Checklists and Approvals: Keep Every Transaction on Track

BOS Enterprise includes Checklists and Approvals to help your team complete transactions accurately, consistently, and on time. These tools make sure important information is captured, the right people review each transaction, and nothing moves forward before it is ready.

Why Checklists Matter

Checklists help your team complete transactions correctly. They prevent missing information, reduce mistakes, and make it clear what must happen before a transaction can move to the next step.

For example, if you track sales by representative and pay commission, every transaction must have a rep allocated to it. Even if the rep is listed as “house”, the field still needs to be completed. When you add “rep” as a checklist item, BOS Enterprise stops the transaction from moving forward until someone selects a rep.

Customise Checklists for Each Transaction Type

You can create and customise checklists for each transaction type, and copy existing checklists to save time when setting up similar transactions.

When you set up a checklist, you decide which status the transaction must be in before approval and which status it should move to after approval. You can also set approval limits. For example, an estimator can approve transactions up to R250 000, while a manager must approve transactions above R250 000.

In addition, you can add one or more users as checklist administrators. Administrators can approve, decline, and cancel all manual and override items on a checklist. However, they do not receive emailed approval requests.

Use Checklists to Review Important Details

Checklists can do more than confirm that fields are complete. They can also help your team review key business details before a transaction continues. For example:

• Check whether the due date is achievable.

• Confirm that the required date meets the customer’s needs.

• Review whether the price is fair and profitable.

• Make sure the specification matches what the customer requested.

• Check whether stock is available or can arrive in time.

Control the Approval Order

You can add dependencies to checklist items so that people approve items in the correct order. This prevents managers from reviewing transactions that cannot move forward yet.

Choose the Approval Method That Works Best for Your Team

BOS Enterprise gives your team several ways to manage approvals from either the desktop or mobile app.

Use statuses

After someone captures a transaction, they can change the status to “Approval”. A manager can then filter the transaction list, review the transactions that need attention, and approve them. Once approved, the transaction can move forward: For example, your team can send quotations to customers or purchase orders to suppliers.

Send email approval requests

You can email managers when transactions need approval. Managers can approve the request from the mobile or desktop app. Your team can send these notifications manually by clicking Approve (button) and then Email Approval Request, or if set up, BOS Enterprise can send them automatically when a transaction status changes.

Use the Approvals module

The Approvals module gives managers one central place to review outstanding or declined approvals. They can filter by transaction and user, open transactions, add notes, approve, decline, or reset a transaction.

If a manager resets a transaction, BOS Enterprise clears all approvals and checklist items so the approval process can start again. This process is useful when the original capturer must edit the transaction or if a checklist item was declined.

If a manager declines a transaction, they can add a note explaining what needs to change. This helps the person who captured the transaction correct it quickly.

The Approvals module works well for managers who prefer not to be interrupted by notifications or manual requests. They can set aside time each day to review and approve transactions in one focused session.

Helpful Tips for Smoother Approvals

• Make the “Approval” and “Approved” transaction statuses read-only to prevent changes while someone is reviewing the transaction or after someone has approved it.

• When viewing a transaction (Edit View), click the icon with three stripes next to the Menu button to see all checklist items, approvers, and dependencies. This information is especially helpful if you need a transaction to be urgently approved and your normal go-to person is unavailable.

• Checklists on transactions are colour-coded so you can see the approval status at a glance: red means not ready or not approved, yellow means ready for approval, green means approved, and black means declined.

• The letters in the small circle indicate the approval process: manual (M), auto (A), Auto Override (O).

Take the Next Step: Set Up Smarter Approvals Today

Ready to improve control, reduce delays, and keep every transaction moving? Start using Checklists and Approvals in BOS Enterprise today. First steps:

• Review your current approval process.

• Decide which checklist items and approval limits your team needs.

• Read our documentation or contact our support team for help with setup.