With the bill approval workflow, authorized team members can review pending bills and decide whether to approve or decline them before they become payable. This guide explains how to approve or decline a bill and how to view the bill details before making your decision.
This is a premium feature available for Core and above subscribers.
Not sure if you have the right permissions? Check this article to see which roles have bill approval permissions
How to approve or decline a bill
1- Sign in to your Melio account.
2- From your Pay dashboard, select the Approvals tab.
3- In the Approvals tab, select Bills from the toggle to see the bills pending approval.
4- Find the bill you want to review.
5- To view the full bill details, select the bill from the list. The Bill details panel will open on the right.
Note
If the bill has an invoice attached:
To view the invoice, select it directly in the panel — no need to download. To navigate a multi-page document, scroll through the pages using the built-in viewer. To switch between multiple attachments, select the arrow icons at the top right of the panel.
Invoice attachments are clearly marked in your dashboard for easy identification.
6- After reviewing the bill, you can approve or decline it.
How to approve the bill
There are two ways to approve a bill.
Option 1: In the bills list, select Approve in the Action column next to the bill you want to approve.
Option 2: In the Bill details panel, select the Approve button at the bottom of the panel.
That's it! The bill will move to the Bills tab as Ready to pay. Once the final approval is complete, both you and the team member who created the bill will receive an email confirming the bill was approved.
How to decline the bill
There are two ways to decline a bill.
Option 1: In the bills list, select the 3 dots on the right of the bill you want to decline. From the popup menu, select Decline.
A popup will appear confirming the bill you are declining, the amount, and the team member who created it. You can optionally add a decline note for the bill creator in the Decline note field. Select Decline to finish.
Option 2: In the Bill details panel, select More at the bottom of the panel. From the popup menu, select Decline.
A popup will appear confirming the bill you are declining, the amount, and the team member who created it. You can optionally add a decline note for the bill creator in the Decline note field. Select Decline to finish.
That's it! The bill will move to the Bills tab as Declined. Once the final decline is complete, both you and the team member who created the bill will receive an email confirming the bill was declined.
If a workflow requires multiple approvers, a single decline will keep the bill in Pending status until all required approvers have acted.