Approval
In accounting, approval means formal authorization of a specific version.
- Layer
- Lexicon
- Defined in
- Lexicon
- Components
- 5
- Nearby
- 1
Authority
This definition follows Internal control — SOX §404.
Every citation in this system, with the text we read and the date we checked it, is in US GAAP and where these rules come from.
Approval, in use
Quoted from the 7 documents that use the word — what it does to an interface, in the spec's own sentence.
The complete payables stack: requisition → PO → receipt → bill → approval → payment → reconciliation.
Approval, segregation of duties, and duplicate detection are the reason these forms exist.
Privileged actions require a reason: period reopen, write-off above threshold, approval override, bank detail change, permission grant.
For founders
The same idea written for a founder: what it costs a startup that ignores it, and what to do in a real month.
- Accounts payable process for startups: intake to paymentHow a bill moves from inbox to paid: intake, coding, approval, scheduling and recording, plus AP aging and who approves what at a 10-person startup.
- Cash vs accrual accounting for startups, and the IRS ruleCash or accrual for a startup: why investors and auditors read accrual, when the IRS lets a C-corp file on cash, and the 2026 gross receipts limit.
- Can you vibe code your startup’s accounting?AI coding tools build a finance dashboard in an afternoon, but not a closed, reconciled, GAAP-basis ledger. Where the line is, and how to stay inside it.
What it is not called
Each of these is a real word for a different thing. Using it here is what makes a product read as though it was built by someone who has not done the work.
- sign-off (reserved for close sections)
Components that render this
The concept is not documentation-only. These are the components that name it in their specification, grouped and stated exactly as the catalog states them.
Nearby in the catalog
Components in this part of the system that no term names outright. A weaker claim than the list above, and stated as one — but a component nothing links to is a component nobody finds.
8System & states
Family specAlso in Controls
Defined in Lexicon. This page is generated from that document, so the two cannot disagree.