Approval rules had one lever: amount. A routine $5K bill and a $5K bill from a new international supplier went through the same chain, and the person who created a bill could approve it.
Build rules on up to five conditions, order them by priority with a protected fallback, and turn on Separation of Duty so creators can't approve their own submissions.
Approval rules with more control
Approval rules now replace amount-only slabs with multi-condition matching, priority ordering and Separation of Duty, giving bill pay admins control over who approves what.
- Five matching fields. Rules match on amount (range, greater than, less than), vendor, department, accounting class and account, each as an exact match or a list.
- Priority ordering. Rules are evaluated top to bottom and the first match wins.
- A protected fallback rule. Catches anything the other rules don't. It can be edited but never deleted, so every bill always has an approval path.
- Separation of Duty. Turn it on per rule so the creator of a bill can never approve it, even if they are a named approver. If the creator is the only approver, admins see the bill in Awaiting My Approval and can approve it on their behalf. It works across multi-step chains.
- Names and descriptions. Give rules readable names so your approval policy reads like documentation.
- Automatic updates to pending items. When you create, edit, delete or reorder a rule, affected pending bills and reimbursements are re-matched. Steps already approved are kept.
Why it matters
- Granular control. Route a $5K bill from one vendor to the CFO and a $5K office supply order to a manager.
- Compliance built in. No one approves their own submission, and admins can step in so nothing gets stuck.
- No gaps. The fallback rule means every bill always has an approval path.
FAQ
Do approvers have to re-approve when I change a rule?
No. Pending items are re-matched to the current rules, but steps already approved are preserved.
What happens if the bill's creator is the only approver?
With Separation of Duty on, admins see the bill in Awaiting My Approval and can approve it on their behalf.
Can I delete the fallback rule?
No. You can edit it, but it can't be deleted.
