School approval workflows for anything that matters
Most systems record a waiver after it is granted. Here nothing happens without the sign off you set, and every decision names a person.
Enaton makes sure nothing consequential happens in your school without the sign off you decided it needs. Fee structures, waivers, purchases and payments each follow the approval chain you set, and every decision is recorded against a person in a way nobody can quietly change later.
Waiting for your approval
3 waiting| Request | Amount | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 40 desksBursar | KES 380,000 | Needs you |
| Fee waiver, bursaryPrincipal | KES 24,000 | Needs you |
| Football kit, 2 setsStores | KES 9,600 | Approved |
| Leave request, Mr OmondiHR | 3 days | Approved |
Nobody approves their own request.
- 40 desksBursar, KES 380,000Needs you
- Fee waiver, bursaryPrincipal, KES 24,000Needs you
- Football kit, 2 setsStores, KES 9,600Approved
- Leave request, Mr OmondiHR, 3 daysApproved
What it does
Enaton makes sure nothing consequential happens in your school without the sign off you decided it needs. Fee structures, waivers, purchases and payments each follow the approval chain you set, and every decision is recorded against a person in a way nobody can quietly change later.
Chains you define
- As many levels as the decision warrants, from one signature to several
- Different chains for different things, so a small consumables order does not follow the same path as a capital purchase
- The right approver identified by the rules rather than by whoever happens to have access
Show all 4
- Escalation when somebody sits on a request, so nothing quietly stalls for a fortnight
What passes through it
- Fee structures, before they can bill anybody
- Waivers and bursaries above whatever threshold you set
- Extra charges applied to a group of learners
Show all 5
- Purchase requisitions, orders and payment vouchers
- Changes to a learner’s financial record
Rules a school cannot talk its way round
- Nobody approves their own request, however senior they are
- A decision can need more than one person at the same level: one director in a small school, three board members in a large one, and you set the number
- The amount decides who must see it, so a small request stops at the bursar and a large one reaches the board
Show all 6
- An action cannot be switched on until somebody is seated to approve it, so nothing blocks the office with nobody able to unblock it
- When nobody responds, it goes to the fail safe person the school itself named, and never to somebody the system invented
- An approval takes effect exactly once, however many times a button is pressed or a connection drops
Across the whole system, not only finance
The same approval runs through every part of Enaton where something consequential happens. Stock written off as lost, a cash refund from the school shop, a delivery taken on charge, a closed accounting period reopened for one correction: each is either allowed at once or held until approved, and the school chooses which, one switch per operation.
A director of three schools clears one queue, not three, without changing school to find what is waiting.
For the approver
- A single queue of what is waiting on them
- Enough context to decide without opening four other screens
- Approve or reject in bulk where the volume justifies it
Show all 4
- Requests they raised themselves, tracked, so they are not chasing by phone
When something goes wrong
If a part of the school needs to be paused while something is fixed, it can be, deliberately and visibly, with a reason that is shown to the people affected rather than leaving them staring at an error. Turning something off never quietly means letting everything through.
Give every role its own portal
You create the portals and decide what each person can see and do.
See how portals work- TeachersYou choose access
- DriversYou choose access
- ParentsYou choose access
- StorekeeperYou choose access
- MatronYou choose access
- Anyone you addYou choose access
Who it helps
-
Directors and boards get governance that actually holds.
See the page for this job -
Principals stop being the bottleneck for every small decision.
See the page for this job -
Bursars have cover, because the authority for what they did is recorded.
See the page for this job -
Auditors get a trail rather than a folder of signatures.
How it works
Define what needs approving and how many levels it takes
Name who sits at each level and the fail safe person
A request goes to the right approver by amount
The decision is recorded against a person for good
Read the full story
Most school systems record decisions. They do not govern them
Almost every school management system will store the fact that a waiver was granted. Very few will stop it being granted by somebody who should not have granted it, or make sure the director saw it first, or tell you three weeks later who approved it and when.
So the controls live outside the software. A signature in a book. A WhatsApp message saying go ahead. An understanding that certain things get checked with the principal. These work while everybody is present and honest, and they fail exactly when you need them, which is during a dispute or an audit.
For schools with boards, sponsors or more than one campus, this is increasingly the question being asked. Not what did you spend, but who authorised it, and can you show me.
How Enaton handles it
You describe your own chain. What needs approving, how many levels, who sits at each one, and what happens if somebody does not respond. Enaton then applies it consistently, every time, whether or not the people involved remember.
A decision, once made, is part of the record. It cannot be edited to say something else afterwards. That is what turns an approval into evidence rather than a formality.
Questions we get about this
Can we set different approval chains for different things?
Yes. A waiver, a capital purchase and a fee structure can each follow their own path with their own approvers and their own number of levels.
What happens if an approver is away?
The request escalates according to the rules you set rather than sitting still. It never auto approves itself, because that would defeat the point. It widens who can act and raises the fact that it has been waiting.
Can an approval be changed after the fact?
No. The record of who decided what and when is part of the trail and cannot be rewritten. That is what makes it usable as evidence.
2 more questions
Does an approver need to be a system administrator?
No, and they should not be. The authority to approve something is kept separate from the ability to access the system, so somebody with wide access does not automatically acquire the power to authorise spending.
Is this over engineering for a small school?
For a single school with one owner who signs everything, possibly. It earns its place as soon as there is a board, a sponsor, a second campus, or a bursar who deserves the protection of a recorded authority for what they did.
Bring your own numbers. We will show you this working
Thirty minutes with your classes, terms and fee structure. No slides.