Now you are able to customize Approvals and decide that certain payments must be reviewed by someone else on your team before the money leaves your account. You set the rules once, in Payments, Approval Rules, and every matching payment follows them automatically from then on.
Availability
Legal entities: Enterprise, Enterprise +
Freelancers: Pro+
Available both on Web-interface and Vivid Money app.
What can I set up?
You can create rules of the form: "when this person (or anyone with this role, or anyone on the team) creates a payment, it has to be approved by these people." A rule can require several approvals, one after another — for example, first any role, then the owner.
Who can set up approval rules?
The Owner and Admin role.
How do I create a rule?
Go to Payments → Approval Rules and select Add new approval rule.
Choose who the rule applies to (the initiator) — a specific person, a role, or anyone.
Add an approval step and choose who needs to approve it — pick roles and/or up to 10 people.
Add another approver to the same step if you want two (or more) approvals required at that stage, or add another step if you want approvals to happen one after another.
Save the rule — it applies to any new payment that matches from that point on.
Can I let any of several people approve?
Yes. You can list several people or roles as alternatives in the same step — the first one of them to approve is enough for that step.
Can I approve my own payment?
No. The person who creates a payment can never approve it themselves — that's what makes the check meaningful.
What if I'm the only person who could approve my own payment?
Then the payment goes through automatically. There's no one else available to ask, so it isn't held up waiting for an approval that can't happen.
Can I approve the same payment twice?
No. Each person can sign off once per payment, even if the rule has several steps.
What happens to a payment while it's waiting for approval?
It sits in your payments list as a draft awaiting approval, and the people who need to approve it are notified. Nothing is sent until the last required approval is in.
Can I approve several payments at once?
Yes. If you select a batch of payments, anything that becomes fully approved is paid; anything that still needs another approval stays waiting, with your approval already recorded on it.
What happens if a payment is rejected?
The payment stops immediately and is marked as rejected — no further approvals are possible on it. The person rejecting can add a short reason.
Can a payment that's waiting for approval be cancelled?
Yes. The person who created it can always cancel it, and so can the Owner or an Admin.
If I change a rule, does it affect payments that are already waiting for approval?
No. Payments already waiting for approval keep following the rule as it was when they were created. Your changes only apply to payments created after you save them.
Can I turn a rule off without deleting it?
Yes — you can disable a rule and re-enable it later, or delete it entirely if you no longer need it.
Is there a record of who approved what?
Yes. You can see who approved it and when, and any rejection or cancellation.
Do all payments go through approval rules?
Approval rules apply to SEPA and SWIFT payments, and also cover bills you upload for payment. Please keep in mind that cross currency payments don’t go through the approval rule you set up.
What if no rule matches my payment?
There's always a fallback: the payment still needs approval from the Owner or an Admin. Payments from your team need approval unless the person sending them already has that right .