This is where you set up who must approve vouchers and payments, and when. If you are unsure what attestation is, or how attestation differs from bank signing, read What is attestation – and what is the difference between attestation and bank signing? first.

The most important rule

Everyone added to a voucher or payment must approve it. This applies regardless of what is selected under "Fixed attestants". If only one person should approve, the voucher must be sent to only one person.

Setting up attestation of vouchers

Go to Administration → Accounting and find the Attestation section.

Enabled
Turns attestation of vouchers on and off.

Require at least
The minimum number of people who must be added to the voucher when it is sent for attestation: No attestants required, or 1–5 attestants. Everyone who is added must approve.

Fixed attestants
Determines who must be included when the voucher is sent for attestation – not how many must approve.

"One of" – at least one of the selected people must be added to the voucher.
"All of" – all of the selected people must be added to the voucher.

See "One of" and "All of" – an important difference further down.

Only on voucher type
Limit attestation to specific voucher types: Customer invoice, Supplier invoice, Customs declaration, Bank statement or Advanced voucher. If you leave the field empty, attestation applies to all voucher types.

Minimum amount
Attestation only applies to vouchers with an amount higher than this limit. Set it to 0.00 for attestation to apply to all amounts.

Declined attestants
When enabled: people who previously declined an attestation must be included the next time the voucher is sent for approval again.

Department leaders
Requires approval from the department leader when posting to a department.

Project leaders
Requires approval from the project leader when posting to a project.

Required dimensions
Determines whether required dimensions (from the ledger account) are added by the first or the last approver.

Optional for integrations
Lets integrations that post vouchers automatically skip the attestation requirements.

This must be enabled if you use Nettlønn or other integrations that transfer a payroll file or payment file to Catacloud – otherwise the file is blocked by the attestation requirement and does not come through.

Allow self assign
Lets users assign attestation to themselves. If this is off, your own name is not shown in the list when you send a voucher for attestation.

Bypass requirements
Lets administrators override attestation rules and requirements.

Click Update settings when you are done.

Setting up attestation of payments

Go to Administration → Bank and scroll down to the Attestation section.

Await voucher approval
Prevents a payment from being signed until the voucher is posted. This covers both vouchers that have been sent for attestation and not yet approved, and vouchers that are still in the voucher inbox or saved as a draft. Recommended if you use attestation of vouchers.

Payments without a voucher, such as VAT settlements, payroll and transfers between your own accounts, are not blocked by this setting. Administrators cannot override it with Bypass requirements either.

The setting is only shown when the company has an active bank integration.

Enabled bank attestation
Turns attestation of payments on and off. When enabled, the payment must be approved in Catacloud before the payment file is sent to the bank.

Require at least
The minimum number of people who must be added to the payment when it is sent for attestation. Everyone who is added must approve.

Fixed attestants
"One of" means at least one of the selected people must be added to the payment – "All of" means all of the selected people must be added.

Minimum amount
Attestation of payments only applies to amounts above this limit.

Declined attestants
Requires the people who declined last time to be included again when the payment is sent for approval again.

Allow self assign
Lets users assign the payment attestation to themselves. If this is off, your own name is not shown in the list when you send a payment for attestation.

Bypass requirements
Lets administrators override the rules and requirements for attestation of payments. The requirement from Await voucher approval that the voucher must be posted cannot be overridden.

Click Save changes when you are done.

Do you use both voucher and payment attestation? The attestants on the voucher are not carried over to the payment – they must be added manually. See The payment is stuck in Attestation with no attestants – what do I do?

Common mistakes

"One of" and "All of" – an important difference

"One of" and "All of" determine who must be added to the voucher when it is sent for attestation. They do not determine how many must approve. Everyone added to the voucher must approve.

Example: You have chosen "One of" with Kari and Ola as fixed attestants.

The voucher is sent only to Kari → it is enough for Kari to approve.
The voucher is sent to both Kari and Ola → both must approve. If only Kari approves, the voucher shows "Waiting for approval from (1/2)".

Want one of two people to approve, but don't know who? Choose "One of", send the voucher to only one of you, and use Forward if it ended up with the wrong person. Should both always approve? Choose "All of".

Note: If you change this setting, it only applies to vouchers sent for attestation after the change.

The payment cannot be signed – the voucher is not posted

If you get one of these messages when you try to sign, the Await voucher approval setting is stopping the payment:

"One or more payments are for a voucher that is not posted; post the voucher before paying it" – the voucher is still in the voucher inbox or saved as a draft. Nobody has been asked to attest it, so waiting will not help. Open the voucher and post it, or send it for attestation. Once the voucher is posted, the payment can be signed.
"One or more payments are awaiting voucher approval" – the voucher has been sent for attestation. The attestants must approve, and the voucher must be posted, before the payment can be signed.

The payment list also shows the reason directly on the row, and the payment cannot be selected.

Don't set up payment users as attestants

Users who send payments to the bank and sign with BankID should not also be attestants. It is easy to think you have paid when you have only attested – and the payment can then be sent again and paid twice. Read more in Approval and payment – what's the difference, and who should do what?

Attestants don't need posting access

The voucher is posted on behalf of the person who sent it for attestation. See Which permissions are needed to register payments and post vouchers?

Approvers with access to their own department only

An approver with Limit access who only sees their own departments can still open and approve an invoice they have been added to – even when the invoice is split across other departments. The lines on the other departments are shown locked. See Limit access per department: what the user sees – and doesn’t see.

An invoice in foreign currency cannot be sent for attestation

If you get the error "When using a different currency, you cannot create a transaction in the future", the invoice is in a currency other than NOK and the invoice date or payment date is in the future. Sending for attestation is checked the same way as posting. The payment date is filled in automatically with the due date – if you are paying outside Catacloud, clear the Payment section and send again. See Exchange rates when posting in foreign currency.

When should you contact us?

Contact support and include the company, which voucher type or payment it concerns, and what you have tried, if:

A user does not see the attestation button even though attestation is enabled.
A voucher is stuck waiting for attestation even though everyone under the Attestation tab is shown as Approved.

Setting up attestation of vouchers and payments