Advanced Payment Approvals

Modified on Fri, Feb 7 at 10:50 AM

What are Payment Approvals?

Payment approvals in VendorPay are designed to ensure that scheduled payments undergo review by the appropriate individuals before being processed for payment.

What are the different types of payment approvals?

There are two types of approvals in VendorPay:

Single Approvals: All payments must undergo a single level of mandatory approval by users with the 'Approve Payments' permission.

Advanced Approvals: This feature enables the configuration of specific rules based on the parameters of a checkrun. If a checkrun matches these predefined criteria, it requires approval from a list of potential approvers.

Note:

All payments are required to go through at least one level of approval. Disabling approvals for payments completely is not an option.
The availability of advanced approvals depends on the account's plan and associated features. Not all accounts may have access to advanced approval functionalities.

Who can create approval policies?

The standard users eligible to create payment approval policies are:

Accountant
Administrator
Bill Pay - Administrator

If you have custom roles, ensure that the permission "Manage Payment Approval Policies" is added to the custom role for the ability to create payment approval policies.

How do Single Approvals Work?

After scheduling a checkrun, it will transition to the "Pending Approval" tab. A checkrun pending approval is visible to all users, but only users with the 'Approve Payments' permission can approve it.

The following standard roles inherently possess the approval permission:

Administrator
Bill Pay - Administrator

Upon approval by one of these users, the checkrun is moved to the "Scheduled Payments" tab. The history section of the checkrun will display the name of the approver who approved it.

How do Advanced Approvals Work?

Advanced approvals differ from Single approvals in the following ways:

A checkrun can have multiple approvers.
Approval policies come into effect only when a checkrun meets certain conditions.

Creating a Policy:

Policies can be defined across two layers of hierarchy:

Bank account
Company

Conditions:

Vendors	Vendor Specify the vendor for whom the policy applies under the chosen hierarchy. Vendor is Not Specify the vendor; the policy applies if the vendor is not the specified one.
Total (Checkrun)	Payment Less Than Specify the amount; the policy applies if the checkrun amount is below the specified value. Payment More Than Specify the amount; the policy applies if the checkrun amount is above the specified value.
Flags	Created from disbursement flow? Specify a boolean (Yes or No). If yes, the policy applies if the checkrun is created from a disbursement workflow. If no, the policy applies if the checkrun is not created from a disbursement workflow. Has No Other Policies
Policies	Policy Specify one or more existing payment approval policies and the current policy will get applied to all checkruns that meet those policies.This is usually paired with a new condition. Also known as "Sequential Approvers" or "Hierarchal Approvers," which means: only after one policy has been approved will this other policy get triggered. Consider this use case: As a CFO, I only want to be alerted that a checkrun requires my approval after everyone else reporting to me has already approved the checkrun.
Payment	Payment Method Select Check, ACH or vCard to create a payment approval policy for payments assigned the selected payment method
Approvers	Approved By Specify one or more users who must approve the payment in order for the policy to be triggered

Additional Information

For further assistance, contact Ottimate Support by emailing Support@ottimate.com or clicking here.