A Practical Approval System for Manager Using Forms (Draft Entry) and Copy-To

[Abeiku]

We have been requesting an authorization procedure in Manager Accounting software for a very long time. I developed this idea while considering how to create a structured process within Manager for capturing expense claims, similar to how non-posting transactions, such as Sales Quotes, are later converted into accounting entries.

Consider the sales quote feature. It serves as an external document that communicates the financial details of a proposed transaction to a client. When the client agrees, whether by making payment, signing a contract, or confirming in another formal way, the quote is converted into an invoice, at which point the accounting transaction occurs. In my view, this is a powerful concept that can also be applied internally, either among accounting staff or between accounting and non-accounting staff, to support approval workflows (Turning Non-Posting Entries into Powerful Approval Workflows in Manager using copy to function)

Use Case

I assist a nonprofit organization with its accounting. The organization has a heavy workload but limited funding for staff. As a result, the accountant is looking to delegate the frequent task of entering expense claims.

Due to the nature of their operations, funds are regularly disbursed in advance to teams for activities such as training programs, education, monitoring, and evaluation, often in rural areas. In many cases, suppliers in these areas do not have systems that can integrate with the office, so field staff make payments directly.

For example, travel allowances may be given to young girls in rural communities to attend meetings on contraceptive use or sexual and reproductive health rights. Team leaders later return to the office with receipts and lists of payments, which are then submitted to the accountant.

I have helped improve this process by introducing a form that captures data along budget lines, along with assigning budget codes to each receipt before submission to the finance office. This has made the process somewhat more manageable.

However, imagine if Manager had an Expense Claim Form that functions like a sales quote. This would significantly simplify the workflow. Since the organization already uses a coded operational budget mapped into the general ledger, staff could use these budget codes to enter an Expense Claim Form as a non-posting transaction.

In this case:

• Finance staff would no longer need to handle the initial data entry
• Their role would shift to reviewing supporting documents against the budget
• Once verified and approved, the “Copy to” function could be used to convert the form into an actual accounting entry in the general ledger

Implementation Consideration

The main enhancement required would be to extend expense claims to work with items. Currently, line items in Expense Claims are strictly tied to general ledger accounts. Budget codes could instead be linked through non-inventory items to general ledger accounts, similar to how sales quotes function without immediately posting to the general ledger using Inventory Items and Non-Inventory items.

Extended Application

This concept can be expanded to support other approval-based workflows, such as:

• Payment Request Form (approval for payment transactions)
• Journal Entry Request Form (approval for journal entries)
• Inventory Transfer Request Form (approval for relocating inventory)
• Inventory Write-Off Request Form (approval for inventory quantity adjustments)
• Purchase Requisition (approval step for purchases)
• Production Request (approval for production processes)

Status Indicators

To enhance usability, simple status indicators can be introduced:

• Pending — Grey
• Cancelled / Not Approved — Red
• Approved — Green

Conclusion

This is not a comprehensive solution for complex approval structures, but it is a practical and effective approach for small businesses, which are the niche market for Manager. It would significantly improve internal controls and workflow efficiency without introducing unnecessary complexity. Also, it enables the delegation of data entry to non-accounting staff, guided by a policy document that includes accounting codes to support accurate expenditure reporting.

Instead of creating a separate tab for each form, which I do not mind, since inactive tabs will not be enabled and therefore will not clutter the interface, we could introduce a single “Forms” tab where all forms are housed. Besides, these tabs will only be visible to users who need them, not to everyone generally.

Users (staff) would be granted access to the Forms section and would only see the specific forms they are authorized to use. They would be able to complete these forms, and a record (listing) of submitted forms would be maintained. Ideally, there should also be an option to restrict users from viewing forms submitted by others. However, in smaller business setups like the one in my use case, this may not be a critical requirement. For small businesses, we do not necessarily need additional programming to enable approval notifications in the application. Existing communication channels such as email, text messages, or phone calls etc can be used to notify approvers to review request forms.

In their case, they also work with downstream organizations (Program Implementation Partners) that receive funding through them. Currently, these organizations are set up as suppliers. With a forms system, especially one that restricts visibility between users, this could evolve into a simple but effective fund management tool. Funds could be disbursed, and recipients guided by a policy manual to report expenses using structured forms.

Non-posting entries, together with the “Copy to” function and user permissions for functional tabs, can provide the approval workflow solution we are looking for in Manager. Like an apostle, I am sharing this idea and invite forum members interested in this topic to brainstorm, develop, and critique it.

Requisition Workflow In Manager

I suggest the implementation of a new tab called Requisitions which will be where users request inventory items from stores (Internal) and from suppliers (External). Requisitions will have Reference numbers that will also appear on forms (Inventory Transfer, Purchase Quote, and others) linked with the requisition. It can have the following statuses. Pending (Amber) Completed (Green) Partially completed (Green)* Cancelled (greyed) Users will use the Copy to button to copy from the…

Multi Level Authorization

It would be a nice addition to Manager, if authorizations for entiries is implemented. It is useful feature when a user enter a voucher, then a manager approve as some type pf entries require authorization before it can affect financially. A tab could be added to notify the top level user of transactions that require approval.

Approval process in system

Any update will appear in this forum topic. So you can simply monitor the topic.

Expense Claims - a thought for consideratiopn

I want to share a thought with other users in relation to the Expense Claims module: I think it would be nice if it would be possible to create expense claims in some form of “draft version” (i.e. without posting the entries to the accounts) and then have some simple way to “approve” these claims (at which time the “posting” will be done). In its simplest form, the “approval” could just be that the draft expense claim is saved as a pdf which is circulated and signed by the relevant person. T…

Journal Approval

Hi, As per Audit requirements, every Journal should be approved by concerned authority of the company/organization. I think in this area Manager should be implemented of Journal Approval system. Thanks.

Two-step process (entry Approval process) and update the invoice serial nu

Good day all I have two inquiries 1- two-step process (entry Approval process) It will greatly help in that the operations are entered correctly 2-When giving the accountant the authorization to issue sales and purchase invoices and the authorization to update the invoices, he can update the invoice serial number and date My question is how do I prevent the process of modifying the invoice number and date, while still being able to update the price or quantity? I do not want to modify any s…

[AJD]

An approval process for Manager_io is an excellent idea and I fully support your idea for it in some form or another.

However, it will be another idea that is added to the many that already exist with seemingly no transparent strategy to triage these ideas and schedule their implementation.

I will be critical here, (and I hope it is taken as constructive criticism) and say that the Expense Claim function is not fully integrated into the system but is more of an add-on, so it is just another function that I initially used and then stopped using it and now use AP to record expense claims.

A separate AP control account can be set up specifically for expense claims where all expense claims can be recorded. This allows for the Purchase Order function to be used to record an order for an expense claim.

[Abeiku]

Thanks for your comment. Using the Accounts Payable workflow to manage expense claims is not a bad approach. However, I still believe using the Expense Claims module itself is more appropriate because it directly reflects balances due to employees through the employee clearing account. This provides a clear view of the organization’s total liability to each employee, which is extremely useful from both an accounting and control perspective.

For that reason, the Expense Claims module remains irreplaceable to me when dealing with amounts payable to employees.

Instead of replacing it with an Accounts Payable workflow, I think a better solution would be to introduce a complementary non-posting workflow, perhaps through a “Reimbursement Request” (a non posting module) tab or form that can later be converted into an Expense Claim after review and approval.