Set up journal entry approvals

Journal entry approvals ensure that the correct users monitor and approve appropriate journal entries before they’re posted.

Add approver permissions

Before you can assign a user as an approver, the user needs permission to approve journal entries.

On the General Ledger Permissions page, find Approve journal entries, and select List beside it.

If you use role-based permissions, make sure that you want to give this permission to all users who are assigned the role.

The user now appears in the list of available approvers. Follow the steps in the next section to add users as approvers.

Assign a role to a user group

If you created a user group to authorize as an approver, and you use role-based permissions, you can assign a role with the approval permission to that group. In this case, consider creating a separate role just for journal entry approvers.

1. Go to Company > Admin > Groups.

2. Find the group of journal entry approvers, and select Edit.

3. Go to the Roles information tab.

4. In the Role name column, select the role with the permission to approve journal entries.

5. Select Save.

Require approval for journals and specify approvers

If you're working in a multi-entity company, and you need to designate different approvers per entity, start at the top level. Then after you’ve finished setting up approvals at the top level, go into each entity and select the approvers

1. Go to General Ledger > Setup > Configuration.

2. On the Configure General Ledger page, under Approval options, select Enable journal entry approvals.

3. In the Approvers section, specify approvers for each journal that requires approvals.

   You can do this in one of three ways:

   • Authorize one approver per journal.

     1. In the Journal column, on the first blank line, enter a journal.

     2. In the Approver column, enter a user to authorize them as the approver.

     3. If you are not allowing users to approve their own entries, select a substitute approver.

   • Authorize a group of users.

     Any member of the group can approve journal entries. Only on approval is required.

     1. In the Journal column, on the first blank line, enter a journal.
     2. In the Approver column, enter a user group to authorize everyone in the group as the approver.

     3. If you are not allowing users to approve their own entries, select a substitute approver.

   • Create a multi-step approval chain.

     In this workflow, two or more approvals are required for each journal entry. Each entry is routed to the first approver. After they approve it, it's routed to the next approver.

     1. In the Journal column, on the first blank line, enter a journal.

     2. In the Approver column, enter a user to authorize them as the approver.

     3. If you are not allowing users to approve their own entries, select a substitute approver.

     4. On the next line, enter the same journal and select a different approver and—if applicable—a substitute approver.

        Repeat this step to add additional levels in the approval chain.

4. Select Save.

Set up email notifications for approvers

In the Email notification frequency section, you can set up Intacct to send email notifications to approvers about entries that require approval. You can select how often notifications are sent:

• None: Notifications are not sent. This is the default selection.
• Individual transactions: A notification is sent every time a transaction approval is requested.
• Daily summary: A notification is sent once a day, just after the end of the day.
• Weekly summary: A notification is sent once a week, at the start of the last workday of the week.
• Monthly summary: A notification is sent at the end of the month, at the start of the last workday of the month.

Summary notifications include all activity that has occurred after the last previous notification that was sent.

Your company calender determines the exact time or day of the week or month that summary notifications are sent.

For each transaction needing approval, the notification includes a link to review the transaction, and the following details:

• Name of the person who submitted the transaction.
• Date submitted.
• Journal.
• Transaction number.
• Description.

Create an admin approver

As people change roles in companies or leave them altogether, an approver might no longer be available to approve journal entries. To make sure that there's always someone who can approve an entry, create an admin approver.

Journal entries created by the admin approver are automatically approved.

1. Go to General Ledger > Setup > Configuration.

2. On the Configure General Ledger page, under Approval options, enter a user in the Admin approver field.

   It's best to select someone who is not normally part of the approval process.

3. Select Save.

Allow submitters to approve their own entries

A submitter can approve their own journal entries if the following requirements are met:

• On the Configure General Ledger page, under Approval options, the Submitter can approve own entries checkbox is selected.
• The submitter is an approver for the journal.
• Employee manager approval is turned off.

Receive an email to approve a transaction

To receive emails, email notifications must be set up in Configure General Ledger.

1. Select your username at the top of any page, and then select My preferences.

2. In the Email notifications section, under Requests for approval, select Journal entry.

3. Select Save.