Approving Documents

When approvals are enabled, incoming purchase documents must be approved before they can be posted. eMessaging provides header-level approval, line-level approval (each line routes to a different approver), four-eyes principle, user group approval, and mobile/portal access. This page covers the daily workflow for approvers.

Access pending approvals

You can find documents waiting for your approval in several places:

• Business Manager role center — the Pending Approvals tile shows the count of documents waiting for you
• Centara Document Inbox — filter by status Pending Approval and your user ID
• Approval Entries — search for Approval Entries in Business Central to see all pending requests assigned to you
• Email notifications — approval notifications include direct links to the document
• Business Central Mobile App — pending approvals appear in your mobile inbox

Review a document

1. Open a document with status Pending Approval.
2. Review the document header: vendor, amounts, dates, document number, source format.
3. Review the document lines: descriptions, quantities, unit prices, G/L account coding, dimensions.
4. If the document was matched to a purchase order, verify the match is correct and check tolerance deviations.
5. Check any comments from the processor or previous approvers.
6. For PDF/scan documents, select View Original to see the source document alongside the extracted data.

Approve

1. Open the document.
2. Select Approve.
3. Optionally add a comment explaining your approval.
4. The document status changes to Approved (or moves to the next approver if multi-level approval is configured).

If Auto-Post on Approval is enabled, the document is automatically posted to the general ledger after the final approval. See Approval Setup.

Reject

1. Open the document.
2. Select Reject.
3. Select a rejection reason code (required when Require Rejection Reason is enabled):

Code	Description
WRONG-AMOUNT	Amount does not match the order or agreement
WRONG-ACCOUNT	Incorrect G/L account coding
NOT-ORDERED	Goods or services were not ordered
DUPLICATE	This appears to be a duplicate invoice
MISSING-PO	Purchase order reference is missing
MISSING-INFO	Additional information required
OTHER	Other reason

4. Add a comment explaining the reason for rejection (required when Require Rejection Comment is enabled).
5. The document status changes to Rejected. The processor is notified and can correct the issue and resubmit for approval.

After rejection

The processor (AP clerk) receives a notification with the rejection reason and comment. They can:

1. Open the rejected document in the Document Inbox.
2. Review the rejection reason and approver’s comments.
3. Correct the issue (update coding, verify amounts, add missing information).
4. Select Send to Approval to resubmit.

The document re-enters the approval workflow from the beginning.

Line-level approval

When line-level approval is enabled, each line on the invoice is routed to the approver responsible for that line’s coding. This is one of eMessaging’s most powerful features.

How it works for approvers

1. You receive a notification that lines require your approval.
2. Open the document — you see all lines, but your lines are highlighted.
3. Review only the lines assigned to you (the lines matching your approval group’s routing rules).
4. Select Approve Lines to approve your assigned lines, or Reject Lines to reject them.
5. Other approvers handle their assigned lines independently.
6. The document is fully approved only when all line-level approvals are complete.

Example

An invoice from Vendor ABC has three lines:

Line	Description	Amount	Dimension	Routed to
1	Marketing campaign — Q4	15,000 EUR	DEPT-MARKETING	Sarah (Marketing Manager)
2	Cloud hosting — December	8,500 EUR	DEPT-IT	James (IT Director)
3	Office cleaning — December	2,200 EUR	DEPT-FACILITIES	Lisa (Facilities Manager)

Each approver sees the full invoice but only needs to approve their own lines. If Sarah approves Line 1 but James rejects Line 2, the entire invoice is returned for correction (since a partial invoice cannot be posted).

Bulk approver change

When an approver is absent or changes role, accounts payable staff can reassign multiple documents at once instead of delegating them one by one.

1. Open a purchase document list page (Purchase Invoices, Purchase Credit Memos, Purchase Order List, or Purchase Return Order List).
2. Select multiple documents using the checkboxes.
3. Choose the Change Approver action from the action bar.
4. Select the new approver.
5. All selected documents are reassigned in a single operation.

This is particularly useful for covering absences or redistributing workload across a team.

Delegate

If you cannot handle an approval (for example, it belongs to a different department), you can delegate it:

1. Open the document.
2. Select Delegate.
3. Choose the user to delegate to.
4. The approval request is reassigned to that user.

For automatic delegation during absences, set up a substitute user in Approval Setup.

User delegation and substitution

When an approver is unavailable (vacation, sick leave), their pending approvals are automatically routed to their configured substitute. The substitute receives the same notifications and has the same approval capabilities.

If no substitute is configured, the Approval Administrator can manually reassign the approval. See Approval Setup for details.

Add comments

You can add comments to any document at any stage of the approval process:

1. Open the document.
2. Select Comments.
3. Type your comment and select OK.

Comments are visible to all users involved in the approval chain and are preserved in the document history. Comments are timestamped and attributed to the user who added them.

Four-eyes principle in practice

When the four-eyes principle is enabled:

• You cannot approve a document that you processed or modified.
• If you are the only eligible approver, the system will not let you approve. Set up an additional approver or approval group.
• The approval request is automatically routed to another eligible approver in your group.
• The four-eyes principle can be configured to apply only above a specific amount threshold (e.g., only for documents over 10,000 LCY).

Multi-level approvals

If your organization uses multi-level approvals (for example, team lead then department head):

1. The document is first sent to the first-level approver.
2. After approval, it automatically moves to the next level.
3. Only after all levels have approved does the document become Approved.
4. If any approver in the chain rejects, the document is returned to the processor.

Multi-level approval can be combined with line-level approval — each level can have its own line-level routing rules.

Mobile and web portal approval

Approvers can approve documents from outside the Business Central desktop client:

• Business Central Mobile App (iOS, Android) — full approval workflow
• Business Central Web Client — approve from any browser, including mobile browsers
• Email approval links — notification emails can include direct approve/reject action links

The mobile experience shows the same document details, line items, coding, and comments as the desktop client. Approvers can review, comment, and approve or reject with reason codes.

Notifications

Approvers receive notifications when:

• A new document is assigned for approval
• A document they approved is rejected by a later approver
• A delegated approval is assigned to them
• An approval escalation occurs (when the configured escalation time is exceeded)
• A rejected document is resubmitted for approval

Email notifications are sent if an email address is configured in Approval Users. In-app notifications appear in the Business Central notification center regardless of email configuration.

Related pages

• Approval Setup — configure approval rules, groups, and line-level routing
• Posting Documents — what happens after approval
• Purchase Documents Overview — the full document processing flow