This feature is only available for Pro and Enterprise package users. To upgrade your plan, contact your Account Manager or request a contact here.
What are Approval Workflows?
Approval workflows help you manage and oversee essential processes in your organization. They let you set rules and steps to be followed for an invoice to be approved.
Note: We currently only support approvals for expense invoices.
Setting up your first Approval Workflow
Navigate to the Approval Workflows section
The Workflows screen is available under the Automation section from within Settings.
Permissions
To create an approval workflow, Admin users will see the Approval Workflow automation option in the settings page by default.
If you cannot see this option, it's likely your role does not have the permissions enabled to see this.
User roles other than Admin will need to have this setting enabled under 'Settings' / 'Maintain User roles'. Select a role, then under 'Settings permissions' select 'Has access to approval workflows'
Create a new Workflow
Workflows are created at the Billing Group level, and can be assigned to one or more companies.
If you are creating multiple Workflows, it is recommended that a single company only ever has a maximum of one expense invoice workflow assigned to it.
Approvals Steps
Workflows can have multiple steps, which are run in sequence when an invoice is marked as Awaiting Approval. You can define each step with criteria that must be met for the approval to be granted.
These criteria can include:
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how much an expense invoice is
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who can approve (by role, person, or team)
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what conditions must be met (by invoice value, property, or tenancy)
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and an escalation (triggered when an approval doesn’t happen within the designated time)
Once an invoice has met the criteria for each step in the approval workflow, it will have the status of 'Approved'.
Example:
Let's say you have a Workflow setup with two steps.
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Step 1: PM to approve all invoices
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Step 2: CFO to approve invoices over $1,000.
If an expense invoice of $1,200 for a property is received, once the PM has approved it, it is then sent to the CFO for approval.
If an expense invoice for $800.00 is received: it is automatically sent to the PM for approval.
Managing Approvals
Invoices awaiting approval will be displayed on your dashboard 'To-Do' list.
You can access the Approvals list page from the Accounting navigation bar.
Here you can view all of your outstanding and completed approvals. The filters act as a great way to find subsets of approvals - e.g. for a particular company or Property Manager.
Open the invoice by clicking on the invoice row.
You can also be notified via email if there are any pending approvals. You have a choice of:
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receiving an email per approval
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or receive a daily digest with your other tasks
These settings can be managed from your personal profile settings in the top right navigation bar.
Approving / Rejecting an Invoice
When you are approving an expense invoice, you’ll have a summary of the invoice, and who the current approver is. You can then approve the invoice, or decline the invoice and add a comment.
There is an audit log showing updates to the invoice approval workflow: when it was started, comments, and approvals/rejections, and by whom.
Invoices may be approved outside your approval workflow
Approving invoices can still be completed outside the Invoice Approval Workflow if the user has the permission to approve invoices.
To restrict this happening, you can revoke the permission to approve invoice and credit notes under Settings -> Maintain User Roles.
- Select a role type
- Select Income and Expense Permissions
- Deselect the permission 'can approve invoice and credit note'
All users with this role type will no longer be able to approve invoices outside the approval workflow.