Request and approve a bill payment
While the Bill payments approval policy is on, nobody can record a payment on a supplier bill until a payment request for it is approved. An approved request covers the bill's outstanding balance and gives the bill an Approved to pay amount. You can then pay up to that amount, all at once or in parts.
In the example used throughout this chapter, Dana Reyes asks to pay bill MT-4471 from Meridian Textiles for $20,000, and either Priya Shah or Sam Turner can approve it. For how tiers and steps decide who that is, see How approvals work.
Before you begin
- The Bill payments policy must be on. See Set up deposit and bill payment approvals.
- To approve, you must be an approver on the request's current step. The policy decides this. No role permission lets anyone approve.
- The bill must have an outstanding balance. Committed-spend bills don't go through payment approval.
- Approvers should turn on email for approval alerts, because the in-app alert is easy to miss. See Get approval requests by email.
Request approval to pay a bill
These are the steps Dana takes.
- Go to Orders → Purchase Invoices.
- Open the bill.
- Find the Payment Authorization card on the Details tab. Its chip reads Not Requested, and it names the approvers, for example "Submitting sends the payment request to Priya Shah or Sam Turner (All amounts)."
- Click Submit for Approval.
SKU.io shows "Payment request sent for approval", and the chip changes to Pending Approval. The request covers the whole outstanding balance. Priya and Sam get an Approval Requested alert, and the Approval card inside Payment Authorization shows who it's waiting on.
When you can approve it yourself
The button reads Approve for Payment instead when submitting would approve the bill at once:
| The card says | Why |
|---|---|
| "You can approve this payment under your bill payment approval policy — submitting approves it in one click." | You can approve every step yourself, so your click raises the request and approves it. |
| "Your bill payment approval policy doesn't require approval for this amount — submitting approves it for payment." | The balance falls in an Auto-approve band, so nobody needs to sign off. |
Either way, SKU.io shows "Bill approved for payment", and the bill is approved to pay its outstanding balance.
Approve or reject the payment request
These are the steps Priya takes.
-
Open the bill. In Orders → Approvals, click the bill's number in its row under Waiting on me, or go to Orders → Purchase Invoices and set the My approvals filter to Awaiting my approval.
Click the number itself: clicking elsewhere on the row opens the review drawer, which can approve the payment but can't record one.
-
On the bill's Payment Authorization card, check the Approval card. It shows the tier, the amount and who it's waiting on, for example "Waiting on you (or Sam Turner)".
-
Choose what to do:
- To approve without paying yet, click Approve. Add an optional note, then click Approve.
- To approve and record the whole outstanding balance as paid, click Approve & Mark Paid. In the Approve and Mark Paid dialog, set the Paid Date, the FX Rate if needed, and an optional Reference, then click Approve and Mark Paid.
- To turn it down, click Reject, enter a reason and click Reject.
Approve & Mark Paid appears only when your decision finishes the request. If another step still has to approve after you, use Approve, and record the payment once the last step signs off.
After you approve, the chip changes to Approved, and the card shows Approved to pay next to Outstanding Balance, for example Approved to pay 20,000.00 USD. Dana, and the default payer set under Settings → Purchasing → Payment Approvals, get an Approval Decision alert.
If you reject, the card shows Payment request rejected with your reason, and Submit for Approval comes back so Dana can fix the bill and ask again.
Pay within the approved amount
- On the bill's Payment Authorization card, click Record Payment.
- Enter the Amount. It starts at the full outstanding balance. Change it to pay part of the bill.
- Set the Payment Date, and the FX Rate if needed.
- Click Record Payment.
Each payment uses up part of Approved to pay. Pay $8,000 of an approved $20,000, and the card shows Approved to pay 12,000.00 USD. Record Payment stays on the card while some approved amount is left.
The same limit applies wherever you record a payment on the bill, including Add Payment on its Payments tab. A payment that's too big is refused, for example: "Payment of $1,500.00 exceeds the approved $1,000.00 — request approval for the difference."
Some things never need approval:
- Lowering the bill's balance, for example with a credit note.
- Lowering a payment you already recorded. Raising one counts against Approved to pay.
While the policy is on, record payments in the bill's own currency. A payment in another currency shows, for example, "Payments on this bill must be in the bill's currency (EUR) while its payment needs approval."
When the bill changes after approval
| What changes | What happens |
|---|---|
| The outstanding balance goes up | SKU.io raises a new request for the bill's whole outstanding balance, labelled Re-approval: amount increased, and matches the tier on that whole balance. You can still pay what's left of the amount already approved. The card shows how much isn't covered, for example "2,000.00 USD still needs approval". Once the new request is approved, the whole balance is approved to pay. If it's rejected or withdrawn, the earlier approved amount stays payable. |
| The balance goes up while a request is still waiting | The waiting request is replaced by a new one for the new balance. |
| The supplier or the currency | The approved amount is cancelled and a new request is raised. Until it's approved, paying shows "The bill's supplier or currency changed since its payment was approved — it needs approving again before it can be paid." |
Whenever the bill owes more than is approved and no request is waiting, Submit for Approval is back on the card, so you can ask to pay the rest. For more about what triggers a new request, see How re-approval works.
Bills that were approved for payment before you turned the policy on can still be paid up to their outstanding balance.
Pay several bills in one supplier payment
You can pay several of a supplier's bills in one payment, from the supplier's Payables tab (Payments → Record Payment) or from Pay supplier on Orders → Purchase Invoices → Aging Report. The dialog, titled with the supplier's name (for example Pay Meridian Textiles), spreads the payment across the supplier's bills.
While the policy is on, every bill in the payment must have enough Approved to pay for its share. The dialog helps you stay within it:
- A Payment approval column shows each bill's state: Approved to pay, an amount such as $8,000.00 approved when only part of the balance is approved, Awaiting approval, Needs approval, or Not required for landed-cost and service bills. Point to the chip for details.
- A warning above the list counts the bills that aren't approved for their full balance, for example "2 bills are not approved for their full balance; open them to request payment approval."
- The amounts the dialog fills in for you, including Auto-allocate, stop at what each bill is approved to pay.
- An amount above a bill's approved amount turns red with, for example, Max $8,000.00 approved, and Record Payment is greyed out. Its tooltip names each bill that's over and its maximum.
If a bill's approval changes while the dialog is open, SKU.io still checks every bill when you record the payment. If even one bill is short, it records nothing and lists every bill that's short, for example: "This payment was not recorded — 1 bill is not approved for the amount allocated: Bill MT-4471: …". For the rest of the Payables tab, see Track a supplier's payables.
Payments from your accounting system
A payment that arrives from QuickBooks or Xero is never blocked, because the money has already left your account. If no approval covered it, SKU.io keeps it, so the bill's balance stays right, and flags it:
- On the bill's Payments tab, the payment carries a Paid outside approval chip. Hover over it to read "Recorded in your accounting system without an approved payment request. It was kept so the bill's balance stays right — review it with whoever approves bill payments."
- Administrators and every bill payment approver get a Payment recorded outside approval alert: "A payment of 1,200.00 USD on MT-4471 was synced from your accounting system without an approved payment request." The email version has an Open bill button.
Messages you might see
| Message | What it means |
|---|---|
| "The bill needs an approved payment request before it can be paid." | Nobody has asked to pay this bill yet. Click Submit for Approval. |
| "The payment request is still awaiting approval — the bill can be paid once it is approved." | Wait for the approvers, or send a reminder. |
For every other message, see Bill payments in the Approval messages reference.