Setting Up Bill Approval Rules

Relay’s new subscription tiers—Starter, Grow, and Scale—offer different levels of control for managing your accounts payable process. If you're on the Grow or Scale plan, you can create custom approval rules that ensure every bill is reviewed by the right person before it’s paid. This feature is especially helpful for growing teams that want to delegate bill management without losing oversight.

Note: Bill Payments initiated from your account's Payment section are not subject to standard Bill Pay Approval Rules. 

Only bills uploaded and paid directly from your account's Bills section are subject to Approval Rules. For more information, please see Getting Started with Bill Pay in Relay and Creating and Uploading Bills in Relay.

Who Can Use Approval Rules?

To access approval rules, you must be on the Grow or Scale plan. If you're on Starter, you can upgrade anytime from Settings > Plans and Billing.

What Are Approval Rules?

Approval rules let you add one or more steps of review before a bill can be paid. You can base rules on:

• Transaction Amount (Relay Grow/Scale)
• Vendor Name (Relay Grow/Scale)
• Accounting Software (Xero/Quickbooks) GL Code, Class, Location (Relay Scale only)

Approval rules help:

• Prevent unauthorized or large bill payments from being made automatically
• Add transparency and accountability to the bill pay process
• Add approval steps to payments so nothing goes out without the right sign-off.

How to Set Up an Approval Rule

1. Sign in to your Relay account.
2. Navigate to the Payments tab.
3. Go to the Bills tab in your Relay dashboard.
4. Select Bill Approvals.
5. Select Approval Rules.
6. Click Add New Rule.
7. Choose your qualifiers (e.g., “If bill is greater than $1,000”).
8. Add the approver(s). You can choose team members who already have access to Relay.
9. Save the rule.

Once the rule is active:

• Any bill matching the rule will be flagged for approval before it can be paid.
• Approvers will be notified by email and within Relay.
• Only after all approvers sign off can the bill be paid manually or scheduled.

Note: Bill Payments initiated from your account's Payment section are not subject to standard Bill Pay Approval Rules. 

Only bills uploaded and paid directly from your account's Bills section are subject to Approval Rules. For more information, please see Getting Started with Bill Pay in Relay and Creating and Uploading Bills in Relay.

Notes & Best Practices

• Multiple rules can be created for different amounts or vendors.
• Approval steps are sequential—approvers must sign off in the order listed.
• Approval workflows apply to scheduled payments as well. A scheduled bill will only go out once all approvals are completed.

Coming soon to Grow and Scale:

• Auto-release rules (e.g., auto-pay after approval)
• Approval dashboards to track bill status at a glance

Example Use Case

A business owner using the Grow plan sets up the following rules:

• Bills over $2,000 require approval by the head of finance.
• Bills to a marketing vendor always require an extra sign-off from the CEO.

These rules ensure that large or high-risk payments are always reviewed, even if the bill is entered by a junior team member.

Want More Advanced Control?

Upgrade to the Scale plan to unlock:

• Additional Rule Options such as Accounting Software (Xero/Quickbooks) GL Code, Class, Location
• Advanced automation for approvals and payments
• Bill insights dashboard (coming soon)
• Bulk payments with approvals
• Customizable CSV exports for audit trails

Frequently Asked Questions