There may be scenarios where you’ll want a bill or payment to go through an approval process with multiple team members before it’s authorized. Settle allows you to define two types of approval workflows:
Bill-specific approvals (tied to an individual bill), to ensure the legitimacy of a bill awaiting payment — jump to Setting up an approval flow for a specific bill.
Global approval rules (applied to all payments based on defined criteria), to provide visibility and control to those monitoring accounting and the movement of money within your organization — jump to Defining a global approval rule.
Defining a global approval rule
Navigate to Settings > Rules. Click Add new rule.
Add a descriptive name for your new rule.
Select approval type: Payment approval or Bill approval
Payment approval rule
The payment approval process ensures that all payment details are accurate and verified before any payment is made to the vendor.
Define limits and rules. You can define approval conditions based on
Dollar amount of the payment
The payment request submitter
The receiving vendor
Steps can be defined sequentially by clicking Add approval step, and steps can be deleted by clicking on the trashcan icon next to each step.
Save rule when you're done.
As rules are added or modified on the account, a notification confirming these changes is sent to admins on the account.
Tip. If you want all payments to require approval, set the conditional Amount value to $0.
Bill approval rule
The Bill approval process ensures that all bill details are accurate and approved before any payments can be scheduled.
Define limits and rules. You can define approval conditions based on
Invoice amount
Bill submitter
The receiving vendor
Steps can be defined sequentially by clicking Add approval step, and steps can be deleted by clicking on the trashcan icon next to each step.
Save rule when you're done.
As rules are added or modified on the account, a notification confirming these changes is sent to admins on the account.
Purchase order approval rule
Purchase Order approval flows require approval to be granted before it can be opened. This allows secondary users to validate the content and legitimacy of a Purchase Order.
Define limits and rules. You can define approval conditions based on
Dollar amount of the purchase order
The purchase order submitter
The receiving vendor
Steps can be defined sequentially by clicking Add approval step, and steps can be deleted by clicking on the trashcan icon next to each step.
Save rule when you're done.
As rules are added or modified on the account, a notification confirming these changes is sent to admins on the account.
Setting up an approval flow for a specific bill
Login to your Settle account and either add a new bill, or navigate to the desired bill by selecting Bills in the lefthand navigation menu.
Select the bill, then click the Request approval at the top of the invoice screen.
3. Follow the prompts to select your approval criteria, then select Request approval to initiate the approval process.
4. Once sent for approval, you’ll be able to track the status of your bill with the status indicators and by checking the audit trail for a bill.
Tip. You can assign the same approval flow to multiple bills at once by navigating to the Bills page and hovering bill until a checkbox appears. Select multiple bills, then click the Request approval button at the top of the screen. Only bills with both a vendor and invoice amount filled in will be included in this bulk action.
Adjusting the priority in a list of approvals
If a payment, bill, or purchase order requires multiple approvals, they are organized in a numbered list based on priority (e.g., 1, 2, 3).
Example:
Condition: Payment amount is greater than or equal to $10,000.
Require approval from: Accountant, Admin, Payer.
Condition: Payment amount is greater than or equal to $10,000 and the vendor is ABC Supplies.
Require approval from: Accountant, Admin, Payer.
You have the flexibility to reorder this list to align with your approval priorities. This ensures that the approval flow reflects the hierarchy or sequence needed for your business processes.
Managing notifications and approval flows for a specific bill or payment
Once an approval for a bill or payment has been scheduled, the approver will receive an email notification letting them know they need to approve it.
As the approver, you'll see an item in your To Do list related to either the bill or payment. In the example below, the approver has both 1 bill as well as 2 payments that are awaiting their approval.
Clicking on the To-do item will take you to the associated bill or payment page. You can approve it directly from this view via the Actions buttons on the right.
Alternatively, you can also click into it to approve from the detail view.
If the item that was approved was a bill, it can now be scheduled for payment. If the item that was approved was a payment, it can now be set for payment.