This article guides you through setting up and managing payment approval workflows, giving you total control over your business cash flow while delegating tasks to your team.
Approval workflows allow team members - including accountants, contributors, and even admins or the owner - to schedule payments that must be reviewed and approved before they are sent.
Important Note:
- Plan eligibility: This is a premium feature available for Core, Boost, and Unlimited subscribers. If you are a Go subscriber, you need to upgrade your plan.
- Self-approval: To maintain security, a user cannot approve a payment they scheduled themselves.
- Admin/Owner exemption: If a workflow is based only on Amount or Vendor criteria, it will only apply to Accountants and Contributors. To require approval for payments scheduled by an Owner or Admin, you must explicitly select them (either as specific users or by selecting the "Owner" or "Admin" role) under the Scheduler criteria.
- Existing payments: Payments scheduled before setting up the approval workflow won’t require approval.
Learn more about who can set and manage the approval workflow in the Melio Roles & Permissions guide.
This article includes the following sections:
- Available criteria for approval workflow
- Where to start setting approval workflows
- Adding an approval workflow
- Editing an approval workflow
- Deleting an approval workflow
Available criteria for approval workflow
You can tailor workflows using various conditions to match your business structure:
- Per amount: Set the threshold for approval (e.g., where the amount is greater than or equal to, or less than or equal to, the defined limit).
- Per scheduler: Choose specific users or roles (Owner/Admins/Accountants/Contributors) whose payments need review.
If no specific scheduler or role is selected, the workflow applies only to payments scheduled by Accountants and Contributors.
Premium criteria available to Boost and Unlimited subscribers only:
- Per vendor: Select specific vendors that always require payment approval.
- Approver Type: Choose between "Any" or "Specific" users who have payment approval permissions.
- Multi-level approvals: Set an approval hierarchy with up to 3 levels. You can choose whether the payment needs one, two, or three approvers.
Where to start setting approval workflows
You can set up an approval workflow from two places:
- From Approvals tab (for Owner and Admin roles only)
- From Settings
Option A: From the Approvals tab
1 - Sign in to your Melio account.
2 - Go to the Pay dashboard and select the Approvals tab. You’ll be taken to Approval workflow settings.
3 - Select Manage workflows.
4 - On the right side of your screen, select + Add workflow.
Option B: from Settings
1 - Sign in to your Melio account.
2 - Select Settings in the left sidebar.
3 - Select Approval workflows.
4 - Select + Add workflow.
How to add an approval workflow
1 - Under When this happens, define your criteria (Amount, Scheduler, or Vendor).
2 - (Optional) To include an Owner or Admin’s payments in the workflow, you must select Payment scheduler is, then choose Specific users and their specific names.
Or choose Specific roles and the "Any Owner/Admin" role.
3 - To combine rules (e.g., "Payments over $500" AND "Scheduled by any Accountant"), select + Add condition.
4 - Under Then do this, choose who needs to approve the payment: Any approver or Specific approvers.
Multi-level approvals
Boost and Unlimited subscribers can set up multiple specific approvers. For a hierarchy, select + Add step to add the next level of approval (up to 3 levels).
5 - Once your approval workflow is set up, select Save workflow.
6 - In the confirmation pop-up, select Got it.
That's it! The new workflow will appear in the Approval workflows settings. The company Owner and Admins will be notified of any new payments.
You can set up as many approval workflows as you need in the same way. These articles will show you how to approve single or multiple payments.
How to edit an approval workflow
Any changes you make will apply to future payments and may auto-approve existing payments that no longer require approval.
1 - Sign in to your Melio account.
2 - Go to Settings.
3 - Select the Approval workflows section.
4 - Find the relevant approval workflow, and select a three-dot icon.
5 - Select Edit workflow from the dropdown list.
6 - Edit the required details and select Save workflow.
7 - Select Confirm changes in the pop-up to finish.
How to delete an approval workflow
When a workflow is deleted, any pending payments associated with it will proceed to be paid as scheduled without requiring further approval.
1 - Sign in to your Melio account.
2 - Go to Settings.
3 - Select the Approval workflows section.
4 - Find the relevant approval workflow, and select a three-dot icon.
5 - Select Delete workflow from the dropdown list.
6 - Select Delete workflow in the confirmation pop-up.