Approve an invoice

The invoice came in. Someone needs to look at it. It gets forwarded. A reminder is sent. The late fee comes in. And no one really knows where the invoice is right now. 

Does that sound familiar? It does to most finance departments. And that’s exactly what a good approval workflow solves. 

This article covers everything you need to know about invoice approval—from the basics to digital workflows, AI support, and how to choose the right system. Concrete and to the point. 

Approving an invoice means formally authorizing it for payment. In everyday language, “approve” and “authorize an invoice” are used interchangeably—they mean the same thing. 

In practice, the invoice approval process consists of twoseparate checks, not just one. 

Goods Receipt/First Signatory is issued by the person who ordered the goods or services. That person confirms that the delivery is correct, that the quality is right, and that the amount matches what was agreed upon. Simply put: did we get what we ordered? 

Financial approval —also known as final approval—is issued by the finance manager or supervisor. It confirms that the expense is covered by the budget, that the accounting entry is correct, and that the invoice is ready for payment. The questions it answers: Should we pay, and how should it be recorded in the books? 

Together, they form the dual-control principle / four-eyes principle —ensuring that at least two people are involved in every approval. This is the foundation of secure invoice processing and ensures that no single mistake or instance of fraud slips through unnoticed. 

Using your email inbox as an approval tool feels safe. But it costs more than you think. 

• Invoices that are sitting there waiting for an approver to “take a look at them” 

• Postings copied from the previous month without being reconciled 

• Invoices that are found three weeks late—with a late fee to boot 

• An approval process that exists in a person’s mind, not in a system 

A vendor invoice goes through a process from the inbox to being paid and posted. Here’s what that process looks like: 

• Incoming Invoice Registration – the invoice is received by mail, email, PDF, or e-invoice and is registered 
• Accounting – the invoice is posted to the correct account, cost center, and, if applicable, project 
• Certificate of Acceptance – the customer confirms that the delivery is correct 
• Financial Authorization – The finance manager approves the payment 
• Accounting and Payment – The invoice is posted and the payment file is sent to the bank 

In a manual workflow, steps 3 and 4 are the ones that take time. The invoice sits there waiting. The reminder gets forgotten. And every day that passes brings us one day closer to the due date. 

In a manual workflow, someone reads the invoice, transcribes the information by hand, and determines who needs to approve it. In a digital workflow, the system handles that for you. 

With a digital workflow, you can avoid all of this:

Here's what you'll get instead: 

One thing that’s often overlooked: the paper disappears. No printouts, no filing cabinets, no piles of invoices on the desk. You can see the difference both in your daily routine and in your environmental report. 

Peppol is an international network for structured e-invoicing. The supplier sends the invoice via Peppol, and it arrives directly in your system—machine-readable and structured. No manual entry. No guessing about the format. 

An automated approval workflow means that AI handles the repetitive decisions—so you can focus on what actually requires a human decision. 

An approval policy is a set of rules that defines the amounts and cost centers each person is authorized to approve. Without it, a junior employee could approve a million-dollar invoice—or everything could get stuck with the CEO. Both scenarios are undesirable. 

A good authorization system addresses:

• What are the applicable amounts—and who approves them up to what limit? 

• Who acts as a substitute when the regular authorizing officer is absent? 

• Which cost centers and projects is each approver authorized to approve? 

• How are deviations handled—and who makes the decision in such cases? 

• How is the roster updated when people join, leave, or change roles? 

A good approval process is embedded in the system. Not in a Word document from 2019—and certainly not just in one person’s head. 

Digital invoice approval won’t be fully effective if the data doesn’t end up in the right place in the financial system. In that case, you’ve simply shifted the manual work to another step. 

With a good integration, journal entries, approval decisions, and invoice data are automatically transferred to the general ledger. The payment file is generated without any manual steps in between. The vendor master file is synchronized. No one has to enter the same figures twice in two different systems. 

E-invoices in PEPPOL BISformat deliver structured data directly into the correct fields—amount, VAT, supplier information, OCR number. Everything is in place without anyone having to enter it manually. 

A digital approval workflow isn’t just more efficient. It’s also your strongest defense against invoice fraud. 

Three common threats:

Here’s how a digital workflow protects you:

• Two-person verification is built into the approval levels 

• Changes to bank account information are automatically flagged and require separate approval 

• The audit trail records every step, every change, every approval—nothing can be deleted or hidden 

• The Accounting Act's requirements for retention and traceability are automatically met 

And when the auditor comes, you won’t have to search for anything. Everything is right there—searchable, unaltered, and traceable. 

It’s not about having the most features. It’s about what works best for your everyday life. 

At Conrab, we were the first in the Nordic region to introduce electronic document management, and more than 50 years of experience have taught us one thing: the systems that work best are those built for your business and tailored to your processes—not the other way around. 

• Integration with your accounting system (Visma, Fortnox, SAP, Dynamics, Monitor, etc.) 

• Support for PEPPOL and e-invoicing 

• Flexible approval process with designates and spending limits 

• Mobile approval – invoices should be able to be approved no matter where the approver is 

• Audit trail and digital archive in accordance with the Accounting Act 

• AI-powered support for account assignment and variance analysis 

And just as important: choose a supplier who understands your day-to-day operations, not just their own product.