Approval Policies let you define when an action requires review before it can proceed. Use them to reduce risk, enforce dual control, and keep a clear audit trail across payments, payees, and FX trades.
You can configure policies in Team → Approval Policies:
What Approval Policies cover
You can create policies for the following actions:
Per Payment — individual payments
Per Batch Payment — batch payments
Per Payee Creation — adding a new payee
Per Payee Update — editing an existing payee
Payee Deletion — deleting a payee
FX Trades — foreign exchange trades
When a team member starts one of these actions and a matching policy applies, an approval request is created. The action progresses only once the required approvals are completed (or is rejected/expires, depending on your setup).
Default vs custom policies
In Approval Policies, you can work with:
Default policies — the predefined system policies. They apply automatically across the relevant events unless a custom policy has been defined. You cannot create or edit default policies.
Custom policies — the policies you configure yourself. Use these for your organisation’s standard controls and for more specific rules; they can override default policies.
How a policy works
Each policy typically combines:
When it applies — for example, a payment amount range:
Who must approve — one or more approvers, with optional alternative paths:
How approvals are counted — any order or a fixed order:
How long the request stays open — no expiry, or a set expiry window:
Optional scope — limit to specific users/roles, and whether the rule applies to API-created payments:
Amount threshold (payments)
For payment-related policies, you can set an amount range, for example:
If payment amount is greater or equal to £X and less than £Y
Only payments that fall within that range will trigger this policy.
Approval rules
Under Approval option 1, choose who must approve (Require → select approver).
You can:
Add another approver within the same option — all listed approvers are required for that path.
Add an approval option (OR) — create an alternative path. If any one approval option is fully completed, the requirement can be satisfied.
This supports multi-person (“multi-eye”) approval without locking you into a single rigid path.
Approval order
Choose how confirmations are counted:
Any order — approvers can confirm in any sequence.
In order — approvers must confirm in the sequence you define.
Request expiry
Control how long a request stays open:
No expiry — the request remains open until it is approved, rejected, or otherwise closed.
Expires after — set a period (for example, minutes, hours, or days). Expired requests will not accept new approvals and may need to be recreated.
Tip: Expired requests help keep your Approvals queue clean and reduce the risk of old items being actioned by mistake.
Limit the rule to specific users (optional)
By default, a policy can apply to Any user or role. Optionally, restrict it to a specific user or role so only actions started by those people trigger the rule.
API-created payments
For payment policies, you can choose to Apply this rule on payments created over API. Turn this on if you want the same approval controls for payments submitted via API as for payments created in the web app.
Creating or editing a policy
Go to Team → Approval Policies.
Choose the action type (for example, Per Payment or Per Payee Creation):
Create a new policy or open an existing one.
Set the conditions (for instance, the payment amounts), add the required approvers and/or approval options:
Feel free to check Additional options:
Use Preview to check how the policy will look once saved (optional), then Save Policy:
Only users with the right permissions can manage Approval Policies.
When the policy is saved, you will get a new pop-up, and from there, you can Activate the policy now, or Save as Deactivated/Activated:
Here is how it will look inside your account:
Approving or rejecting a request
Open the relevant approval request (from Requests in the web app).
Review the details — amount, payee, creator, reason, and any other risk indicators.
Select Approve or Reject.
Add a reason if prompted.
Confirm.
If Slack approvals are enabled for your organisation, eligible approvers may also act from Slack. Slack approval still follows your policy rules and does not skip later payment or compliance checks.
Request statuses
Status | Meaning |
Pending | Waiting for one or more required approvals |
Approved | Approval requirements have been met |
Rejected | An approver declined the request |
Expired | The request timed out and no longer accepts approvals |
Not needed | No approval was required for this item |
Important: Approval confirms authorisation only. A payment can still fail or remain unsent after approval if later checks fail (for example, balance, provider, or compliance). Funds may also be reserved while a payment is pending approval, so available balance can reduce before the payment is sent.
Example setups
Here are common patterns teams configure:
Release payments under a set amount without approval; require approval above that amount.
Require two or more approvers for high-value payments (for example above £100,000).
Allow a specific user or role to create payees only after another person approves.
Require approval for payee updates and deletions to protect against unauthorised changes.
Apply the same payment rules to API-created payments as to web-created ones.
Set requests to expire after a fixed period so stale approvals do not sit open indefinitely.
Good practice
Keep amount bands clear and non-overlapping so it is obvious which policy applies.
Prefer named roles or approval groups over individuals where possible, so staffing changes do not break your flow.
Use In order only when sequence matters; otherwise Any order is usually faster.
Align expiry with how quickly your team reviews requests.
Remind creators that they generally cannot approve their own requests — another eligible approver must act.
After approving, check the underlying payment, payee, or FX trade status if the action does not complete immediately.