Strengthen internal controls by routing journal entries through a structured review process before they touch your ledger. Draft, submit, approve or reject — with every decision captured in a permanent audit trail.
Try It FreeIn most small accounting systems, anyone with bookkeeper access can post a journal entry directly to the ledger with no review. That works fine when one person handles everything — but as soon as you add team members, separation of duties becomes essential. A bookkeeper who can both record and post entries is a single point of failure for financial errors and, in audited companies, a compliance gap.
Kantivo's Journal Entry Approval Workflow puts a checkpoint between entry creation and posting. Bookkeepers and accountants draft entries and submit them for review. Managers or partners see those entries in a dedicated approval queue, can read every line, leave comments, and either approve them for posting or reject them back to the preparer with a clear explanation. Nothing posts until it has been reviewed — and the complete decision history is recorded permanently for auditors.
This architecture aligns with the internal control frameworks recommended under GAAP (ASC 450 and COSO), SOX section 404 requirements for publicly traded companies, and the segregation-of-duties principles that external auditors look for in any review engagement.
Bookkeepers or accountants create a journal entry and save it as a draft. The entry is visible to the team but not yet posted to any account balances.
The preparer submits the entry with an optional note. It moves to the approval queue and the assigned reviewer is notified immediately.
The manager or partner reviews each line of the entry, checks supporting details, and either approves it or rejects it back to the preparer with a comment.
Approved entries post immediately to account balances and appear in all reports. Rejected entries return to draft for correction and resubmission.
Every journal entry moves through a defined lifecycle with clear status labels visible to every team member.
Managers and partners see a dedicated queue of all entries awaiting their review — no hunting through lists of posted transactions.
Every approval and rejection is logged with a timestamp, user, and free-text comment. The record cannot be deleted or altered.
Configure exactly which roles require approval before posting. Not every company needs the same controls.
When your external auditor requests a listing of all journal entries made during the year with the name of the preparer and the name of the reviewer, Kantivo produces that report in seconds. The approval history attached to every entry shows exactly who created it, when it was submitted, who reviewed it, and what decision was made — with any explanatory comments preserved in full.
For accounting firms managing multiple client companies, the workflow is equally valuable. Staff can prepare entries across all client books and submit them for a partner or manager sign-off in a single queue. The partner reviews, approves, and the entry posts — without ever needing to be in the same office as the bookkeeper who prepared it.
Traditional audit controls often require cumbersome paper-based sign-off processes or external tracking spreadsheets. Kantivo builds the controls directly into the journal entry workflow so compliance is automatic, not manual. Your team works in the system they already use, and the controls run invisibly in the background — until an auditor asks for evidence, at which point every approval is already documented and ready to export.
That depends on how you configure the feature. Kantivo lets you choose which user roles require approval before posting. If you want all bookkeeper-created entries to require manager approval but want accountants to post directly, you can set that up per company. Admins can always override and post without approval if needed for time-sensitive situations.
A rejected entry returns to Draft status with the reviewer's comment attached. The preparer receives a notification and can see the rejection reason directly on the entry. They can edit the entry, correct any issues, and resubmit for approval. The original submission and rejection are preserved in the audit trail even after the entry is eventually approved and posted.
Kantivo's journal entry approval workflow directly addresses SOX Section 404 controls around financial reporting — specifically the requirement that journal entries be reviewed by someone other than the preparer, and that a record of that review be maintained. The permanent, tamper-evident audit trail meets the documentation requirements auditors look for during SOX reviews.
No. Kantivo enforces the four-eyes principle: the person who created the entry cannot be the same person who approves it. If a manager prepares an entry themselves, it must be approved by a different user with approval rights — typically another manager, a partner, or an admin. This ensures genuine separation of duties rather than a checkbox exercise.
Entries in Draft or Pending Approval status do not affect account balances or appear in financial reports. When you close a period, only Posted entries are included. Any entries still awaiting approval at period-end will need to be resolved — approved and posted, or withdrawn — before the period can be fully closed. This prevents unreviewed entries from being silently excluded from your financials.
Start your free 30-day trial. Enable the approval workflow for your company in minutes and give your team a structured, auditable way to handle every journal entry.