Four-eye approval

  • 29/04/2026
  • 3 minutes to read

The purpose of four-eye approval is to ensure that every document submitted for approval is approved by at least two approvers (i.e.: four eyes). When enabled, four-eye approval applies universally to all documents – it can't be enabled or disabled for individual documents. However, there are two exceptions in which four-eye approval doesn't apply even if it has been enabled:

Four-eye approval can be used as an added feature for both standard and advanced approval, so the identification of the first approver depends on your choice of overall approval method. You can configure Continia Document Capture to identify the second approver either automatically or manually (by the first approver).

To enable and set up four-eye approval for standard approval in Document Capture Setup, see Enabling purchase approval. To enable and set up four-eye approval for advanced approval, use the Approval Group Card. For more information, see To set up advanced approval groups and Advanced approval.

Manual or automatic approver identification

If a document that has been submitted for approval only has one approver assigned, a second approver must be added when four-eye approval has been enabled. The second approver can be identified and added manually or automatically, depending on your configuration:

  • If Automatic selection was chosen in the setup, Document Capture identifies the second approver based on the settings of the first approver (specifically the Four-eye Approval, 2nd Approver Name field in the first approver's Continia User Setup). In this scenario, Document Capture adds the second approver automatically – and no manual action is required.
  • If Manual selection was chosen in the setup, the first approver must manually select the second approver when approving the document. A dialog box prompts the first approver to forward the document to another approver using the Forward and Approve action.

Document Capture Setup