Approving Bills in Relay

Relay helps you stay in control of your business spending by allowing certain users to review and approve bills before they’re paid. Approval features vary by subscription tier, with automation and rules-based approvals reserved for businesses on the Grow and Scale plans.

This guide explains how bill approval works, who can use it, and what steps to follow.

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What Does “Approving a Bill” Mean?

Bill approval is the process of reviewing a bill before it can be paid through Relay. Approvals add a layer of oversight to protect against unauthorized spending.

There are two types of approvals:

• Manual approval: A user manually marks a bill as approved.
• Rule-based approval (Grow & Scale only): Relay automatically routes bills through one or more approvers based on custom rules.

What’s Available by Subscription Tier?

Starter plan users can still manually approve bills, but Relay will not enforce approval rules or automate workflows.

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Manual Bill Approval (All Tiers)

If your team isn’t using approval rules, or if you're on the Starter plan, you can approve bills manually:

1. Sign in to your Relay account.
2. Click on the Payments menu 
3. Go to the Bills tab in Relay.
4. Open a bill that’s marked as “Awaiting Approval.”
5. Click Approve Bill.
6. Once approved, the bill can be scheduled or paid immediately.

Manual approval is a simple way to maintain control, especially for solopreneurs or small teams.

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Setting Up Approval Rules (Grow and Scale)

For more advanced controls, Grow and Scale subscribers can create rules to automatically flag bills for approval. These rules ensure consistency and save time by routing bills to the right people based on the conditions you set.

To create an approval rule:

1. Sign in to your Relay account.
2. Click on the Payments menu 
3. Go to Approval Rules.
4. Click Add Rule.
5. Choose your condition (e.g. “If bill is greater than $1,000”).
6. Select the approvers (users in your Relay account).
7. Save the rule.

Bills that match these criteria will be paused until the required approvals are completed.

Coming Soon (Grow & Scale)

Relay is continuing to invest in more powerful accounts payable features for businesses with growing financial complexity:

• Vendor-based approval rules
• Partial payments
• Approval dashboards
• Bulk approvals
• Automated release after approval

These upgrades are designed to help teams move faster without losing visibility or control.

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Who Can Approve Bills?

To approve bills—whether manually or via a rule—you must:

• Be a Relay user with sufficient permissions
• Be assigned as an approver (for Grow/Scale)
• Have access to the bill (within your team or role scope)

Administrators can manage approval settings and approvers in the Payments under the Approval Rules section.

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Best Practices

• Use approval rules to automate control over large or high-risk payments.
• Regularly review who can approve bills.
• Keep rules simple at first—start with amount-based logic, then add vendor filters once available.
• Use the bill status filter in the Bills tab to track what’s pending, approved, or scheduled.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use approval rules on the Starter plan?

No. The Starter plan supports manual approval only. Rules-based approvals are available in the Grow and Scale plans.

Can I have more than one approver?

Yes. Grow and Scale plans support multi-step approvals with multiple reviewers. The Starter Plan does not include the ability to create Approval Rules for Bills.

What happens if a bill doesn’t get approved in time?

Payments won’t be sent until all required approvals are completed. Relay will notify approvers via email and dashboard alerts.

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