With internal approval workflows, you can set up multi-step review processes for documents (such as Invoices, Quotations, etc.). These workflows allow different team members to review documents at various stages, ensuring that each document is thoroughly vetted before reaching clients.

Refrens helps you create custom approval workflows for different documents (Invoices, Quotations, Expenditures, etc.). In this article, we will see how you can create an approval workflow for Invoices. You can follow the same process for Quotations and Proforma Invoices as well.

Creating a Workflow

To create a new workflow, go to Sidebar > Workflows > Invoice Workflows > Click “Create New Workflow”:

You will see the following pop-up:

You will see five fields here:

• Name of Workflow: Add a workflow name.
• Describe your Workflow: Add more details about the workflow for additional reference.
• Super Approver: Select the "Super Approver" (i.e. the team member who has access to manage approvals at all stages of the workflow).
• Status: Status labels help you track the current state of each document as it moves through your approval workflow. You can edit the default status as per your unique business needs.
• Stages: Add/edit /delete Workflow stages as per your approval process. For example, we have added three stages here. Each stage (New, In Progress, In Review) represents the approval stage of the Invoice.

For each stage, go to the "Edit" option, and select "Approvers" for that particular stage:

As you see, you can add one or more approvers for a specific stage. These approvers will not have access for approval for any other stages of the workflow.

Once done, click “Create Workflow”, and the workflow will be added to your system:

Once your workflow is set, you will have to add your Invoices to the Workflow. Let's see how.

Adding Invoices to Workflows

There are two ways you can add documents to workflows: Manually or Automatically.

A) Manually Adding Invoices to Workflows:

To add an Invoice to any workflow, go to that particular Invoice from your Invoice dashboard, and click “Send for Approval”:

You will see the following pop-up:

Here, you will see three fields:

• Select Workflow: Select the Workflow where you want to manage this Invoice.
• Select Stage: Select the approval stage of this Invoice (New, In Progress, In Review, etc.).
• Select Assignee: Assign to a particular team member.

Once done, click “Save Changes”.  This Invoice has been successfully added to the Invoice Approval Workflow.

B) Automatically Adding Invoices to Workflows:

If you want to automatically add the newly created invoices to a specific worfkflow, you can do that from Business Settings > Approval Workflow Settings > Document Approval Configurations:

As you see above, under the Document Approval Configurations section, you’ll see a list of document types (e.g., Expenditures, Quotations, Invoices, Purchase Orders, Proforma Invoices).

Turn on the Enable Auto-Add toggle to activate automatic workflow assignment.

Once you do that, you will see the following pop-up:

Here, you can -

• Select Workflow: Choose the workflow you want this invoice to be added into.
• Select Stage: Pick the initial stage of approval.
• Select Assignee: Assign the team member responsible for the first action.

Once done, click on Save Changes and you are good to go!

Now, everytime an Invoice is created, it will automatically get added to your default selected workflow with a pre-defined stage and assignee!

Managing Invoice Approvals

To view Invoices in your Invoice Approval Workflow, go to Workflows > Invoice Workflows > More > View Invoices:

You will have the following options on the Approval page:

1. Select Assignee: Change the assignee according to the stage of approval
2. Set Stage: Set the approval stage
3. Invoice: View the Invoice added for approval
4. Discard/Complete: The assignee can either discard an Invoice OR mark the approval process as complete by clicking on the "Discard" or "Complete" buttons.

Approval status of each Invoice can also be tracked from the respective workflows:

Viewing Workflow History

You can also track all the activity done by Approvers on your document via 'Activity History':

Just go to your workflow, and select the document for which you want to view the workflow history.

Right after your document, you will find the Activity History section with a detailed audit of all the actions taken on your document.

Enabling Workflow Notifications/Alerts

You can also get real-time alerts on workflow activity via the in-app inbox.

This means

• Creators get notified when a document has any changes (moved stages, re-assigned, or approved/rejected)
• Approvers get notified when a document is assigned to them for approval.

To receive notifications, go to Business Settings from the sidebar > Email Configuration:

Just turn ON the toggle for which you want to get notifications.

Setting Conditional Permissions/Restrictions for Document Approval

You can also define exactly what actions are allowed on a document at each step of your Approval Workflow.

Once a document is sent for Approval, you can set clear rules for what users are allowed to do (editing, downloading, sharing, canceling, converting, or marking the document as paid) based on its current approval stage.

For example,

• When a Quotation is in the "Under Review" stage, you can block ' sharing' to ensure it is not sent to the customer.
• Once an Invoice is in the “Approved” stage, you can allow 'sharing, ' 'converting, ' or marking the document as 'paid,' while still preventing 'edits'.

To set conditional permissions/restrictions, reach out to your account manager to get this feature enabled!

That's it! 

You can follow the same process for managing Quotations approval as well.

If you still have questions, please drop an email at care@refrens.com OR reach out to us on live chat support for quick assistance.

Updated on: 20/11/2025