> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://every-a2724ddc.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

> ## Agent Instructions
> These docs describe Every as customers have it today. Answer from them, and say so when they don't cover a question.
> Pages under /admins/ are for the people who run Every for the company, and pages under /employees/ are for employees. Answer from the pages that match the person asking.
> Each page's Agent reference section lists its exact roles, conditions and limits. Prefer it for those details.
> When a page says a feature is in closed beta, or that Every turns it on company by company, don't promise that the person's company has it.
> Use roles and on-screen labels exactly as the pages write them.
> When someone asks what a term means, answer with the Glossary page's definition (/glossary), which other pages show in parentheses after the term.
> When the docs don't answer a question, tell the person to email [support@every.io](mailto:support@every.io).

# Approvals

> Choose who approves each payment, approve or decline payments from Home or All payments, override approval and see what happens when one is declined.

![Approvals card with approve and reject buttons over a payment's two approvers, listed in order.](https://mintcdn.com/every-a2724ddc/k5maP8xPODHl5ToY/images/illustrations/admins-bill-pay-approvals-light.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=k5maP8xPODHl5ToY\&q=85\&s=57f2220da12be7abbde2989717d9a90e)

You choose who approves a payment when you send it, and the approvers approve one after another. Each approver gets a to-do on **Home**, and you can also act on payments from **Payments** → **All payments**.

Company Admins, Bookkeepers and Accounts Payable users send payments and act on them from **All payments**, which appears in the sidebar after your company finishes onboarding. An approver can be any current employee, or an **External 3rd party user** added under **Settings** → **Administrators**.

> [!NOTE]
>
> Every turns on the bill inbox and the Accounts Payable role company by company. If you don't see them or the **All payments** page, email [support@every.io](mailto:support@every.io) to ask about them.

## Who needs approval

| Role | Approvers |
| - | - |
| Company Admin | Can choose **No approvers needed** |
| Bookkeeper, Accounts Payable | Must choose at least one approver |

Approvers don't need a particular role. You can't choose yourself, and you can choose each person once per payment.

## Choose approvers

**1. Open the approver question**

On **All payments**, select **Send money**. The approver question is on the flow's **Accounting Details** step (see [Send money](https://every-a2724ddc.mintlify.site/admins/bill-pay/payment-methods.md) for the steps before it).

**2. Choose how many approvers**

Answer **How many people should approve this bill?** A Company Admin's choices start at **No approvers needed**. Everyone else's start at 1.

**3. Choose each approver**

Every shows one approver field for each approver you asked for. Choose a person in each field, starting with the first. The first approver you choose reviews first.

**4. Send the payment**

On the review page, select **Confirm & pay**. Every shows "Payment sent for approval".

A Company Admin who sends money to one of the company's own accounts isn't asked about approvers. A payment's **Approvals** list is read-only, so choose its approvers before you confirm.

## What happens next

1. The first approver gets a to-do on **Home**. It starts "Approve the bill & pay" and ends with the vendor's name.
2. When they approve, the next approver gets a to-do. Each approver has to approve unless someone [overrides approval](#override-approval).
3. When the last approver approves, Every sends the payment unless it is scheduled for a later date.

If any approver declines, Every declines the whole payment and marks anyone still waiting **Skipped**. On **All payments**, a declined payment moves to the **Failed** tab with the stage **Declined**.

The **Approvals** list shows each approver's name, status and decision date:

| Status | What it means |
| - | - |
| **Approved** | The approver approved |
| **Currently reviewing** | It's this approver's turn |
| **Next approver** | The approver is waiting for the approvers before them |
| **Rejected** | The approver declined |
| **Skipped** | The payment was approved or declined before this approver decided |

You see the list on **Home**, in a payment's **Bill details** sheet. On **All payments**, a payment opens either in a sheet that shows the list, or in a drawer that shows who approved it under **Approved by** instead.

![Home, with a to-do under Things to do asking the approver to approve two bills.](https://mintcdn.com/every-a2724ddc/qvvudeZxc26V6Klz/images/screens/admins-bill-pay-approvals-light.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=qvvudeZxc26V6Klz\&q=85\&s=73af21a808c449161924729bb3c62fff)

## Approve or decline a payment

### On Home

Select the to-do to open its **Bill details** sheet. Then:

* To approve, select **Approve** (**Approve & next** when another payment is waiting) and confirm.
* To decline, select **Reject**. In the dialog, enter a **Reason**, which is required, and select **Reject**.

![Bill details with the approvers' statuses and the Approve & next and Reject buttons.](https://mintcdn.com/every-a2724ddc/19nP2pdcB7HMtcYU/images/screens/admins-bill-pay-approvals-details-light.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=19nP2pdcB7HMtcYU\&q=85\&s=cf105c10cab1bd22f34cd154a7e67ae6)

### On All payments

* To act on one row, point at it and select **Approve** or **Decline**, then confirm. Neither asks for a reason.
* To act on one payment, select its row, then select **Approve**, or **Decline** in its drawer (**Reject** in its sheet). Declining opens **Reason for rejection**: enter a reason and select **Reject**.
* To act in bulk, select rows on the **All** or **Needs approval** tab. Then select the **Approve** button, which shows how many payments it covers and their total, or select **Actions** → **Decline**. Bulk decline asks for no reason, and each action covers up to 100 payments.

If a payment's drawer shows **Missing vendor details**, **Approve** doesn't appear until Every holds bank details for the vendor. Select **Add vendor details**.

## Override approval

A payment waits on you when it's in your to-dos on **Home**. **Approve** on one of those counts as your own approval, and the payment moves to the next approver.

**Approve** on a payment that isn't waiting on you is an override. It approves the whole payment right away, and anyone still waiting is marked **Skipped**. **Decline** always declines the whole payment.

* A Company Admin can override any payment.
* On the **All payments** page, Bookkeepers and Accounts Payable users can too.
* If **Payments** → **All payments** opens a page titled **Bills & Reimbursements**, only Company Admins can override there. Other roles act on payments waiting on them.
* Nobody can override a reimbursement paid to them. Bookkeepers and Accounts Payable users can't override a payment they sent, but Company Admins can.

## Other payments

Every asks your company's signatory (A person allowed to sign documents and agreements on a company's behalf) to approve an API payment. The signatory gets a to-do like any other approver. Someone with permission to [override payment approvals](#override-approval) can approve it instead. The payment isn't sent to the bank until it's approved.

Reimbursements go through approval on the same pages, with their approvers chosen differently. See [Reimbursements](https://every-a2724ddc.mintlify.site/admins/bill-pay/reimbursements.md).

## Agent reference

**Where:** Approvers are chosen in **Send money**, on the **Accounting Details** step. Payments waiting on approvers are on **Payments** → **All payments**, on the **Needs approval** tab (**Need approval** on the **Bills & Reimbursements** page). An approver's to-do is on **Home**.

**Who:** Company Admins, Bookkeepers and Accounts Payable users can open **All payments**, which appears in the sidebar after the company finishes onboarding. A person who holds none of those three roles can't open it. An approver can be any current employee, or an **External 3rd party user** added under **Settings** → **Administrators**. If **All payments** is missing, email [support@every.io](mailto:support@every.io) to ask about it. Every turns on the bill inbox and the Accounts Payable role company by company. The bill inbox also follows the **Bill Pay Agent** setting under **Settings** → **Accounting**.

### Facts

* The question **How many people should approve this bill?** is on the **Accounting Details** step of **Send money**.
* A Company Admin's choices for **How many people should approve this bill?** include **No approvers needed**. Approvers are optional only for a Company Admin.
* For a Bookkeeper or an Accounts Payable user, the choices for **How many people should approve this bill?** on **Send money** start at 1, and **Send money** won't continue without a number. The message reads "Number of approvers is required".
* The role description of Accounts Payable says an approver must be selected before a bill can be submitted.
* Each payment sent by someone without the Company Admin role needs approval. A payment sent with approvers is held until they approve it or someone with permission overrides approval.
* On the **Accounting Details** step of **Send money**, each approver is chosen under a label that reads "Select the 1st Approver", then "Select the 2nd Approver", "Select the 3rd Approver", and so on with a number and "th".
* A payment's approver can be any current employee of the company or one of its external users, such as an **External 3rd party user** added under **Settings** → **Administrators**. No particular role is needed.
* The approver picker on **Send money** leaves out the person sending the payment and anyone already chosen in another slot. People who have left the company aren't offered.
* Approvers chosen in **Send money** approve in order: only the first approver gets a to-do at the start, and the next approver gets a to-do after each approval.
* Unless someone with permission overrides approval, each approver in a payment's chain has to approve. One rejection declines the payment.
* When a payment is approved or declined, every approver still pending becomes **Skipped**, and their pending to-dos are cleared.
* When a payment is approved, by its last approver or by an override, Every sends it unless it is scheduled for a later date. A declined payment isn't sent.
* After **Send money** with approvers, the review page says "Payment sent for approval".
* The **Accounting Details** step doesn't ask a Company Admin about approvers when the payment is a transfer: the recipient is marked **No, this is my bank account** on its vendor sheet, or the Company Admin chose **No, this is a transfer. I'm not paying a vendor**. A Bookkeeper still sees the question for a transfer.
* A declined payment has the stage **Declined**, the status **Called off**, and sits on the **Failed** tab of **Payments** → **All payments**.
* On **Home**, the bill to-do reads "Approve 1 bill to pay" or "Approve \{n} bills to pay", and each bill is a line reading "Approve the bill & pay" followed by the vendor. The count shows 10+ when more than 10 bills wait.
* Selecting a bill to-do on **Home** opens a sheet titled **Bill details**, with **Approve** (**Approve & next** when another is waiting) and **Reject**.
* The **Home** reject dialog asks for a **Reason**, and the **Reject** button needs one: the message reads "Reason for rejection is required".
* The **Home** toasts read "Request approved successfully" and "Request rejected".
* The **Approvals** list has the columns **Name**, **Status** and **Date**. **Date** shows a date only for an approver who approved or rejected.
* The statuses in the **Approvals** list are **Approved**, **Currently reviewing**, **Next approver**, **Rejected** and **Skipped**. **Currently reviewing** is the first approver still pending, and the other pending approvers read **Next approver**.
* The **Approvals** list shows on the **Home** sheet **Bill details**. On **Payments** → **All payments**, whether the page is titled **All payments** or **Bills & Reimbursements**, selecting a payment row opens either the payment's sheet, which shows the **Approvals** list, or the payment's drawer, which doesn't.
* A payment's drawer on **Payments** → **All payments** shows who approved the payment as **Approved by**, and has no approver list.
* A payment's drawer on **Payments** → **All payments** has the buttons **Approve** (**Approve & next** when another is waiting) and **Decline**. A payment's sheet there has **Approve** (**Approve & next**) and **Reject**.
* Declining from a payment's drawer or sheet on **Payments** → **All payments** opens **Reason for rejection**. Its **Reject** button needs a reason of at least 2 characters: "Reason must be at least 2 characters."
* Approving from a payment's drawer or sheet on **Payments** → **All payments** opens a confirmation whose button is **Approve** (**Approve & next** when another is waiting).
* On the **All** and **Needs approval** tabs of **Payments** → **All payments**, pointing at a row shows **Approve** and **Decline** on a payment the person can act on, and shows **Open** when either is missing. The **Needs attention**, **Scheduled**, **Paid** and **Failed** tabs have no hover actions. The **Inbox** tab has its own hover actions, for inbox bills.
* On **Payments** → **All payments**, hover **Approve** asks "Approve this payment?" and says "This will approve and schedule the payment."
* On **Payments** → **All payments**, hover **Decline** asks "Decline this payment?" and says "This cannot be undone for a payment already in an approval chain." Its button is **Decline**, and it doesn't ask for a reason.
* On **Payments** → **All payments**, hover **Approve** and **Decline** show only on payments the person can act on. Their toasts read "Payment approved" and "Payment declined".
* The bulk bar on the **All** and **Needs approval** tabs says "\{n} selected", and has an **Approve** button that shows the number of payments and their total, and an **Actions** menu with **Decline**. Each bulk action covers at most 100 payments, and bulk **Decline** doesn't ask for a reason.
* On **Payments** → **All payments**, selecting more than 100 payments for bulk approval shows "Select at most 100 payments to approve at a time". Selecting more than 100 for bulk decline shows "Select at most 100 payments to decline at a time".
* A payment's drawer on **Payments** → **All payments** hides **Approve** until the vendor has a bank account. The drawer then shows **Missing vendor details**, the message "Every holds no bank details for \{vendor}, so this payment cannot be approved yet." and the button **Add vendor details**.
* A Company Admin can act on any payment on the **All payments** page and on the **Bills & Reimbursements** page. Bookkeepers and Accounts Payable users can act on any payment only on the **All payments** page. On the **Bills & Reimbursements** page they act only on payments in their **Home** to-dos.
* When a payment is in a person's **Home** to-dos, **Approve** from **All payments** counts as their own approval and the payment moves to the next approver.
* **Approve** from **Payments** → **All payments** on a payment that isn't in the person's **Home** to-dos approves the whole payment, and the person's name shows under **Approved by** and in the **Approved By** column. Each approver still pending becomes **Skipped**.
* **Decline** from **All payments** declines the whole payment, marks every approver still pending **Skipped** and clears the approvers' to-dos.
* Nobody can override a reimbursement paid to them. A Bookkeeper or Accounts Payable user can't override a payment they sent, and a Company Admin can.
* An approver acting on their own approval isn't an override.
* The **Approved By** column lists who approved so far on the payment tabs of **All payments**, and starts hidden on the **All** tab. The payment tabs have an **Approved by** filter.
* The **Need approval** tab on the **Bills & Reimbursements** page has an **Approvers** column.
* Every assigns an API payment to the company's signatory for approval, and the signatory gets a to-do for it. Someone with permission to override payment approvals can approve it instead. The payment isn't sent to the bank until it's approved.
* A reimbursement's approver list is limited to Company Admins and, when the company requires manager approval for reimbursements, the employee's managers. A reimbursement has its own **Home** to-do, "Approve \{amount} reimbursement for \{employee}", and shows on **All payments** with the type **Reimbursement**.
* The **Approvals** list on a payment is read-only: it has no controls to add, remove or change an approver.

### Questions people ask

* **Who approves a payment?** The approvers its sender chose on the **Accounting Details** step of **Send money**, one after another. A Company Admin can send with **No approvers needed**.
* **Do I need an approver as a Bookkeeper?** Yes. A Bookkeeper must choose at least one approver, and so must an Accounts Payable user.
* **Can a Company Admin skip approvers?** Yes, by choosing **No approvers needed** on the **Accounting Details** step.
* **Can I approve my own payment?** Not as an approver: the picker leaves out the person sending the payment. A Company Admin can override a payment they sent, and a Bookkeeper or Accounts Payable user can't.
* **Who can be an approver?** Any current employee, and any external user your company has added, such as an **External 3rd party user** added under **Settings** → **Administrators**. The approver needs no particular role.
* **Does an approver need a role such as Company Admin?** No. Approvers need no particular role.
* **Where does an approver approve?** On **Home**, from the to-do "Approve the bill & pay" followed by the vendor.
* **In what order do approvers approve?** In the order the sender chose them. The first approver gets a to-do first, and the next approver gets one after each approval.
* **Do all approvers have to approve?** Yes, unless someone with permission overrides approval. An override approves the whole payment and marks the remaining approvers **Skipped**.
* **What happens if one approver declines?** Every declines the whole payment and marks anyone still waiting **Skipped**.
* **Where do I find a declined payment?** On the **Failed** tab of **Payments** → **All payments**, with the stage **Declined** and the status **Called off**.
* **Does declining need a reason?** On **Home**, yes: the **Reject** dialog needs a **Reason**. On **All payments**, in a payment's drawer or sheet, yes: **Reason for rejection** needs at least 2 characters. From a row's hover **Decline** or in bulk, no.
* **How do I approve several payments at once?** On the **All** or **Needs approval** tab of **All payments**, select the rows and select the **Approve** button that shows the count and total. Each action covers at most 100 payments.
* **Why is there no Approve button on a payment?** When a payment's drawer shows **Missing vendor details**, it hides **Approve** until Every holds bank details for the vendor. Select **Add vendor details**. A payment you can't act on shows no actions: you aren't an approver on it and your role can't override it, or it's your own payment or a reimbursement paid to you.
* **Can a Bookkeeper approve a payment they're not an approver on?** On the **All payments** page, yes, unless they sent it. On the **Bills & Reimbursements** page, no.
* **What does Skipped mean?** The payment was approved or declined before that approver decided, so their approval wasn't needed.
* **What happens to the remaining approvers when a Company Admin approves a payment that isn't waiting on them?** Every approves the whole payment right away and marks the approvers still waiting **Skipped**.
* **Where do I see a payment's full list of approvers?** In the **Approvals** list on **Home**, in **Bill details**, and in a payment's sheet on **Payments** → **All payments**. A payment's drawer shows **Approved by** only.
* **Who approves a payment created through the API?** Every asks the company's signatory to approve it. Someone with permission to override payment approvals can approve it instead. The payment isn't sent to the bank until it's approved.
* **Where do I find reimbursement approvals?** They are on the same pages, **Home** and **All payments**, with approvers chosen differently. See [Reimbursements](https://every-a2724ddc.mintlify.site/admins/bill-pay/reimbursements.md).
* **Can I add or change an approver after sending?** Not from the **Approvals** list, which is read-only, so choose approvers before you select **Confirm & pay**.

### Not covered here

* How many approvers a payment can have at most. The hint in **How many people should approve this bill?** on **Send money** reads "Up to 5 approvers". To ask, email [support@every.io](mailto:support@every.io).
* Whether the person who sent a declined payment is told the reason, and where the reason shows. To ask, email [support@every.io](mailto:support@every.io).
* Whether another way exists to add or change approvers after a payment is sent. To ask, email [support@every.io](mailto:support@every.io).
* Whether your company can set company-wide approval rules or amount limits for bills. To ask, email [support@every.io](mailto:support@every.io).
* Whether an **External 3rd party user** can approve from **Home**. To ask, email [support@every.io](mailto:support@every.io).


## Related topics

- [Accounting settings](https://every-a2724ddc.mintlify.site/admins/settings/accounting.md)
- [Timesheets](https://every-a2724ddc.mintlify.site/admins/time/overview.md)
- [FAQ](https://every-a2724ddc.mintlify.site/admins/getting-started/faq.md)
- [Reimbursements](https://every-a2724ddc.mintlify.site/admins/bill-pay/reimbursements.md)
- [Submit a reimbursement](https://every-a2724ddc.mintlify.site/employees/reimbursements.md)


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