Why Finance Teams Need Proper Approval Workflows (And Why Slack and Email Are Killing Your Controls)

Ask any finance manager how they handle spend approvals today, and you’ll hear a familiar story.

A bill lands in Xero. The bookkeeper screenshots it and drops it in a Slack channel. The manager sees it three hours later between meetings, replies “looks fine” with a thumbs up emoji, and the bookkeeper manually marks it approved. Somewhere, a spreadsheet gets updated. Maybe.

It works. Until it doesn’t.

This is how most small and mid-sized businesses run their financial approvals — and it is quietly one of the most expensive habits in modern finance.