Review a journal batch

Who does this: Bookkeeper · Senior Accountant · Platform Admin When: A batch lands in UNDER_REVIEW — you receive the "Journal batch ready for review" email, or you spot it on the Journal batches page Result: Every entry in the batch is APPROVED or REJECTED. The batch advances to APPROVED and is ready for upload-file generation.

A journal batch is a period's worth of drafted journal entries — one per source document. The platform classifies and drafts each entry automatically, but the human in the loop has to walk every entry, confirm or correct the account coding, and either approve or reject before any of it gets posted to the client's accounting platform.

You don't need to review the entries in any specific order — but it's usually faster to clear all HIGH-confidence entries first (those almost always sail through), then work through MEDIUM, LOW, and UNCLASSIFIED in that order, because the lower-confidence ones often share a common cause that you can fix once and reuse.

Before you start

• [ ] You have one of the bookkeeping roles: Bookkeeper, Senior Accountant, or Platform Admin.
• [ ] The batch is in DRAFT or UNDER_REVIEW. If it's already APPROVED, EXPORTED, or CLOSED, the entries are sealed — you can view them but not action them.
• [ ] You have access to the client's source documents — the batch detail panel links each entry to the document the platform classified.

NOTE

Senior Accountants have one extra power Bookkeepers don't: overriding a flagged entry without addressing the flag (OVERRIDE_JOURNAL_FLAG). Use it sparingly. See Override a flagged journal entry.

Steps

1. Open the batch

1. Open Journal batches in the staff dashboard sidebar.
2. Find the batch — filter by client code, legal name, or period if your portfolio is long.
3. Click View to open the batch detail.

The header shows the period, accounting platform, status, and counters: Entries, Approved, Flagged.

2. Walk every entry

The Entries tab lists every journal entry, one row per source document. Each row shows:

• Date and Reference — from the source document.
• Description — line-item summary the OCR extracted.
• Debit account / Credit account — what the classification engine proposed.
• Amount + Currency — pre-tax + tax + total, in the document currency.
• Confidence — HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW / UNCLASSIFIED. (See Classification confidence.)
• Flags — zero or more reasons the platform wants you to look at this row, e.g. KEYWORD_MATCH_ONLY, NON_BASE_CURRENCY, REVIEWER_ATTENTION_REQUIRED (amount above the materiality threshold).
• Status — DRAFT / FLAGGED / APPROVED / REJECTED / ESCALATED.

For each entry you have four actions:

Action	When to use	Effect
Approve	The classification looks right and you have no concerns	Entry goes to APPROVED. It will be in the upload file.
Edit then approve	The amount is right but the account code is wrong	Open the entry, change debit / credit / amount / currency, save, then approve
Reject	The document shouldn't be a journal entry at all (duplicate, wrong client, internal-only memo)	Entry goes to REJECTED with your reason captured. It will not be in the upload file.
Escalate	You're a Bookkeeper and you want a Senior Accountant to look at this — usually for a non-routine vendor or an unusual coding question	Entry goes to ESCALATED with your comment. The Senior Accountant clears it; the batch can't advance until they do.

TIP

If you see a pattern — say, ten entries from the same vendor all coded to the wrong account — fix the vendor master first (Add vendors to vendor master) and the next batch will pick up the correction. The fix doesn't retroactively re-classify the current batch; you still have to edit each row.

3. Watch the counters

As you action entries, the Approved / Flagged counters in the header update live. The batch advances to APPROVED automatically when every entry is either APPROVED or REJECTED — no DRAFT, FLAGGED, or ESCALATED left.

4. Cross-check the batch totals

Before you generate the upload file, glance at the running totals on the batch summary. Common sanity checks:

• Net debits = net credits (a balanced double-entry batch).
• The currency mix matches what you'd expect — e.g. mostly SGD with a known handful of USD vendor invoices.
• The entry count matches the document count for the period.

How to know it worked

• The batch status badge flips from UNDER_REVIEW → APPROVED.
• The header Approved counter equals Entries minus Rejected.
• The activity log for the client shows one journal_entry.approved (or .rejected / .escalated) event per row, attributed to you.
• The Generate upload file button on the batch detail page becomes enabled.

If the batch refuses to advance even after you've actioned every visible entry, check the filters above the entry list — you may have a hidden subset filtered out. Switch the status filter to All.

What the client sees

Nothing. Reviewing a batch is an internal activity — the client only sees the result of the work once you generate and post the upload file into their accounting platform. They don't get an email, they don't see the entries, and they have no portal view into batches.

Common situations

If you see…	It means…	What to do
Most entries are UNCLASSIFIED	The vendor master / chart of accounts is too thin, or the keywords don't match	Add the missing vendors or chart-of-accounts entries, then edit each row to set the correct account code before approving
An entry is flagged NON_BASE_CURRENCY	The document is in a currency other than the client's base currency	Confirm the FX rate the platform used (shown on the entry detail), edit if needed, approve
An entry is flagged KEYWORD_MATCH_ONLY	The classifier matched on a chart-of-accounts keyword but not on a vendor — confidence is MEDIUM	Either approve as-is if the coding is right, or add the vendor to the master so future entries land at HIGH
Approve button is greyed out for one specific entry	The entry is in ESCALATED and you're not a Senior Accountant — only a senior can clear an escalation	Ask a Senior Accountant to action it, or reassign
Batch stays at UNDER_REVIEW after you've actioned everything visible	An entry is still ESCALATED somewhere	Switch the entry filter to Escalated and clear the remaining row
You hit Approve and nothing happens	Permission gap — you may have VIEW_BATCH but not APPROVE_JOURNAL (rare)	Confirm your role on the Team page; ask a Platform Admin to upgrade your role if needed
The source-document link is broken / the document is missing	The underlying file was deleted or never landed	See A document didn't appear in any batch

Related runbooks

• Generate an upload file (Xero / QBO / Zoho / Tally) — your next step after the batch is APPROVED
• Override a flagged journal entry (Senior Accountant only)
• Add vendors to vendor master
• Configure chart of accounts
• Vendor-master match isn't firing
• Journal batch status machine
• Journal entry status machine
• RBAC matrix