Review, approve and submit a return
Move a prepared return through review, approval, submission and acknowledgement with three different people.
Before you begin
- The return is Prepared with no blockers.
- You are not the person who prepared it (for review), and not the person who reviewed it or prepared it (for approval).
- You hold the permission for the step: tax.return.review, tax.return.approve or tax.return.submit.
Preparer, reviewer and approver must be three different people. A user who prepared a return cannot review it; a reviewer cannot approve it. The system refuses: 'Somebody other than the person who prepared this return must decide it.'
Steps: review
- Open Tax > Returns and open the prepared return.
- Read the Boxes, Reconciliation and Source lines (n) tabs.
- Press Review. The rail moves to Reviewed and your name is recorded.
If the return needs correction, press Send back (reject). It returns to Draft and the reviewer is cleared.
Steps: approve
- A second reviewer-level user opens the Reviewed return.
- Check that no banner 'Cannot be approved yet: ...' is shown.
- Press Approve.
The return is locked as Approved. An event is raised so other parts of the system can react.
Steps: submit
- Open the Approved return.
- Press Submit.
- Type the Authority reference if you have one. If Authority reference on submission is set to Required in Applications > Tax > Fields, you must: 'Enter the authority's reference: this company requires it on submission.'
- Confirm.
The return becomes Submitted and the submitter and time are recorded.
Submit records that you filed. It does not send anything to the FTA. File on the FTA portal yourself, then record the act and the reference here. No connector exists yet.
Steps: acknowledge
- When the authority confirms receipt, open the Submitted return.
- Press Acknowledgement.
- Type the Authority reference, for example
FTA-ACK-2026-0001. It is required. - Confirm.
The return becomes Acknowledged.
Who does what
| Step | Permission | Who it cannot be |
|---|---|---|
| Prepare | tax.return.prepare | - |
| Review | tax.return.review | The preparer |
| Approve | tax.return.approve | The preparer or the reviewer |
| Submit | tax.return.submit | - |
| Acknowledgement | tax.return.submit | - |
What happens next
- An approved or submitted return cannot be edited or prepared again. To correct it, amend it.
- The posted ledger and the return stay linked; reports use the same numbers (Tax reports and the ledger check).
Refusals
| Situation | Message |
|---|---|
| Approve a draft | 'A draft return cannot be approved.' |
| Submit a reviewed return | 'A reviewed return cannot be submitted.' |
| Unexplained ledger difference | 'The return differs from the tax accounts by <x>. Explain the difference before approval.' |
| Lines with no tax code | 'n posted lines carry no tax code and fit no box.' |
| Registration shorter than the period | 'Registration <CODE> does not cover the whole period.' |
| Edit after approval | 'An approved or submitted return is not edited. Amend it: a new version is linked to this one.' |
Good to know
- The approval controls and the ledger check cannot be turned off.
- If the preparer prepares the return again after someone else did, the system treats the latest preparer as the one who prepared it. Agree the order in your team so the same person does not end up reviewing their own work.
- Buttons appear only if you hold the matching permission; a user with only tax.view can read everything and change nothing.