How to approve bills in ApprovalMax

Bills get into the approval queue in a few ways. They're created and submitted in Xero, in ApprovalMax or in Dext, and ApprovalMax pulls each one in with its details and runs it through the multi-step workflow your organisation has set up for bills. When a bill reaches a step where you're an Approver, ApprovalMax notifies you that your decision is needed.

Rejecting isn't the only way to deal with a bill that needs a correction. If you were given editing privileges, you can change the request during approval without rejecting it. A Requester can also edit a bill created in ApprovalMax up to its final approval, but doing so restarts the workflow and resets every decision made so far, yours included.

Take extra care on the last step. ApprovalMax only allows a decision to be revoked when it wasn't the final approval, and once the bill has been pushed to Xero its data can no longer be edited in ApprovalMax.

1. Find the bill request in the ApprovalMax web app or mobile app, or open the notification email about it.
2. Check the bill's details before you decide.
3. In the web app, click Approve to pass the bill on, or Reject to stop it.
4. In the mobile app, tap Approve or Reject instead.
5. From the notification email, click its Approve or Reject button, or reply to the email with a message whose first word is Approve or Approved, or Reject or Rejected.
6. If your organisation uses the Slack integration, you can make the same decision in Slack.
7. To take back an approval that wasn't the final one, open the request and click REVOKE.
8. Type a reason in the pop-up if you'd like one recorded, then click REVOKE again to confirm.

As the bill moves through its workflow, the Requester and any Watchers hear about the approvals in each step, and the Approvers of the current step are notified when a decision from them is pending.

When the final approval is in, ApprovalMax changes the bill's status in Xero to Authorised and moves it to the Awaiting payment list. From that point nothing on it can be edited in ApprovalMax. Any change has to be made in Xero, by someone authorised to make it.

A rejection is sent to the Requester and the Watchers, but not to other Approvers. What happens to the bill next depends on where it was created. A bill from Xero goes back to Xero with the status Draft, and its Requester amends it there and submits it for approval again. For a rejected bill that was created in ApprovalMax, the options are to amend, revoke, copy or cancel it, or to force its approval. Its Requester can edit and resubmit it, and forcing the approval is up to an Administrator.

Revoking withdraws your own decision on that step. A rejection that comes from the accounting system rather than an Approver is reported to the Organisation Administrator.

Clicked Approve in the email and got a window saying Updated? The bill was changed after the notification went out. Close that window, refresh your browser, look over the updated bill, then make your decision.

An error saying the document can't be found means one of two things: the bill has been deleted, or you've been taken off its list of Approvers.

If the email's buttons won't respond at all, your email program may be the cause. ApprovalMax says this happens often in Outlook and points to Microsoft's support article on hyperlinks not working in Outlook. If the problem continues, contact ApprovalMax support, or decide in the web or mobile app in the meantime.