Practical guide

How to configure approval workflows in Zemam

Not every action goes through instantly — some actions need more than one approval. In Zemam you can set the approval chain for any action, and how many approvals it needs before it goes through.

The idea in a minute

Workflow=Action+Approval chain

When any action is triggered, it stays pending until the approval chain finishes in order. Once approved, the action executes; if rejected, it's sent back to its owner along with the reason for the rejection.

The steps

  1. 1

    Open the workflow settings

    From Settings, choose → Workflows. Here you set, for each action, who must approve it and in how many steps.

  2. 2

    Pick the action you want to control

    The list covers the sensitive actions across the whole system: confirm sales invoice, confirm purchase order, confirm cash voucher, owner withdrawal, stock transfer, post journal entry, approve payroll, approve leave (per leave type if you want)… and more. Each action gets its own independent chain — sales invoices might need two approvals, stock transfers one, and everything else none at all.

  3. 3

    Stack the approval steps

    Each step defines who approves: a specific role (Sales Manager, Finance Manager…) — and for employee leave you can pick “direct manager” or “department manager”, resolved automatically per the requesting employee. Order them as you like: step 2 only sees the request after step 1 approves.

    Action *

    Confirm sales invoice▾

    Approval steps

    1Sales ManagerRole
    2Finance ManagerRole
    The chain builder — the action + approval steps in order
  4. 4

    What changes for the employee?

    After the employee clicks the confirm button, an automatic alert appears telling them the action needs approval before it can go through.

    INV-000051

    Sales invoice — draft

    Send for approval

    This document requires approval before confirmation

    The employee's view — the button swaps to “Send for approval” with an explaining banner
  5. 5

    And for the manager?

    The manager sees all pending approvals, on web and mobile, with full details, and either approves or rejects it. If rejected, it goes back to the employee with the rejection reason written down, so they can fix it and resend it.

    Confirm sales invoice INV-000051

    Requested by: Ahmed Fouad · Value: EGP 48,500

    Approve Reject

    INV-000049

    Rejected — needs revision

    Rejection reason: price below the allowed floor for this customer

    The manager's view — the unified inbox: approve or reject in one tap
  6. 6

    Important: no steps = the chain is off

    A chain with zero approval steps counts as OFF and the action executes directly. So when you add a new chain, make sure it has at least one step.

Why this setting matters

Every action has its own approval chain.

A unified inbox where the manager can view and approve all approvals, from web or mobile.

Before approval, there's zero financial effect — no journal entries, no stock movement. The document waits until it's approved.

Combinations we see a lot

Wholesaler

Sales-manager approval on any credit invoice + owner approval on any capital withdrawal.

Multi-branch

Approval on inter-branch stock transfers so goods never move without the supervisor knowing.

Accounting team

Finance-manager approval on manual journal posting and payroll runs.

Not sure which actions to start with?

Talk to us and we'll help you set up chains that fit your business size — without overcomplicating things for your team.