Permissions for payment approval levels—Accounts Payable

Permissions for payment approval levels are never granted automatically, regardless of any role you have chosen for the user. Payment approval permissions must be granted explicitly to each user who needs to approve payments.

Approval level permissions

The amount ranges for payments that fall under approval levels are established by going to Company > Admin > Subscriptions and selecting Accounts Payable, then selecting Configure. Individuals are authorized to approve specific levels by granting them permissions via Company > Admin > Users > Subscriptions link > Permissions link for Accounts Payable. Scroll down, if required by your window size, and locate the permissions checkboxes for Approve payments. Select the checkbox corresponding to the approval level you wish this user to have.

For example, say you have established approval levels of $500, $5,000 and $25,000 for Levels 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Further, say you wish this user to be able to approve payments of up to $25,000. Select the checkbox for Levels 1 and 2. You may refine this by selecting only Level 2. In this example, this user would not need to approve payments that fall into the range of $500 - $5000.

If you have specified more than one approver on the Configure Accounts Payable page, you need to assign permissions to at least the same number of users. For example, if Level 3 requires three approvals, at least three users must have Level 3 permission. You may have five people who have permission for Level 3, but only three of them actually need to approve the payment. The payment remains in the partially approved state until three approvers have signed off.

Uploading Check Signatures. You may upload signatures for any user who is authorized by your company to sign checks. This is done by the user by selecting their login name at the top of any page and then selecting My preferences. Optionally, if you are an administrator and wish to upload a several signatures for users, you can do so via Company > Admin > Users > Preferences link > Upload signature.

Receive payment request email notifications

You may elect to receive a notification via email that a payment request awaits your approval. If you do, make sure to select the checkbox titled Receive email notification for payment request approval, which is found on your Preferences page (Select your login name at the top of any page and select My preferences.). Assuming you have selected this checkbox, an email notification is then sent to you each time a request for payment is submitted provided you are an approver for the amount level that corresponds to the amount of the payment. (Amount levels are set via Company > Admin > Users > Subscriptions link > Permissions link for Accounts Payable.

Alternatively, you might want to deselect this checkbox if you do not wish to receive these notifications, which can be voluminous, and you are in the habit of regularly signing in and examining the lists of payment requests that need to be approved by you. You can access this list via Accounts Payable > All > Payments > Approve payments.

You may also limit the number of these email notifications by entering an amount in the field titled Minimum amount for email notification. For example, say you have permission to approve all payment levels up to $100,000. However, you may not wish to receive emails for level 1 and 2 payment approval levels, which your company has set to $5,000 and $25,000 respectively. Consequently, you would enter 25000 in this field.