Cost Statuses and Approvals
Cost statuses help you track the progress of individual cost line items — from initial estimate through to confirmed and reconciled. Combined with the optional approval workflow, they give you control over which costs are finalised and ready for invoicing.
Getting There
Cost statuses are visible on the costs page of any event or quote. Each cost has a primary status column and optionally a secondary status column.
Cost statuses are configured in Settings > Events > Cost Statuses.
How Cost Statuses Work
Primary and Secondary Statuses
Each cost can have two statuses:
- Primary status — The main status tracking the cost's progress (e.g., Estimated, Confirmed, Invoiced)
- Secondary status — An additional status for supplementary tracking (e.g., Awaiting Supplier Confirmation, Price TBC)
Your administrator configures which statuses are primary and which are secondary.
Status Colours
Each status has configurable background and text colours, making it easy to visually scan the costs page and spot items that need attention.
Changing Statuses
You can change a cost's status in several ways:
- Individual edit — Open a cost and change its status from the dropdown
- Bulk change — Select multiple costs and use the Change Status bulk action
- From purchase orders — When creating a PO, you can optionally update the selected costs' status
Cost Approval
When your administrator enables the cost approval workflow (Settings > Events), each cost gains an Approved flag.
How Approval Works
- New costs start as unapproved
- Costs must be approved before they can be included on invoices
- When creating client or supplier invoices, only approved costs appear in the selection list
- Approval is independent of status — a cost can have any status and be either approved or unapproved
Approving Costs
Toggle the Approved checkbox on individual costs, or use bulk actions to approve multiple costs at once.
Cost Reconciliation
Each cost has a Reconciled flag that tracks whether it has been checked and confirmed against actual supplier invoices or receipts.
Marking Costs as Reconciled
- Individual — Toggle the reconciled checkbox on a cost
- Bulk — Select multiple costs and use the Reconcile bulk action
Filtering by Reconciliation
On the costs page, you can filter to show only reconciled or unreconciled costs. This is useful when reviewing costs at the end of an event to ensure everything has been accounted for.
Managing Cost Statuses in Settings
Viewing Statuses
Go to Settings > Events > Cost Statuses to see all configured statuses.
Creating a New Status
- Go to Settings > Events > Cost Statuses.
- Click Add.
- Enter:
- Click Save.
Reordering Statuses
Drag statuses to reorder them. The order affects how they appear in dropdown menus.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What's the difference between status and approval?Status is a flexible tracking label (e.g., "Estimated", "Confirmed", "Invoiced") that you define. Approval is a specific yes/no flag that controls whether a cost can be included on invoices. They work independently.
Q: Do I need to use cost statuses?Statuses are optional. If your workflow doesn't need granular cost tracking, you can leave them unset. They're most useful for larger events with many cost lines that progress through different stages.
Q: Can I make approval mandatory before invoicing?Yes. When cost approval is enabled in settings, only approved costs appear when creating invoices. This effectively makes approval a prerequisite for invoicing.