1. Find Bills Waiting on Approval
To find bills that need approval:
Open Bills.
Select the For approval tab.
Review the bills waiting on workflow approval.
To narrow the list to bills that need action from you, turn on Requires my approval.
If your company uses payment approvals, you may also see a For payment approval tab. Bills appear there after bill approval is complete and before they move to Ready to pay.
Learn more here: Payment Approval for Bills
2. Approve a Single Bill
To approve one bill:
Open the bill from Bills.
Review the bill details, document, line items, and approval workflow.
Make any needed edits.
Click Approve.
If you are working through an approval queue, Adaptive may automatically move you to the next bill after approval. If there are no more bills requiring your approval, Adaptive shows a confirmation message and returns you to the approval list.
Note: If you make edits while reviewing a bill, Adaptive may save those changes before approving.
3. Bulk Approve Bills
To approve multiple bills at once:
Open Bills.
Go to For approval or For payment approval.
Select the bills you want to approve.
Click Actions.
Select Approve.
Adaptive only approves bills that you are allowed to approve. If a selected bill cannot be approved by you, Adaptive shows a message explaining why.
4. Review and Edit Bill Details Before Approving
Before approving, review the bill details carefully.
Depending on the bill status, permissions, and integrations, you may be able to edit fields such as:
Vendor
Transaction type
Ref #
Date
Due date
Job
Cost code or Account
Amount
Amount to pay
Billable or Not billable
Description
Line items
Bill details can also show:
Uncommitted budget or remaining budget information, when budgeting applies.
Bill approval workflow details.
Payment approval workflow details, when enabled.
Activity and comments.
Note: Some fields may be locked if the bill is connected to an integration, already in a later payment step, archived, exported, or controlled by company settings.
5. Reject a Bill
If a bill should not be approved, you can reject it instead.
To reject a bill:
Open the bill.
Click Reject.
Enter a reason for rejecting the bill.
Submit the rejection.
Rejected bills move out of the approval queue. The rejection reason is recorded on the bill.
6. Bypass Approvals
If your role includes Bypass approval workflows, you may be able to approve a bill even when other people are supposed to review it first.
Bypass approvals may appear:
As the main action if you can bypass but are not in the approval workflow.
In the actions menu next to Approve.
As Bypass remaining approvals when you are not the next approver.
When you bypass approvals, Adaptive shows a confirmation explaining that other people were supposed to review the transaction before approval.
To bypass:
Open the bill in For approval or For payment approval.
Click Bypass approvals.
Confirm by selecting Bypass other approvals.
Important: Send for approval from the Inbox does not become Bypass approvals. Draft bills use Send for approval to enter the workflow.
7. Advance a Bill to Payment
If you are the last approver and have permission to pay bills, you may see Advance to payment in the approval action menu.
Use Advance to payment when you want to approve the bill and move it forward to the payment step.
If payment approvals are enabled, the bill may go to For payment approval before it reaches Ready to pay.
8. Send Draft Bills for Approval
Bills in the Inbox are drafts.
From a draft bill, you can:
Click Save draft to save changes without sending the bill forward.
Click Send for approval to start the approval workflow.
Use the action menu for Send for approval & approve when you want to send the bill into the workflow and approve it in the same step.
Use Send for approval & stay on bill when available to send the bill forward without leaving the bill page.
9. Split a Bill Across Line Items
To split a bill amount across multiple line items:
Open the bill.
Reduce the amount on the line you want to split.
Click Add line.
Enter the amount, job, cost code or account, and any other required details for the new line.
Click Save.
When the bill is ready, click Send for approval or continue approval as usual.
10. Understand Approval Permissions
Your available actions depend on your role and permissions.
Common approval-related permissions include:
Approve bills: Allows you to approve bills when you are part of the approval workflow or otherwise eligible to approve.
Bypass approval workflows: Allows you to bypass remaining approval steps when available.
Pay bills: Allows you to move eligible bills forward for payment.
Manage approval workflows: Allows you to manage approval workflows and approvers.
Edit bills: Allows you to edit bill details when the bill status and workflow allow it.
Admins can manage roles and permissions under Settings > People.
Approval workflows are managed from Automations.
If you have any questions or want to share feedback, feel free to reach out at [email protected].