Bank Account Approvals add a secure, auditable review process for any changes to contact bank account details. When a bank account is added or modified, the change can be held for approval before it becomes active — reducing fraud risk and ensuring accuracy in disbursements and payments.
This feature is available on Pro and Enterprise plans. To upgrade, contact your Account Manager.
What Triggers a Bank Account Approval
Bank Account Name — any change to the account name.
Bank Account Number — any change to the account number.
New contacts with bank accounts — when saved, the bank account is set to Awaiting Approval and cannot be used for payments until approved. Note: this is separate from Contact Approvals.
What Does Not Trigger Approval
Particulars, Code, Reference fields — contact-level payment fields that take effect immediately.
Default account setting — changing which account is set as default.
How to Edit a Bank Account
Navigate to the Contact you want to modify and open the Bank Accounts tab.
Click the three-dot menu next to the bank account and select Edit.
Update the Bank Account Name or Account Number.
Click Save.
A replacement account is created with your changes. The original account remains active until the change is approved. The replacement shows as Awaiting Approval.
Viewing Pending Changes
Bank accounts with pending changes show a yellow Pending badge. Click the expand arrow to see the pending details, highlighted changes, and a link to the approval workflow.
Permissions
Users with the Can approve bank accounts permission can approve changes directly from the Bank Accounts tab, bypassing any workflow. To enforce workflow-only approval:
Navigate to Settings > Maintain User Roles.
Select the role to update.
Under Contacts permissions, deselect Can approve bank accounts.
Click Save.
Note: Users without this permission can still approve bank accounts if assigned as approvers in a workflow step. Administrator users can approve any bank account at any point — reserve this for genuine exceptions.
The Approvals Hub
Navigate to Approvals from the menu to access all pending bank account approval requests.
Approval Statuses
Awaiting Approval — pending action.
Rejected — declined by an approver.
Completed — approved through all steps.
Failed — error in workflow processing.
How to Approve or Reject a Bank Account Change
Approvers receive an email notification for each request. Open the request from the email or via Approvals in the menu.
The approval screen shows contact information, the bank account details (with highlighted changed fields), and the full approval history.
To Approve
Review the bank account details.
Click Approve.
Optionally add a comment for the audit trail.
The replacement account becomes active and the original is archived (retained for audit purposes).
To Reject
Click Reject.
Select who the change should be returned to.
Add a comment explaining the rejection reason (required for audit).
Click Send rejection.
The rejected change stays in Awaiting Approval. The user can edit and resubmit.
Note for Connected Accounting customers: Bank accounts in Awaiting Approval status will not sync to your external accounting system (e.g. Xero) until approved. This prevents payments to unverified accounts.
Trust Accounting: Disbursements
If an Owner has a bank account in Awaiting Approval status, they cannot be included in a disbursement. The system will display an error and block the disbursement until the account is approved. You can approve the account first, remove the owner from the disbursement, or use the Go to approval link to navigate directly to the workflow.
Building a Bank Account Approval Workflow
Navigate to Settings > Automation > Approval Workflows.
Click Create a new Workflow.
Enter a name and optional description.
Set Approval type to Bank Account Approval.
Select the applicable companies.
Click Create and save.
Workflow Step Settings
Conditions — Contact Tags or Contact Category (AND logic applies when multiple conditions are set).
Approver — User or Team. Only users with permissions for all companies in the workflow appear.
Escalation — backup approver at user or team level.
Reminders — 1–167 hours. Example: 24-hour reminder → email at 0 hours → reminder at 24 hours → escalation at 48 hours.
Click Save after each step. Add further steps with Add a step. Change status to Published and click Save Workflow to activate.
Best Practices
Remove Can approve bank accounts from roles that should only approve via workflow.
Use teams for approver assignment to handle leave and coverage.
Always add comments when rejecting — required for audit integrity.
Reserve administrator override for genuine exceptions only.
For Asia-Pacific customers, the term "Trust Account" is used. European customers refer to this as "Client Account". For more information on regional terminology, see our Glossary of Regional Terminology.