Set up and use bill approval and payment release workflows

Learn how to set up and use workflows with Quickbook Bill Pay.

Create your own roles and customize permissions by upgrading to QuickBooks Online Advanced. Choose what users can see and do in different areas like banking, sales, payroll, and more.

QuickBooks Bill Pay gives you complete control on your accounts payable (AP) process. QuickBooks Online Advanced or Bill Pay Elite customers may add roles and permissions to bill payments flows, and control who can create, edit, approve, and pay bills.

For example, companies can set up roles and workflows so that every bill above $2000 requires approval before being recorded and then paid.

Note:

• The maximum number of users allowed for your company is based on your QuickBooks Online subscription.
• If you have QuickBooks Bill Pay Elite, then you have set permissions for bill specific roles. If you have QuickBooks Online Advanced, then you can customize roles.

Add a user and assign a QuickBooks Bill Pay role

You can add a new user and set up the right levels of control for your bill payment process:

1. Sign in to QuickBooks Online as an admin.
2. Go to Settings then select Manage users.
3. Select Add user.
4. Enter the user’s name and email address. This will be the email address used to notify the user of required actions.
5. For Bill Pay specific roles, scroll down in the list and choose one of the following:
   • Bill approver: Users with this role can only approve bills. They can’t pay bills or take any other action related to bills or payments.
   • Bill clerk: Users with this role can add bills, mark bills as paid, and add and edit vendors. They can't approve or pay bills.
   • Bill payer: Users with this role can view and pay bills, and edit vendor details. They can’t add bills or perform other bill related actions.
6. Select Send invitation to invite the user for this role.

To learn more, see how you can add, edit, and delete user profiles.

Create a bill approval workflow

Bill Pay Elite customers can add a bill approval workflow. Here’s how:

1. Select the lightning bolt ⚡️ icon near the top to access workflows. Then select the Templates tab.
2. Select the Bill Multi-Condition Approval template.
3. Give your template a name.
4. For the When this happens block, use the dropdowns ▼ to choose conditions for the amount, vendor, location, or a combination of conditions. This is what triggers the approval process. Select Add Condition if you want to add more than one.
5. For the Do this block, select the bill approver for when your set conditions are met. Also, you may select the Email to your team checkbox to notify your team.

(Optional) Select ✎ Edit next to Email to your team to change email recipients, Subject, or email Message. When finished, select Save email. Any recipient(s) saved here will receive action required emails when this condition is triggered.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 to fill out additional When this happens and Do this blocks in the event that your initial conditions are not met.
   Note: If a bill isn't reviewed after 30 days, it's automatically denied.
7. When finished, select Save and enable.

When a user with the right permissions, such as a bill clerk, saves a bill that meets workflow conditions, they’re asked if they want to send it for approval. They can select Send for approval if they’re ready to notify the approver. Or, they can select Close if they want to send it later. In that case, the bill is saved with a “needs approval” status until it’s sent to the bill approver.

If you use QuickBooks Online Advanced, you can learn more about setting up workflows for team reminders.

Review bills pending approval

Each time a team member creates a bill that needs approval and the bill approval workflow triggers, QuickBooks creates a task. All bills pending approval appear in the Task widget of your Dashboard so your team can manage everything in one place.

To review open tasks, go to the Tasks menu. You'll see what needs to be done and who owns each task. For Bill approval tasks, the approver can select View/edit bill from the Actions dropdown ▼ of a pending bill to get more details. Then select Approve or Deny.

You can also view all bills pending approval on the Bills page. Go to the Bills page and on the Unpaid tab see all bills that are pending approval under the “Approval Status” column.

Create a Payment Release approval workflow

QuickBooks Bill Pay Elite or QuickBooks Online Advanced customers can create a bill payments approval workflow. Here’s how:

1. Select the lightning bolt ⚡️ icon near the top to access workflows. Then select the Templates tab.
2. Select Create within the Set up bill payments release approval box.
3. Give your template a name.
4. In the When this happens block, use the dropdowns ▼ to choose conditions for the amount, vendor, or a combination of conditions. This is what triggers the approval process. Select Add Condition if you want to add more than one.
5. In the Do this block, select the bill approver for when your set conditions are met. Note: Only admins can be approvers. 
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 to fill out additional When this happens and Do this blocks in the event that your initial conditions aren't met.
   Note: If a bill payment release isn't reviewed after 30 days, it's automatically denied.
7. When finished, select Save and enable.

Whenever a user with the right permissions, such as a bill clerk, creates a bill payment that meets workflow conditions, they’re asked to schedule and submit for approval. 

A notification will be sent to the approvers to review.

Approving a Bill Payment Release request

For Bill Payment Release approvers, [expectations for action by approver.]

1. Sign in to QuickBooks Online and browse to Expenses, then select Bill Payments and click the Pending Approvals tab to view pending bill payments for approval.
   You can also select View Bill Payments ‌in your e-mail notification to access the same area.
2. Use the Action ▼ dropdown to select Approve, Reject, or View Details for the bill payment.