Setting Up an Owner Payment Approval Workflow

An approval workflow adds a required review step to owner payment requests before any funds leave your account. This is especially useful for enforcing internal controls, maintaining an audit trail, and ensuring that disbursements are authorized by the right person before they are processed.

Why Use an Approval Workflow

Without an approval workflow, any team member with permission to create owner payment requests can also move them to a payable state immediately after submission. Enabling an approval workflow means that a submitted request must be reviewed and approved by an authorized team member before it can be paid — giving your organization a clear checkpoint for every disbursement.

Configuring Approval Settings

Approval workflow settings are managed by an account admin. To configure approvals for owner payment requests:

1. Go to Settings in the left navigation.
2. Select Owner Payments (or Bill Pay) from the settings menu.
3. Locate the Approval Workflow section.
4. Enable the approval requirement and configure your options:
   • Approval tiers — set up one or more levels of approval required before a request can be paid.
   • Approvers — select which team members are authorized to approve requests at each tier.
   • Approval thresholds — optionally set a minimum amount above which approval is required.
5. Save your changes.

Who Can Approve Requests

Only team members who have been designated as approvers in your approval workflow settings can approve owner payment requests. Approver permissions are assigned by an admin when configuring the workflow. A team member does not need to be an admin to act as an approver, but they must be explicitly added to the approver list for the relevant tier.

The Approval Lifecycle

Once an approval workflow is active, here is what happens from the approver's perspective after a payment request is submitted:

1. Request appears in the approvals queue. When a team member submits an owner payment request, it moves to a Needs Approval state and appears in the approver's queue.
2. Approver reviews the request details. Opening the request shows all relevant information, including the owner name, payment amount, memo, associated property, and GL code. The approver can also view the Activity and Comments tabs to see context added by the requester.
3. Approver takes action. The approver has three options:
   • Approve — the request is approved and moves to a payable state.
   • Deny — the request is rejected and returned to the requester.
   • Comment — the approver can leave a comment on the request to ask for clarification or additional information before making a decision.
4. Approved request moves to Ready to Pay. Once all required approval tiers are satisfied, the request moves to the Ready to Pay state and can be disbursed.

What Happens When a Request Is Denied

If an approver denies a request:

• The requester receives a notification that their request was not approved.
• The request returns to a state where it can be edited.
• The requester can update the request details (amount, memo, property, GL code) and resubmit it for approval.

Bypassing the Approval Step

In some cases, a request may not require a separate approval step:

• If an account admin creates and submits a request, the workflow configuration may allow admin-level users to bypass the standard approval requirement depending on your account settings.
• If the request amount falls below a configured approval threshold, it may proceed directly to the Ready to Pay state without requiring explicit approval.

Next Steps: Paying an Approved Request

Once a request has been approved and is in the Ready to Pay state, you can proceed with disbursement. See the Paying an Owner page for a full walkthrough of the payment process, including payment method options and send date settings.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can an approver also be the person who created the request? This depends on your account's workflow configuration. In most cases, it is best practice to require a different team member to approve requests in order to maintain a clear separation of duties. Check with your admin to confirm how your approval rules are set up.

What happens if an approver is unavailable and a request is waiting for review? The request will remain in the Needs Approval state until an authorized approver takes action. If you need to reassign approval responsibility or add additional approvers, an account admin can update the approver list in the approval workflow settings.

Can I see a history of all approval decisions on a request? Yes. Open the payment request and select the Approval tab in the detail panel to view the full approval chain, including each approver's decision and the date and time it was made.

For additional help, Contact Support.