Setting up Payment Approvals in Relay

Payment Approvals let you create approval rules for outgoing payments in Relay, including ACH, domestic wire, international wire, check, and payments with or without bills attached. These rules help ensure the right team member can review a payment before money is sent.

As your team grows, payment responsibilities may be shared across bookkeepers, office managers, operators, or advisors. Payment Approvals help add structure to that delegation by requiring review for payments that match the rules you create.

Payment Approvals replace Bill Approval Rules. Instead of only applying to bills, approval rules can now apply to all outgoing payment methods in Relay.

Payment Approvals are available on all Relay plans.

What are Payment Approvals?

Payment Approvals allow you to create rules that hold certain payments for review before they are sent. This helps your business keep oversight in place while still allowing team members to create and prepare payments.

Rules can be based on more than just dollar amount, so you can create approval workflows that match the way your business manages risk.

You can create approval rules based on:

• Payment method
• Payment initiator
• Whether a bill is attached
• Payment amount
• Vendor
• Source account

Supported payment methods include:

• ACH
• Domestic wire
• International wire (SWIFT)
• International wire (local rails)
• Check

For example, you can require approval for wire payments over a certain amount, payments created by a specific team member, payments to a specific vendor, or payments made from a specific source account.

How Payment Approvals work

When a team member creates a payment that matches an active approval rule, Relay will let them complete the payment flow and submit the payment for approval.

The payment will not be sent until all required approvals are complete.

Once the payment is fully approved, Relay will automatically continue sending the payment. No additional manual payment step is required.

If a payment is rejected, the payment will not be sent. The payment initiator will be notified that it was rejected and will need to re-initiate the payment if they still want it to be sent.

How to create a Payment Approval rule

1. Sign in to your Relay account.
2. Navigate to Payments.
3. Select Payment Approvals.
4. Click Create Approval Rule.
5. Add a nickname for the rule.
6. Choose the condition that should trigger the rule, such as payment method, initiator, bill attachment, amount, vendor, or source account.
7. If needed, click Add condition to add more conditions to the rule.
8. Under Must be approved by, select the team member or team members required to approve the payment.
9. Choose whether approval is required from any selected approver or from every selected approver.
10. If needed, click Add approval step to require an additional approval step.
11. Click Create rule.

Once the rule is active, any matching payment will require approval before it is sent.

How to submit a payment for approval

1. Start creating a payment in Relay.
2. Enter the payment details.
3. If the payment matches an approval rule, Relay will show that approval is required before the payment can be sent.
4. Click Send for Approval.
5. Continue to the payment summary.

The payment will appear as pending approval. You will receive a confirmation once the payment has been approved and sent.

How to approve or reject a payment

1. Sign in to your Relay account.
2. Navigate to Payments.
3. Open the Needs Approval tab.
4. Select the payment you want to review.
5. Review the payment details and approval timeline.
6. Click Approve or Reject.

If you approve the payment, it will move to Recent while it is being sent and settled.

If you reject the payment, you may be asked to provide a reason. The payment will not be sent, and the payment initiator will be notified that it was rejected. If the initiator still wants the payment to be sent, they will need to re-initiate it. Rejected payments can be found in the Needs Approval tab by applying the Rejected status filter.

What changed from Bill Approval Rules?

Payment Approvals replace Bill Approval Rules.

Previously, approval rules only applied to bills uploaded and paid from the Bills section. Payment Approvals now support all outgoing payment methods in Relay, including payments that are not attached to a bill.

Approval activity is now managed from the Payments section, including the Needs Approval tab in the Payments table.

Existing Bill Approval Rules will be moved into the new Payment Approvals experience.

Frequently Asked Questions