What is the Approval Module?
The Approval Module is where you, as an attestant, approve, reject, or forward vouchers and payments that have been sent to you for attestation. The module provides a consolidated overview of everything awaiting your action.
For information about what attestation is and how to set it up, see the article Setting up approval (attestation) for vouchers and payments.
Activate the module
The Approval Module is not installed by default and must be activated before use. Go to Administration → Modules and integrations → Modules, find Approvals and click Install.
After installation, you will find the module under Approvals in the main menu.
The overview
At the top you will find two filters:
Filter: All types – show everything, or filter by Vouchers only or Payments only
All attestants – show everything, or filter by a specific attestant
The module has five tabs:
For approval – vouchers and payments awaiting your approval
Rejected – items you have rejected
Forwarded – items you have forwarded to another person
Approved – items you have approved
All – full overview regardless of status
The For approval tab shows the columns Description, Customer/Supplier/Recipient, Approver, Voucher, Invoice date, Due date, and Amount. The other 4 tabs also show Status and Message.
The VOUCHER column shows what the item is:
Voucher for attestation – a voucher (e.g. an invoice) awaiting attestation
Payment for attestation – a payment awaiting attestation; the voucher link is not shown until the payment is approved
Voucher draft – a voucher in draft status
Payroll payment – a payroll disbursement from the payroll system
Single payment – a direct payment without an associated invoice
The progress bar below the voucher name shows where in the attestation flow the item is. Hover over the bar to see who has approved and who is still waiting.
Note: If a voucher has been sent to several people, it is shown on one row per person in the list. The same voucher can therefore appear several times, with a different approver.
Approving a voucher or payment
Click on the item in the list to open it.
Go to the Attestation tab to see who has been added, and the status for each person: For approval (pending) or Approved.
At the bottom, Note! Waiting for approval from (x/y) is shown when not everyone has approved yet.
Click Approve to attest. You can add a message that is saved in the history.
Everyone who has been added to the voucher or payment must approve. This also applies when the "Fixed attestants" setting is set to "One of". Only when everyone has approved is the voucher posted, and the payment can be confirmed and signed with BankID. Until then, the payment is locked.
Note: If Await voucher approval is enabled in the Bank settings, the payment will also be blocked as long as the associated voucher has not been fully attested – regardless of whether the payment attestants are ready to approve. If this setting is inactive, the payment can be attested and sent to the bank even if voucher attestation is not yet complete.
Going quickly through many vouchers
Vouchers and payments are approved one at a time. If you have many waiting, Catacloud can open the next one for you automatically:
Open the first voucher that is waiting for you.
Turn on the Show next voucher on attestation switch at the bottom left of the voucher. For payments, the switch is called Show next payment on attestation.
Click Approve. The next voucher waiting for your approval opens straight away.
The switch is remembered in your browser, so it stays on the next time you attest.
[ADDED – optional, relates to DEV-1929. Remove when it is fixed] Note: If you skip a voucher, for example because you are waiting for clarification, it may come back as the "next" one after you approve a different voucher. Turn the switch off while the voucher is waiting for clarification, or use Forward if someone else should decide on it.
Rejecting an item
Click the comment button or Reject and enter a reason. The item moves to the Rejected tab and is returned for correction. The attestation flow restarts when it is resubmitted.
Note: Comments from a previous attestation round are no longer shown directly on the item after it is resubmitted, but remain visible in the history.
Forwarding
With Forward, you hand your approval over to another person. Your part is then considered done, and the item waits for the person you forwarded it to instead. The item moves to the Forwarded tab for you.
Typical reasons to forward:
The voucher or payment went to the wrong person.
You cannot assess the purchase, e.g. because it belongs to a different department or project.
You are going to be away. Forward what is waiting for you before you leave – nobody else can forward on your behalf.
How to do it:
In the list: Click the forward icon on the row. The icon is only shown on items that are waiting for you.
In the voucher: Click the Forward field at the bottom, select the person, and click the blue button, which has then changed from Approve to Forward.
Good to know:
Forward to only one person. If you select several, all of them must approve.
You cannot forward to someone who has already been added to the voucher – they are greyed out in the list.
Read more about when forwarding helps, and what to do when it does not, in Setting up approval (attestation) for vouchers and payments under Forwarding – when and how.
What does an attestant see?
A user with attestation access only will see the Approval Module when they log in, without access to the rest of the accounting module. Access is managed under Administration → Users and access groups.
Accountants and users with access to the Accounting or Bank module do not need the Approval Module to follow up on attestation. They can find vouchers pending attestation directly under Accounting → Attestation, and payments under Bank → Attestation. Both views have an attestant filter, making it easy to see what is pending across all attestants.
Frequently asked questions
One of us has approved, but the voucher is still waiting ("Waiting for approval from (1/2)").
The voucher was sent to several people, and everyone who has been added must approve – also when "Fixed attestants" is set to "One of". The other person must approve as well. Next time: send the voucher to only one person, and use Forward if it ends up with the wrong person.
I see a red notification in the module, but no pending approvals.
Try refreshing the browser and clearing browser cookies. The notification will then disappear.
A payment is stuck and cannot be cancelled or deleted.
Contact Catacloud support. A payment can end up in a locked state if the attestation flow is interrupted mid-change. Support can unlock it manually.
The attestant cannot see which bank account the payment is charged to.
Access to the bank module is required to see the account number on payments under attestation. This is a known limitation.
Can I attest multiple vouchers at once?
No, each voucher and each payment is approved on its own. To get through many more quickly, turn on Show next voucher on attestation at the bottom of the voucher. The next voucher then opens automatically once you have approved. See Going quickly through many vouchers above.