is there a way to make a customer payment approval process? why? because accounting dept wants to review customer payment transactions before it is posted to GL.

@Mars You can setup a workflow, but it will not stop the transaction getting posted as customer payment is a posting transaction. However it's a good measure of security to have a workflow in place. The second and the least problematic option would be to create a saved search to email key people when a customer payment is created, they can open the transaction and either delete or query about it.

You could create a custom record for unapproved customer payments and have a script that generates the posting payment once the custom record has been approved. It might even be possible to use a custom transaction instead of a payment record and the actual transaction can have posting and non posting statuses.

@michoel sounds complicated. I haven't implemented a custom record ever. I may not be able to pull that off.

@michoel Which do you think is better, custom record or custom transaction?

I wouldn't really recommend doing either

In our case, we don't really want it to post yet to GL unless approved.

I don't understand that thought process. Why? What do you gain?

I don't know for sure if this possible but you might be able to use native payment record and a Custom GL Plugin to reverse the GL impact until a custom approved field is checked. I'm not sure how this would work if payment was created in a period that has already closed when it's approved.

I feel like this could have very negative impacts if not used correctly in conjunction with the "make bank deposits" page very carefully.

Thanks, @KevinJ of Kansas. Noted on this. Sometimes, it's just so hard to convince your colleagues. Anyway, I appreciate the thoughts as always.

Just to clarify, I'm not recommending any of the options I raised either. I would go with Kevin's accounting advice over my own any day. My intention was just to point out the possibilities

@michoel yup completely understand. Those are really good options in case there is really a dire need for an approval. Thanks, too!

If I were writing pro and con lists: Custom GL Impact: Pro: No cash application issues Con: What happens if your cash payment is never approved? Now you have invoices marked cleared that shouldn't be. Con: No Customer GL line in A/R Con: What happens if someone accidently deposits the line that is going to dissapear? Custom Record: Pro: No GL Impact to worry about Con: Can wind up with impossible applications (i.e. how do you handle partial applications/apply to more than one transaction?) Con: Must script the process of turning it into a customer payment. Custom Transaction: Pro: No GL Impact to worry about Pro: Looks like a transaction, and can't be applied against the transaction until after approval. Can use Sales Transaction to even force picking the customer. Con: Turning it into a GL Impacting transaction can be done easily, however you have to have a second transaction to apply against order (a zero dollar customer payment). Unless you script that process - it's also possible to wind up with user errors creating bad customer payments. Con: Can wind up with impossible applications (i.e. partially paid invoices/ apply to more than one transaction) Con: Shows up on customer record as an additional transaction. If I'm picking between the three - I'm probably picking the custom GL impact and testing interactions with make bank deposit very carefully - and then training my users not to break it via a filtered list.

just sharing what I have decided to implement: 1. workflow to update a custom status field 2. only lock record after reviewers' approval 3. reminders for unreviewed customer payments