To maintain control while delegating team expenses and invoice payments, you can use multi-layer approval workflows. On top of that, for any outgoing transfer, you can set-up a 4-eye approval policy to make sure no payment goes out without at least 2 people reviewing it.
This feature will be useful to you if you need to delegate tasks like reimbursing expense reports and paying invoices, ensuring your company can scale without the risk of overspending.
Until the new packaging goes live in October 2026, this feature remains available through the current Account Payable and Expense & Spend Management add-ons. From October 2026, custom approval workflows and the 4-eyes policy will be available through the Team Spend Controls add-on, for Team plans (Essential, Business, Enterprise).
Which roles can set it up?
Owner and Admin roles can set-up approval workflows on the web app only.
Employee, Accountant and Manager (without transfer and/or reimbursement permissions) roles can upload invoices and submit expense report and transfer requests for approval.
Owner, Admin and Company-scope managers with transfer permission can approve and pay requests.
How to customize an approval workflow?
To ensure company expenses are properly overseen, follow the steps below.
- From your computer, go to Settings: navigate to the Tools customization section and click on Approval workflows.
- Select and edit workflow: choose the approval workflow you want to edit, either transfer authorization, supplier invoices or expense reports, then click Edit workflow.
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Set workflow rules: define the rules of the workflow by first defining the trigger (requester, amount, or supplier), then by specifying the roles/person(s) who can review and approve the request (business validation, applies to supplier invoices and expense reports), and finally who can execute the payment (transfer authorization).
💡 If you don't set-up a transfer authorization, any user with payment permission (Owner, Admin or Manager) will be able to proceed with the payment of the supplier invoice or expense reimbursement once approved.
💡 If you set up multiple rules on different triggers (requester, amount), they will apply from top to bottom. You can reorder the rules by drag and dropping them in the desired order position. - Assign workflow: the workflow will be assigned to all users who submitted a request and match the conditions defined in the approval workflow.
How to set up a 4-eye policy?
The 4-eye policy adds a mandatory second sign-off before any payment goes out. It works on top of your approval workflow and ensures that the person who prepares a payment can never be the one to execute it, and this applies to all roles.
💡 Once set-up, it applies to all transfers: regular & instant SEPA transfer, bulk SEPA transfer, international transfer as well as paying a supplier invoice or reimbursing an expense report.
To enable it:
- From your computer, go to Settings, navigate to Tools customization, click on Approval workflows.
- Select transfer authorization then click Edit workflow.
- In the workflow rules, define an amount threshold and/or a requester as a trigger, then define Approval step(s) (optional) and last, the Execution step (mandatory) - it's the person that will authorize the transfer.
- When defining the Execution step, the same person or role will not be available for selection — this is the 4-eyes policy in action.
Once active, this rule applies to all users — including Owners and Admins.
💡 Tip: if you want to exclude a user from the policy, for example the business Owner, at the trigger step select the requester rule and click on "is none of" then select the business Owner.
After enabling it, editing the 4-eye policy requires sign-off from another Owner or Admin. This is to make sure no one can bypass the rule by updating it on the spot.
💡 For more details on the 4-eyes policy, check out our dedicated FAQ: How do I set up a 4-eye policy for payments?
| ✅ What can I do? | ❌ What can I not do? |
| Create approval rules for specific requests (transfers, expense report, or supplier invoices) | |
| Set up multiple layers of approvers | You cannot create more than one approval workflow per category |
| Set up approval rules for specific suppliers or requesters | Custom notifications cannot be created |
| Set up rules for suppliers invoices based on amount (threshold or range) | There is no dedicated approval workflow for card expenses |
| Set up rules on multiple parameters | The person who prepares a payment cannot be the same person who executes it (4-eyes dual approval policy) |
| Set up multi-condition rules based on both requester and amount for transfers |