Payment approval

Turn it on

Payment approval is an add-on to Purchasing: $39 a month on every plan, including Pro. An owner switches it on under Settings → Add-ons. It then adds:

• Settings → Payment approval, where the owner draws the chain.
• Purchasing → Payment approvals, the list of what is waiting on you.
• An Approval panel on each supplier invoice, above Payments.

Nothing changes until a chain is saved.

Draw the chain

1. Open Settings → Payment approval. Only an owner can change the chain.
2. Under Applies to, choose Every supplier invoice or Invoices of at least… an amount.
3. Each row is a level. Name the step and choose who approves it.
4. Click + In parallel to add a step on the same level — both are signed at the same time and neither waits for the other.
5. Click + Add a level for a step that waits until the level above has signed, or + Sub-level to slot one in between (1.1, 1.2 …).
6. Check the sentence under the chain — it reads the chain back in plain words — then click Save chain.

When a step has more than one approver, choose whether any one, all or at least a number of them must sign. Tick Can sign for the levels below to let a senior approver sign without waiting, and Skip this step if nobody is set up for it when a missing approver should not hold the invoice up.

A saved chain applies to invoices submitted from then on. Invoices already in approval keep the chain they started with. Turn approvals off stops new invoices being submitted.

Approvers per cost centre

Tick Different approvers per cost centre when each department signs its own spending. The cost centre is the account on the invoice line. Then:

1. In the Cost-centre owners table, set who owns each account.
2. On a step, choose The owner of the cost centre, or tick Signs each cost centre separately.

An invoice that spans two accounts then waits for both owners, each signing for their own part.

Submitting invoices

Authorising a supplier invoice submits it for approval automatically — there is nothing extra to click. Invoices authorised before the chain existed show Submit for approval in their Approval panel.

Withdraw from approval takes an invoice back out, for example to correct it. Submitting and withdrawing need full access to Purchasing.

Approve or reject

When a step becomes yours to sign, you get a notification and a task on your dashboard.

1. Open the invoice, or find it under Purchasing → Payment approvals.
2. Click Approve, or Reject and say why — a rejection always carries its reason back to whoever raised the invoice.
3. Signed too soon? Reopen my signature takes it back, as long as nobody on a later level has signed since.

When the last step signs, the invoice reads Approved — can be paid.

The approvals list

Purchasing → Payment approvals has three tabs:

• Waiting on me — steps whose turn has come, longest wait first. Approve or reject each row, or tick several and click Approve selected.
• Decided by me — what you signed or rejected, and where each invoice stands now.
• All in approval — every invoice still in approval and who it is waiting on. Shown to people with access to Purchasing.

The rules

• No payment until approved. Recording a payment is refused while approval is waiting or rejected — and withdrawing an invoice doesn’t make it payable while a chain still applies to it.
• A signed invoice can’t be undone underneath the signature. Once anyone has signed, withdraw it from approval first.
• Levels go in order. A later level can’t sign before the levels above it.
• A rejection stops the chain. Correct the invoice and submit it again.
• A step with nobody to sign it blocks the invoice and says so, unless it is set to be skipped — an invoice is never approved by default.
• Every approval, rejection and reopening is kept, with who made it and when.