Need to adjust who approves payments or change the conditions that trigger approval? Payment approval workflows can be updated at any time to reflect changes in your business needs. Whether you need to update payment amounts, change approvers, or adjust vendor requirements, this guide walks you through how to edit an existing payment approval workflow in your account.
To learn how to create a payment approval workflow, please see the following guide.
How to edit a payment approval workflow
Important note:
- Any changes you make will apply to future payments and may auto-approve existing payments that no longer require approval.
- Self-approval: To maintain security, a user cannot approve a payment they scheduled themselves.
- Admin exemption: If a workflow is based only on Amount or Vendor criteria, it will only apply to Accountants and Contributors. To require approval for payments scheduled by an Admin, you must explicitly select them (either as a specific user or by selecting the "Admin" role) under the Scheduler criteria.
- Existing payments: Payments scheduled before setting up the approval workflow won't require approval.
1- Sign in to your account.
2- Select Settings from the top of the screen.
3- Under the Company section, select Approval workflows.
Alternatively, you can open the Approvals tab and select Manage workflows.
4- Under the Approval workflows section, you will find the existing bill approval workflows and the existing payment approval workflows. Scroll down to find the payment approval workflow you want to edit and select the three dots icon.
5- Select Edit workflow from the dropdown list.
6- Make the necessary edits. You can set the payment approval according to payment amount, payment scheduler, or payment vendor.
- Setting payment approval according to payment amount
This allows you to set payment approval for when a payment is a certain amount.
a. Select Payment amount is from the dropdown list.
b. Choose either More than or equal to or Less than or equal to from the dropdown list.
c. Enter the amount.
- Setting payment approval according to payment scheduler
This allows you to set payment approval for when a payment is scheduled by a specific person.
a. Select Payment scheduler is from the dropdown list.
b. Choose either Specific users or Specific roles from the dropdown list.
c. For specific users, check the box next to the selected user name/s.
d. For specific roles, choose which role/s this will apply to.
To include an Admin's payments in the workflow, you must explicitly select them as the payment scheduler. You can do this in two ways:
- Select Specific users and check the box next to the relevant Admin's name.
- Select Specific roles and choose the Admin role.
If you do not select an Admin as the payment scheduler, their payments will not require approval, even if the workflow is active.
- Setting payment approval according to payment vendor
This allows you to set payment approval for when a payment is sent to a specific vendor.
a. Select Payment vendor is from the dropdown list.
b. Check the box next to the vendor/s you would like to set.
7- To set more than one condition, select + Add condition. For example, you can require approval for payments over a certain amount scheduled by a specific user.
8- To delete a condition, select the Delete icon next to the condition you would like to remove.
9- Under Then do this, choose who needs to approve the payment. The chosen team members will be notified whenever there is a payment waiting for their approval.
To maintain security, a user cannot approve a payment they scheduled themselves.
- Any approvers:
a. Select Any approvers from the first dropdown list.
b. Use the next dropdown list to select the number of approvers required. Depending on the number of users, this can include either anyone, any two, or any three.
- Specific approvers:
a. Select Specific approvers from the first dropdown list.
b. Check the box next to the selected approvers. You can select up to 3 approvers per step.
c. To add an additional level of approvers, select + Add step. You can add up to 3 steps in total.
d. Select an additional approver from the dropdown list.
10- Once your workflow is set up, select Save workflow.
11- In the confirmation pop-up, select Confirm changes to finish.
That's it! You successfully edited the payment approval workflow. The updated workflow will apply to any new payments that match the workflow's conditions.