Can Sage Intacct Employee Users Approve Transactions?

Can Sage Intacct Employee Users Approve Transactions?

Organizations implementing Sage Intacct often ask a practical question when setting up workflows and internal controls: Can employee users approve transactions in the system?

The answer is yes—but with an important condition. Employee users can approve transactions in Sage Intacct only when the employee also exists as an active system user with the proper role permissions and is included in an approval workflow.

Understanding this distinction is essential for designing effective approval processes and maintaining strong financial controls.

Employee Records vs. System Users

Within Sage Intacct, an employee record simply stores personnel information. It identifies the individual within the organization but does not grant any authority within the accounting system.

Approval authority is tied instead to the user account and its assigned permissions.

This means an employee must be configured in two ways:

• As an employee record, representing the individual in the organization
• As a system user, with login credentials and assigned roles

Without the user account and the appropriate permissions, an employee cannot approve transactions.

How Approvals Work in Practice

For an employee to approve transactions in Sage Intacct, three elements must align.

1. The Employee Has a User Login

The employee record must be linked to an active Sage Intacct user account. This provides the user with access to the system and the ability to interact with financial transactions.

2. The User Has a Role That Allows Approvals

Permissions in Sage Intacct are controlled through roles. The role assigned to the user must include approval capabilities such as:

• Approving purchasing transactions
• Approving vendor bills (AP invoices)
• Approving expense reports
• Approving journal entries

These permissions define exactly what actions the user can take within the system.

3. The User Is Part of an Approval Workflow

Approval workflows determine how transactions move through the organization for review.

Rules within these workflows route transactions to the appropriate approver based on factors such as:

• Department
• Project
• Transaction amount
• Organizational hierarchy

When these elements are properly configured, the employee user will see items awaiting their review in their approval queue inside Sage Intacct.

What Employee Users Can Approve

Once the correct permissions and workflows are in place, employee users may be able to approve a variety of transactions, including:

• Purchase requisitions
• Purchase orders
• Vendor bills (AP invoices)
• Payments
• Expense reports
• Journal entries (depending on system configuration)

Each approval request appears in the user’s approval queue, allowing them to review and approve transactions efficiently.

How Approval Authority Is Granted

Approval authority typically requires three specific configurations within Sage Intacct.

1. A User Account Linked to the Employee
   The employee must exist as an active system user.
2. A Role with Approval Permissions
   The assigned role must include permissions allowing approval actions such as purchasing approvals, AP bill approvals, or expense report approvals.
3. Inclusion in an Approval Workflow
   Workflows determine when and how transactions route to the user.

For example:

If an employee user is assigned to one of these roles, they can approve transactions that meet the defined criteria.

Example Approval Flow

A common purchasing approval workflow might look like this:

Each approver in this chain is typically an employee who also has a Sage Intacct user account with approval permissions.

The Key Takeaway

In Sage Intacct, it is important to understand the distinction between an employee and a system user:

• Employee record → identifies a person in the organization
• User account + role permissions → determines what that person can approve or process

Without the proper user account and role permissions, an employee cannot approve transactions—even if they exist as an employee in the system.

For organizations implementing approval workflows, ensuring these configurations are properly aligned is essential for maintaining both efficient processes and strong internal financial controls.