Designer — statuses and workflow
Configure the approval workflow — create and order statuses, set labels and icons, define completion rules, and control which steps users can move invoices to.
Designer — statuses and workflow
The Designer (Settings → Designer) is the control center for your company's approval workflow. It is only accessible to administrators.
What are statuses?
Every invoice in iApprove moves through a series of statuses that represent steps in your approval process — for example: Received → Under review → Approved → Paid. The Designer lets you define, name, and configure those steps.
Two system statuses — Inbox and Archive — always exist and cannot be deleted. All other statuses are created and managed here.
Status table
Each status row shows:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Internal identifier (used in API and filters) |
| Title | The label shown to users in the interface |
| Button label | The text on the action button that moves an invoice to this status |
| Icon | A Feather icon representing this status in the interface |
| Can send to | Whether users can forward invoices to external recipients from this status |
| Read-only | When checked, invoices in this status cannot be edited |
| Rules | Completion rules that must be satisfied before an invoice can enter this status |
Creating a status
Click New to open the status creation form. Give the status a name, a user-facing title, and choose an icon. The icon picker shows the full Feather icon library — type to filter by name.
Drag to reorder
Drag the handle (≡) on any status row to change the order. The order here determines the order statuses appear in menus and dropdowns throughout the app.
Completion rules
For statuses that require specific conditions before an invoice can advance (e.g., "Accounting balanced" or "Lines must match total"), click the edit icon in the Rules column to configure:
- Lines must match total — the sum of invoice lines must equal the invoice total (requires Invoice lines add-on)
- Accounting must balance — all required accounting dimensions must be posted and the postings must balance (requires Accounting module add-on)
Custom fields
The Designer also includes tabs for configuring custom fields on invoices, invoice lines, and creditors — and for configuring per-view column layouts and notification templates. These are accessible from the Designer's own sub-navigation.