Approval of recurring journals in Business Central

What approval workflows cover

Microsoft Learn describes that approval workflows can be used for, among other things, general journals before posting, purchase documents, sales documents, changes to master data and new users. According to partner descriptions, there are templates for approving a whole general journal and for approving the individual journal line. Learn also mentions payment journals as an area with ready-made workflows.

In spring 2026, approval was extended to item journals, physical inventory journals, output and consumption journals and planning worksheets. Microsoft describes it as the same capability that general journals already have.

The gap for recurring journals

We could not find a page on Microsoft Learn that says recurring journals are covered by the workflow. They are not mentioned in the lists of what can be sent for approval. A partner has published an extension that adds approval actions to the journal for recurring entries. This suggests that the standard page does not provide them directly.

The idea of approval for recurring general journals has about 356 votes on Microsoft's ideas portal. Check for yourself in a sandbox whether the action to send for approval appears on the recurring journals page in your version.

Control in the meantime

Document the arrangement in a short procedure: who prepares, who reviews and who posts. That makes it clear to the auditor that the control exists, even if it is not in a workflow.

• Limit who may post from the recurring journal by using permission sets. The person who prepares the journal should not also be the one who posts it.
• Use 'Preview Posting' before the journal is posted, so another person can check the entries.
• Set up a recurring calendar task or a Power Automate flow that asks an approver to look at the journal every period.
• If the amounts are always the same, an ordinary general journal in an approved batch can replace the recurring one.

What approval looks like in an ordinary journal

When a journal has an approval request in progress, according to Microsoft it can be neither edited, deleted nor posted until the approval is completed or cancelled. This is the behaviour you typically want on the recurring journal as well. Approvers can approve, reject or delegate, and several requests can be handled together on the Requests to Approve page.

Approvers must be set up under Approval User Setup, with amount limits, and notifications are sent through the job queue. Remember, therefore, to check that the job queue is running.

Use the same setup for both ordinary and recurring journals, so the approvers do not have to learn two ways of doing it.

Why recurring journals need special attention

Recurring journals are often posted every month and often for large amounts. Because they look like last month, they are rarely checked. That is exactly why they are a control gap. If the amount in the fixed posting changes, or a new line is added, the error can repeat over several periods before anyone notices.

The control does not have to be heavy. A regular weekly or monthly review of what has changed in the journal since last time catches most of it, as long as someone other than the preparer does the review.

The idea

We have the idea Recurring Journal Approval on the list of possible apps. It is meant to let recurring journals go through the standard workflow engine. It is an idea we are considering, and not something you can buy today. If you want to follow the ideas, you will find them on the page with app ideas.

If we are to prioritise a solution, it helps to know which journals you use most, and how many people post from them.