approval and save. You need System Edit.
• Who can approve documents? Anyone whose role has the Approve quotations, Approve invoices or Approve credit notes control at All records. The Administrator role has all three.
• Can I approve my own quotation? If you hold the approval control, your own documents are not held: they are issued at once, and the audit trail notes that the rule was skipped.
• Can I edit a document while it waits for approval? No. Withdraw the request, change the document and submit it again; the rule is checked again.
• Does a document waiting for approval take a number? No. It takes its number when it is approved, so a returned or withdrawn document leaves no gap.
• Is a credit note checked against the amount limit too? Yes. Its amount before tax is compared with the limit by its size, so a credit note of SGD 12,000.00 meets a limit of SGD 10,000.00.
• Why can’t I find the Approval settings? They are hidden when document approval is not included for your company. See When approval is not included.

Related

• Finalise a quotation
• Issue an invoice
• Issue a credit note
• Roles and permissions
• AI proposals