Approvals

Within Arbor Finance you can send documents for approval to users with approval rights. These documents will be watermarked with an approval or rejection stamp with the details of who approved it and the date and time of the approval.

This page will help you set up and understand the process.

Set Up

There are two things that need to be set up before you can start the approval process.

1. In order to have someone approve the documents they need to be set up with the correct user right. In the user settings (System > System setup > User details) under Reporting, you need to set the Approval right to Full.
   
   
   
   
2. If you want the approver to receive an email notifying them of an approval then enter an email address into their user at the top right of the page.
   
   
   
   
3. Click Save to complete the action and repeat for all users who you want to be an approver.

Sending a document for approval

1. Once you have created the document you want to send for approval, you will see the new approval icon.
2. Click the icon.
3. Then select the approver(s) from the list and add a document name for them.
4. Click Submit to complete the submission.

Approving a document

1. If you have been set up as an approver and your email added to your user account then you will receive an email from [e-mail] informing you that you have an approval waiting.
2. You can click on the link in the email to go to the sign in page of Arbor Finance
3. When you log in you will see a notification that you have a document waiting to be approved.
   
   
   
   
4. Click Go to approval screen to see the new documents, or click 'Maybe later' to do something else.
5. You will now see the Approvals screen.
   
   
   
   
6. To approve or reject the document click on the report icon.
7. Once you have read the document click on the approval icon to approve or reject.
8. Choose the status and add any comments.
   
   
   
   
9. After clicking OK the document will update and add a watermark across the middle with either approved or rejected. The document will also be stamped with the persons name and the date the document was approved or rejected.
10. If more than one approver was selected, the document will only be fully approved once each selected approver has approved the document. When fully approved, an 'Approved' stamp will show on the document.
11. If multiple approvers are selected and one approver rejects the document, the document will be rejected.
    
12. The approval icon will change at the top of the page to a tick for approved items and a cross for rejected items.

Approvals with key documents

1. If you have attached key files to a transaction, when you submit the 'Payments pending report' in Transactions > BACS or 'Print Payments' in Transactions > Payments, the key documents will be available for the approver to view in the approval screen. You will see attached files in the top right-hand corner of the approval screen, highlighted by the orange flag.
   
   
   
   
2. To view a key document, in the approval, click the 'View attached file' button.
3. This will produce a drop down. The options in the drop down will match the voucher number of the transaction and if you expand this, you will see the attached key files.
   In the example below, you can see voucher number 24-285 circled in red and the linked file for the transaction is also circled.
   
   
   
   
4. Click on the file name in the drop-down to view the transaction file side by side with the payment file.

Viewing approved documents

1. To check the status of documents submitted go to the Approvals screen. This is accessed on the menu under your name where the log out item is.
   
   
   
   
2. Click on Approvals
3. Then you will see the Approvals pane.
   
   
   
   
4. To see who has approved a document so far, click on the relevant link in the 'Approved' column.
5. To access any documents click on the report icon.
6. You can then email this document to the relevant person in the usual way.