When invoice approval routing is on, an authorised approver can reject a pending request. Reject closes the approval request. It does not move the invoice to a separate Rejected Drum Status - invoices only use Draft, Awaiting approval and Approved.
Before you start
You need to be able to act on that approval request (primary approver, an alternate who can respond, or an account admin). Open the invoice from the project Invoices tab, from Insights, or from Approvals on Home.
Reject from the invoice
Open the invoice that shows the blue Approval Required banner.
Optional: select + Add a note (optional) and type feedback. The note sits above Reject and Approve. When the note has text, the Reject label becomes Reject with Note.
Select Reject (or Reject with Note) beside Approve.
After a successful reject, the banner should show Rejected (who rejected it and when), not stay on Approval Required with Approve still available.
Reject from Home Approvals
Go to Home and open the Approvals list.
Find the pending invoice request and open it (or act from the list if your view offers Reject there).
Select Reject (or Reject with Note if you added a note).
Home Approvals shows pending approval requests only. Once the request is rejected, it drops off that pending list.
If an invoice was archived while a request was still pending, that Approve item can still appear here. Reject it to clear it from the list. Archiving does not cancel the request. See How to configure invoice approval flows.
What happens after a successful reject
Approval request - marked rejected (and any sibling pending requests for the same invoice are cancelled).
Invoice Drum Status - invoices have no Rejected status. After reject, the invoice can stay on Awaiting approval (or Draft if that is where it sits). That is expected, not a stuck status.
Banner - shows the resolved Rejected state instead of Approval Required.
Home Approvals - pending list only includes pending requests, so this invoice should no longer appear there as needing action.
Note - when you left one, the submitter’s in-app approval response notification includes the note (shortened to 140 characters if needed), and the response email includes it under Note.
To send the invoice on later, set Drum Status to Approved when your process is ready (or amend a rejected request to approved if your role can do that), then push to Xero or QuickBooks as usual.
Prefer banner Approve over Drum Status alone
When Invoice Approvals are on, the Drum Status control stays available. Invoice approvers and admins can still set Approved there while a request is pending.
That status change does not resolve the approval request. The Approval Required banner can remain, and you may need to select Approve on the banner as well.
When a pending request exists, use Approve or Reject on the banner (or from Home Approvals). That closes the request and keeps Drum Status in step.
After approve: finance status
The Approval Required banner does not let you pick a Xero status. After the request is approved, push with Approve & integrate on the invoice (uses Settings → Account Defaults → Default integration status, which defaults to Draft) or set the invoice’s Xero / QuickBooks status yourself.
Setup and the preferred approve path are in How to configure invoice approval flows.
Related
For creating invoices and the Draft / Awaiting approval / Approved statuses, see How to Create Invoices for Projects. Approval Settings for invoices are under Settings → Approval Settings → Invoice.
Write-offs are different: they have a Rejected status, and reject answers the write-off approval request. See How to configure write-off approval flows.