Approve several draft bills at once
Select draft bills on the Draft tab, check what will happen to each one, and approve them together.
- Who can do this
- Owners, or people with Approve bills and View bills
- Where
- Expenses & bills, then Bills
- You'll need
- Draft bills with lines and a positive total, in your business currency, dated in an open period
On this page
Approve the drafts you have checked in one go. Each bill is approved on its own, so one that fails does not stop the others.
WarningApproving posts each bill to your books on its bill date. You can't undo the approvals together, and an approved bill can't go back to draft. To reverse one, void that bill.
Approve the drafts
- Open Expenses & bills, then Bills.
- Select the Draft tab above the table, or the Draft card at the top.
- Read the To approve column for each draft.
- Select the checkbox beside each draft, or the checkbox in the table heading to select every draft shown.
- Select the approve button in the bar, such as Approve 3 bills.
- Check the groups in the dialog and any notes under Check before approving.
- Select the approve button in the dialog.
The Draft tab shows up to 200 drafts on a page, and you can approve up to 200 bills at a time. Approve the rest in a second go.
What the To approve column says
| To approve | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Ready | Approving posts the bill straight away. |
| Needs approval | An approval rule covers its amount, so it goes to an approver and stays a draft until they finish. |
| Can't approve yet | The reason is shown: No lines yet, Total is zero, Dated in a closed period, or not in your business currency, such as Not in USD. |
| Waiting for approval | Already sent to an approver. It has no checkbox. |
You can still select a draft marked Can't approve yet. It is named in the dialog and left as it is.
What the dialog shows
- Approved now lists the bills that post to your books, with their total. Accounts Payable goes up by that total, and the bills move to Unpaid.
- Sent for approval lists the bills your approval rule covers.
- Left as drafts lists the bills that can't be approved yet, each with its reason and an Open link. Nothing changes on these.
- Check before approving warns about a vendor that is inactive or not approved, and about a line with no account. Such a bill is still approved, and a line with no account posts to 6000 Operating Expense.
Select Cancel to close the dialog without approving anything.
After you approve
A message on the Draft tab says how many bills were approved and posted and how many were sent for approval. It lists any bill that is still a draft, with the reason. A bill whose total changed after you selected it is also left as a draft, so you can look at it again.
From the message you can:
- Open the bills just approved, with a button such as See the 3 approved.
- Open Pay bills with those bills selected, with a button such as Pay these 3 bills. This needs Create payments to vendors.
- Select Open Approvals to see the bills sent to an approver.
Approving does not pay or email a vendor. Next, pay several bills at once. To approve from a bill's own page, see Approve a draft bill.