Setup Workflows in Enterprise Desktop 2021 with Approvals

Welcome to the QuickBooks Community, @jiminok.

Please note that approval workflows are only available with QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) Enterprise Platinum and Diamond subscriptions. If you wish to use this feature to allow your employees to get timely reminders about approval deadlines, you can consider upgrading to a compatible plan.

With QBDT Enterprise, you may choose from 14 predefined roles to assign to your employees, so you can limit their access to your books. Here's how:

1. Go to the Company menu and click Users.
2. Select Set Up Users and Roles.
3. Enter the admin password, then OK.
4. Click the Role List tab.
5. Choose a role and click Edit to review its permissions. 
6. In the Area and Activities section, choose an area of your accounts. You may select None, Full, or Partial to set the access level.
7. Once done, click OK.

I'll share this reference for more information: Create and manage users and roles in QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise.

Additionally, you can run and customize reports in QBDT based on your business needs to view information regarding your sales and expenses. 

Feel free to reach out to us anytime whenever you need help with workflows and user access. The Community is always available to assist you further. Keep safe, and have a good one.

Thanks for the response.  

Is there a list of preset workflows that come with it?

Thanks for reaching back with your follow-up question, @jiminok.

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise typically offers customizable workflows for Bill & PO approvals. You can select a template to set up an approval process for who can approve purchase orders and bills, as well as what dollar amount requires approval. 

When set up, the custom approval process sends notifications to the appropriate team members or departments when a purchase order or bill needs approval. This can help you save time and ensure that all purchases and bills are reviewed and approved by the appropriate people within your organization.

Please visit this video tutorial to learn more about the setup process: How to set up custom bill approval workflows in QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise.

Furthermore, you'll want to visit our Help Articles page to browse for some information related to managing workflows in QuickBooks Desktop.

I'm all ears if you have additional questions and concerns relating to workflows and user access in QuickBooks. Just leave a reply below and I'll be sure to get back.

Thank you.

Does the approver need to be admin?  Client is asking why some users are not listed when trying to select an approver

Hello there, @jeff Siegel.

Allow me to chime in and share some information about bill approvals in QuickBooks.

In QuickBooks Desktop, the approver doesn't need to be an admin, but user permissions or roles might restrict who can be selected. If certain users aren't appearing, it's likely due to permission settings. Check their permissions and roles to ensure they have the authority to approve transactions. Adjust as needed to grant the necessary authority.

You can check this article for more details: Set up purchase order and bill approval in Enterprise.

Also, I encourage you to visit our QuickBooks Help page, so you can browse articles or even questions of other QuickBooks users that were answered by QuickBooks experts. This will help you earn more QuickBooks knowledge that can help you with your accounting tasks. 

Keep in touch whenever you have additional questions about the Bill and PO approval workflow in QBDT 2024. I'll be happy to answer them for you. Stay safe and have a nice day ahead.

This doesn't answer the question. Is there information somewhere showing which permissions are needed for certain activity, such as bill pay or bill approval? Those are not options in the user permissions, and no matter what combination is chosen, neither of those two activities are available to certain users. One user is even set up as a secondary admin. 

Hi there, epicwonders. Let me provide the steps for setting up permissions for Bill pay and Bill approval in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT).

In QuickBooks, certain activities depend on user permissions. You can choose a template to configure an approval system, determining who's authorized to approve purchase orders and bills, along with the specific dollar thresholds that need approval.

To set up a user's permission for bill approval, here's how:

1. Go to the Company menu, and click Set Up Approval Processes.
2. Click Get started.
3. Choose Bills, then select Set up.
4. Enter the Description name. Then, enter the Conditions and Actions. 
5. You can customize the email if you want.
6. Once done, click Save and activate.

Once set up, your account will request approval when you process your bills, just click Yes, send for approval.

Additionally, visit our website to learn how to run and customize reports in QBDT to gain insights and streamline your business operations.

Comment to this post if you still have concerns about bill pay approvals. I'm here to help in any way I can.

I appreciate the help, but again, that does not answer the question. I know how to set up the workflow. What I need to know is why a particular person who will be responsible for bill approval does not show up in the list of users when I try to set it up. 

What permissions, specifically, does a user need to be a bill approver?

And while we're at it, what permissions, specifically, does a user need to be able to schedule bill payments? The user is a secondary admin, has full rights to pretty much everything, and is an admin in Melio. Yes, she still cannot schedule bill payments. The error says that she doesn't have permission.

There should be a guide somewhere about activities like this and what permissions need to be set to turn them on.

Good Morning epicwonders, I'm running into the exact issue you are talking about. I have two people with identical access, one is showing up as able to be an approver and the other is not. Of course the one that isn't showing up is the one that needs to be the approver. Did you ever find a solution to this issue?

Hi there, C-Intec. I see that you're having some trouble with user accounts not appearing in QuickBooks Desktop. Let's work together to get this sorted out. 

To start, please create a new user with the same settings as the one that's now showing up. This helps us see if there's a problem with the account setup itself. Once done, give the new account approval permission. If it appears correctly, the issue might be with the original account. With that said, consider deleting and recreating it. 

On the other hand, if the dummy account doesn't appear either, it's time to check if your QuickBooks company file has underlying issues. To do so, we can run the verify-rebuild since this is design to help identify and fix common issues you're experiencing with your company file.

To Verify your company file, here's how:
 

1. Go to Window and Close All. 
2. Navigate to File, then select Utilities. 
3. Click Verify Data. Moreover, if you see:

• QuickBooks detected no problems with your data - this means that your data is clean, and you don't need to do anything. 
• If there is an error showing - search it on our QuickBooks Desktop support site to know how to resolve it.
• Your data has lost integrity - There is a data damage in your file. If this happens, consider rebuilding your data.

To Rebuild your company file, please follow the steps below:
 

1. Navigate to File, choose Utilities, and then select Rebuild Data.
2. QuickBooks will prompt you to create a backup before rebuilding your company file. Click OK. A backup is mandatory before proceeding.
3. Choose a location to save your backup and click OK. Ensure you don't overwrite an existing backup file. Provide a new name in the File Name field and click Save.
4. Once the rebuild is complete, you will see a message indicating Rebuild has completed. Click OK.
5. To check for further issues, go back to File, select Utilities, and then choose Verify Data.

• If the verification process detects more errors, you'll need to address them manually. Locate the errors in the qbwin.log by searching the QuickBooks Desktop support site for solutions.
• If the error isn't listed or persists, consider restoring from a recent backup. Go to File and select Open or Restore Company.

For reference, here's an article you can check: Verify and Rebuild Data.

However, if you've tried the following these steps and you're still stuck, you can consider reaching out to our support team. They have the tools to further investigate the cause of this issue and find out what's going on.

Additionally, if you require assistance with your Accounts Payable workflow and would like to generate reports on this topic, please refer to the following articles for more information:

• Accounts Payable workflows in QuickBooks Desktop
• Customize reports in QuickBooks Desktop

We'll be glad to offer further guidance with this matter, C-Intec. The Community space is always available and open if you have other concerns about this. 

@C-Intec 

Run the Verify/Rebuild Data utility. Any unresolved error messages?