Documents, status, approval, and posting

A purchase request can be recorded without being authorised. An authorised purchase can remain undelivered. Delivered goods can remain unbilled. These positions are related, but they are not interchangeable.

Business documents carry several kinds of status because companies need to distinguish preparation, authorisation, execution, and settlement. Understanding those distinctions prevents a saved record from being mistaken for a completed business event.

What a document represents

A document is evidence of a particular event or commitment. Its reference identifies it, its dates place it in time, and its lines describe the goods, services, or amounts involved. Its relationship to other documents explains where the event came from and what happened afterwards.

DNA's transaction records and Document Flow support that relationship. An invoice associated with an order has a commercial context that an isolated amount does not. A payment associated with the invoice helps explain its settlement. The chain is useful for resolving disputes and identifying remaining work.

Three different questions about status

Document status describes the stage of the record's lifecycle. Approval status describes whether required authorisation has occurred. Posting status describes whether the relevant operational or accounting effect has been applied.

Their exact labels and available transitions depend on the DNA transaction. Saving a record alone does not establish its posting or settlement position. Read the relevant status and the associated records before deciding what has been completed.

An approval confirms that an authorised person accepts the transaction under the company's rules. It does not establish that the supplier delivered the correct quantity, that the customer paid, or that every description is accurate. Those require their own evidence.

Approval not required is also a valid outcome. In DNA's approval gate, a transaction can satisfy the approval requirement either because approval was granted or because the applicable rule does not require it. No approval record should therefore not automatically be interpreted as a pending or rejected request. Other status and permission controls can still apply.

A practical example

A department requests equipment worth USD 18,000. Management approves the request, and purchasing commits to a supplier. The supplier delivers only part of the order.

The request can be approved while the purchase remains only partly received. Finance might subsequently receive an invoice for the delivered portion. Paying that invoice does not prove that the undelivered equipment has arrived.

Each department needs the status relevant to its responsibility. Purchasing monitors the supplier commitment, the warehouse monitors received quantities, and finance monitors invoice and settlement amounts. DNA's related records allow these positions to be understood together.

Corrections after other work has occurred

An error in an early draft is usually simpler than an error in a record with downstream effects. Once a delivery, invoice, credit, or allocation depends on a document, changing one part of the chain can leave another part inconsistent.

A credit note records a commercial reduction or correction. A payment reversal addresses a receipt or settlement event. A stock correction addresses quantity or value. They solve different problems. Using several corrections for the same underlying amount can produce a second error by reversing the effect twice.

DNA restricts available actions according to transaction state and user rights. Those restrictions are part of preserving reliable records. A useful correction explains the original error, the authorised remedy, and the resulting position. It should leave the business able to reconstruct what happened.

Reading completion accurately

A process is complete only against a defined responsibility. A warehouse can finish delivery while finance is still collecting payment. An invoice can be paid while a separate retention amount remains due later. A project can finish its physical work while costs still require review.

When someone says a transaction is complete, the meaningful follow-up is complete in which respect: authorised, supplied, billed, posted, or settled? That distinction is essential to interpreting DNA records correctly.