Let your team schedule Bill Pay payments while appointing only certain users to give final approval. You can also set minimum thresholds for approval.
This article explains what this is, how to enable it and how to use the feature.
What Is This?
By default, any user with the "Bill Pay User" or "Accountant" role can schedule and pay invoices through MarginEdge Bill Pay. However, restaurants can add an extra layer of oversight by turning on the Payment Approver feature, which requires a designated "Authorized Payment Approver" to approve all scheduled payments before they are sent.
Two things to note:
- The Authorized Approver will not need to approve their own payments
- The ability to approve payments is only available in the web app, not the mobile app
With this feature enabled, you can require approval of all payments or set it to only require approval for payments above a minimum threshold.
Once turned on, you’ll be able to see the list of Authorized Approvers by going Bill Pay > Setup, and scrolling to the bottom:
If you have also requested to enable the minimum threshold feature, you will be able to see the option to set "All" or "Some" with regards to which ones require approval.
How Do I Turn This On?
Because this powerful feature controls the money flow of the restaurant, we require that the company’s controller or CFO contact help@marginedge.com to ask for these features to be enabled. When requesting, please specify:
- You want the Check Approver feature to be turned on
- Names and email address of who should be given the "Authorized Payment Approver" role
- If you want to be able to set minimum thresholds
How This Works
Schedule Payments for Approval
Once the feature has been turned on, when a user with an Accountant or Bill Pay User role schedules a payment in Bill Pay, the payment will appear in a "Requires Payment Approval" status for an Authorized Approver to review. (Note that if the person scheduling the payment is already an Authorized Approver, then the payment will go through automatically, no additional approval needed.)
When the Authorized Approver signs in, they will be able to see payments awaiting approval in two places:
- Bill Pay > Invoices:
or
- Bill Pay > Payments:
Authorized Approver: Approving Payments
You will see invoices in "Requires Approval" status. To approve these payments, go to Bill Pay > Payments.
Using the checkbox column on the left, select the invoices you’d like to pay and click the Approve Checks button. If you don’t want the checks to be sent, click the Delete button; this will cancel the payment and put the invoices back into an "Unpaid" status.
Setting Minimum Thresholds
After making the request to enable this part of the feature, you will see a box where you can set the minimum threshold. If you select "All" then every payment that is done will need to be approved by an Authorized Approver. If you set a dollar amount next to "Some", then only payments above that amount will need the approval of the Authorized Approver. If the payment is for that amount or less, then someone with the "Bill Pay User" or "Accountant Role" can finalize the payment.