The expense approval workflow
How a payment voucher moves from coding to approval to payment, who signs off at each step, and how to approve or reject with a note.
Every payment in WAQAF follows the same fixed approval chain before any money leaves the organisation. A voucher is first coded by the accountant, then reviewed by the Finance Manager, then signed off by the CEO, and only then paid by the treasurer. This article explains who acts at each step, how you approve or reject from the dashboard, and what each status means — so you always know where a voucher sits and what happens next.
Who can do this. Approving and rejecting needs a finance role that grants approve — that is the Finance Manager or the CEO. The Accountant prepares and codes vouchers but cannot approve them. Recording the payment itself (the treasurer step) is a separate update permission held by the Accountant or Finance Manager. If you don't see the Approve button, your role doesn't include approval; see Members & roles.
Where to find it. Finance → Expenses — the approvals queue.
The chain, step by step
Every voucher walks the same four steps, regardless of the amount. There are no separate "small payment" or "large payment" routes — the same people sign off on a 200.000 voucher as on a 20.000 one.
- Accountant — codes the voucher. The accountant creates the payment voucher, splits it across categories, and forwards it for approval. See Creating a payment voucher.
- Finance Manager — reviews. The first approval. The Finance Manager checks the payee, the amounts, and the category split, then approves.
- CEO — signs off. The final approval. Once the CEO approves, the voucher is fully approved and ready to pay.
- Treasurer — pays. The treasurer records the payment against a bank or cash account, which posts the entry to the ledger and marks the voucher Paid.
A small progress bar at the top of each voucher shows exactly which of these four steps it is resting on, and the Activity trail beneath it logs who acted, when, and any note they left.
The approvals queue
Open Finance → Expenses. The queue is split into four tabs that match the voucher's status:
- Pending approval — vouchers still moving through the Finance Manager and CEO steps. This is where you approve or reject.
- Ready to pay — fully approved, waiting for the treasurer.
- Paid — payment recorded and posted to the ledger.
- Rejected — turned back; no payment was made.
On the Pending approval tab you can narrow the list to just the vouchers waiting on the CEO with the Awaiting CEO filter (the default is All). Vouchers waiting at the CEO step also carry an Awaiting CEO badge so they're easy to spot.
Approving a voucher
Open the voucher
On the Pending approval tab, click the voucher's row. A detail panel slides in from the side showing the approval progress, the activity trail, the allocations, and the voucher details. The panel stays open as you act, so you can watch the chain advance in place.
Review the details
Check the payee, the total amount (shown in OMR to three decimals, e.g. 200.000), the category split, and any attachments. If something is wrong and you hold the treasurer's update permission, you can use Edit to amend the voucher while it is still at the Finance Manager step — but only before it has passed that step.
Click Approve
Click Approve. If you are approving your own step (Finance Manager or CEO), that's all there is to it — the voucher advances to the next step, the progress bar moves, and a new line appears in the activity trail naming you and the time.
Confirm what happened
When the CEO approves, the voucher's status changes from Coded to Approved and it moves to the Ready to pay tab for the treasurer. When the Finance Manager approves, the voucher simply advances to the CEO step and stays under Pending approval. Approving never moves money — only the treasurer's payment step does that.
Approving is not the same as paying. A voucher you have approved still needs the treasurer to record the payment before any money is disbursed. See Creating a payment voucher for the payment step.
Approving on the CEO's behalf
The CEO step always has to be reached, but the CEO isn't always available. When the voucher is waiting at the CEO step and you are a Finance Manager (not the CEO), the panel shows a notice — "The CEO is unavailable — I approve this step on the CEO's behalf." — and a Justification box.
Write a justification
The justification note is required — you cannot approve on the CEO's behalf without it. Explain briefly why you are signing off in the CEO's place (for example, the CEO is travelling and has authorised this).
Approve
Click Approve. The step is recorded as yours, marked On behalf of CEO, and your justification is saved with it. The badge and the note appear in the activity trail and on the printed voucher's CEO signature block, so the on-behalf approval is fully auditable.
Only a Finance Manager can approve the CEO step on the CEO's behalf, and only with a written justification. A CEO approving their own step never needs a note. The accountant can do neither — approval is gated to finance roles that grant approve.
Rejecting a voucher
If a voucher shouldn't go ahead, reject it instead of approving.
Open the voucher and click Reject
Open the voucher from the Pending approval tab and click Reject. A box appears asking for the Rejection reason.
Give a reason
The reason is required. Type why the voucher is being turned back — this is recorded in the activity trail so the accountant who prepared it can see what to fix.
Confirm
Click Reject. The voucher's status changes to Rejected and it moves to the Rejected tab. If the voucher came from a staff payment request, that request is sent back to the requester with your reason attached. See Staff payment requests.
Only an unpaid voucher can be rejected — one that is still at the Coded or Approved stage. Once a voucher has been Paid, it can no longer be rejected. A mistake on a paid voucher is corrected with a reversing entry in the ledger, never by deleting or editing the original — ledger entries are permanent.
What the statuses mean
The queue and the voucher panel use a short status word. Here is what each one tells you:
- Coded — the voucher is moving through the approval chain (it is at the Finance Manager or CEO step). A role badge shows who it is waiting on.
- Approved — both approvals are done; the voucher is on the Ready to pay tab waiting for the treasurer.
- Paid — the treasurer has recorded the payment and it is posted to the ledger.
- Rejected — the voucher was turned back; no payment was made.
Faster approvals: automation and email
Two optional shortcuts can move a voucher along without you opening the dashboard:
- Email approval. A designated Finance Manager or CEO can receive a secure link by email and approve (and sign) from there, without logging in. See Approving an expense by email.
- Auto-approval. A designated signatory can opt to have their step approved automatically, up to an amount ceiling they set. The payment step is never automated — recording the payment is always a person's deliberate action.
If neither is set up, the dashboard approvals queue is always the way to act, and it is the fallback whenever an emailed link can't be used.
See also
Creating a payment voucher
How the accountant prepares and codes a voucher to start the chain.
Staff payment requests
How a staff request becomes a voucher, and what a rejection sends back.
Approving an expense by email
Approve and sign a voucher from a secure emailed link, without logging in.
Members & roles
Which finance roles can approve, pay, or only prepare vouchers.