Approval workflow

Under Administration → Settings → Approvals you configure how budget requests, purchase orders and investments are approved in your organization — from simple approval to a multi-stage process for large amounts.

Approval stages for budget requests

Without any configuration, simple approval applies: administrators and controllers decide on every request. Larger organizations define approval stages with amount thresholds:

1. Open Administration → Settings → Approvals → Approval stages for budget requests.
2. For each stage, add: from which amount it applies and who approves — administrators, controlling, the budget owner of the affected budget cell, or a specific user.
3. A request passes through every stage whose amount threshold it reaches — in the given order.

Example: Stage 1 (from €0) → controlling, stage 2 (from €10,000) → administrators. A €5,000 request only needs controlling approval; a €15,000 request needs both — controlling first, then administration.

Requesters always see which stage their request is in (stage x/y) and who is currently up. The responsible approvers are notified automatically per stage — in-app and by email.

The "controlling" approver needs an active holder

An approval stage with approver controlling can only be created if at least one active user holds that role. If an already configured stage later loses its last active holder — for example because the responsible person was deactivated — administrators automatically step in as approvers. This way a request is never left stuck with no one able to decide.

Interplay with auto-approval and the four-eyes principle

Auto-approval (amounts below the limit are approved immediately) and the four-eyes principle from the settings continue to apply. With four-eyes enabled, the same user additionally may not decide two stages of the same request. If only one user currently works in your organization, the four-eyes principle naturally can't be satisfied — that user's own requests can't be approved. Invite a second approver or turn off the four-eyes principle in settings; while the situation persists, the requests page itself points this out.

Approval requirement for purchase orders & investments

Optionally, set amount thresholds from which new purchase orders and investments require approval by an administrator or controller:

• Until approved, the entry shows the status Awaiting approval.
• Unapproved purchase orders do not yet bind budget as committed spend and cannot be marked as paid.
• For investments, the depreciation automation only starts after approval; rejected investments are never booked.
• Empty fields mean: no approval required.

Traceability

Every stage decision is recorded with decider, timestamp and optional note — visible directly on the request and in the audit log.