We told you a few months back about changes coming to the workflow feature of QBO-Advanced, one of those being the ability to require 'approvals for bills' created by your team, something that mid-market size companies were definitely looking for in their accounting software. Not only has that workflow come about (the 'New' workflow is highlighted in the green box in the illustration below), but recently Intuit has implemented a change that allows for alternate 'approval authorities' for (vendor) bills. Simply follow the steps to set-up a Bill Workflow.
- Select the Workflows menu. Or select Settings ⚙ and then Manage Workflows.
- Select the Templates tab.
With Bills Approval Workflows in place, when a non-admin User creates a Vendor Bill, QBO-Advanced checks if it meets the conditions of the Bill Approval template. If it does, the Bill's status becomes "Needs approval". Until it's approved, non-admins can't transmit bills to vendors. QBO-Advanced them transmits the bill information to the 'approving authority' for approval.
- In the Workflow name field, enter a name for the template.
- If not already pre-selected in the Source transaction▼drop-down choose template type: Bill.
- In the Do this in QuickBooks section, select the actions QuickBooks will take when the conditions are met.
- Select Send for approval. This sends the Bill to the specified individual for approval.
- Under Create a approval task, Assign task to one of the authorized individuals shown as an approving authority.
- In the When this happens section, set the conditions. You can set the amount, customer, location, or a combination. (This is what activates the Bill approval process. Select Add another condition if you want to add more than one condition.)
Until recently all bill workflows had to be approved by an Admin user in QuickBooks Online Advanced. But QuickBooks has rolled-out (or at least started the roll-out) of new bill approval authority permissions that lets the Admin create custom user roles and designated 'bill approval' as one of the functions of that role. This update gives QBO-Advanced users the ability to designate appropriate level personnel the responsibilities to approve vendor bills without giving them access to information they do not need. You can see the new 'role based' permission highlighted in the green box within the illustration below.
In order to accomplish this you will need to edit the role, to edit a user’s role:
- Go to Settings ⚙, then select Manage users.
- Select the Users tab, then find the user you want to edit.
- Select Edit from the Action column.
- Choose from the existing custom or QuickBooks roles. Or select + Add New to create a new custom role.
- For Bill Approval, you must select 'Expenses' which covers all expense transactions and vendors.
- Check the 'Approve' checkbox for Bills in addition to 'Full access'.
- Enter a role name and description, then select Save.
With this new role capability it isn't necessary for an 'admin' user to review and approve every vendor bill. The Admin simply needs to 'approve' every person they delegate (designate) to approve those vendor bills. That means they may use different people to review different bills based on the value of the bill, or other factors. And, because the workflows in QuickBooks Online Advanced permit multiple criteria to be applied, almost any conditional criteria can be met.
Disclaimer: Some graphics are representative and may include 'simulated content' substituted for live content in order to represent the intended information without having to blur or otherwise redact 'sensitive' information from the reader's view.