Set up a workflow: WorkApproved help

A workflow is the list of rules that decides who approves each bill, and you check it by reading the plain-words summary the screen writes for you.

Before you start

Connect Xero first. See Connect Xero.
You need to be an administrator. Auditors can read workflows but not change them.
The people who will approve need to be listed first. See Add approvers and people.

Turn on a type of document

Open your organisation, then What gets approved.
Each type of document is called a stream: Bills, Sales invoices or Purchase orders. Most people start with Bills.
Choose Turn on. If the stream has no workflow yet, WorkApproved asks you to confirm, because everything will go to you until you set one up. Choose Turn on anyway.
Choose Set up a workflow (or Edit workflow). Someone who can only read it sees View workflow.

Turning a stream on or off only affects documents that arrive from then on. An approval already under way is not changed. Turning one off asks for a reason, which is kept in the audit log.

Start from a template

Pick the one closest to how you work. It fills in the steps, and you can change anything before you save.

Everything to one person: every bill goes to one person to approve.
Small bills approved automatically: bills under an amount you choose are approved automatically. The rest go to one person.
Tiered by amount: one person approves every bill. From an amount you choose, a second person approves as well.
Repeating bills approved automatically: bills made from the Xero repeating templates you pick are approved automatically. The rest go to one person.
Line by line, by account or tracking category: each line goes to the person responsible for its account or tracking category.

Amounts exclude tax.

Automatic approval waits for the risk checks. A bill with a high risk flag, or one whose attachment could not be read, goes to a person instead. See What the risk flags mean.

Check the "In plain words" summary

The In plain words box always shows what your workflow will do. It updates as you change things, even before you save. For example:

Bills under $500 are approved automatically. Everything else goes to Matt. If nothing else applies, Matt gets it as an exception.

Read it as if you were explaining it to the board. If it does not say what you mean, change the steps until it does.

If nothing else applies, the bill goes to the person named under If nothing else applies, send to. That bill is called an exception. Nothing is ever approved by default: an exception waits for a person.

Reminders

In the workflow's settings you can choose Nudge after (days) and Escalate after (days). A nudge reminds the approver. An escalation passes the bill to the administrators, and any one of them can then decide it. Nudge an unanswered question after (days) reminds the person who has not answered a question.

Try it

Try it runs your workflow, including changes you have not saved, against recent bills already in WorkApproved. Nothing is saved or approved, and Xero is not contacted. It shows what would happen to each, such as which would be approved automatically, who would get the rest, and why any would become exceptions.

Save

Under Why are you changing it?, write a short reason. It is kept with this version, shown in the history, and printed on certificates of bills approved under it.
Choose Save and activate, or Save as a draft.
A Before you save box may list things to check, such as an approver who has not accepted their invitation. If bills are being approved now, choose Keep them on the current version or Restart them on the new version. A restart cancels the approvals so far, and the certificate records it as "workflow changed".

The Version history link shows every version, who saved it and why.

Two settings to confirm

The setup checklist step Check how approvals are decided asks you to confirm two settings. They are also on the Approval settings page of your organisation. They control what an approver may do:

The submitter may approve their own documents. The bill still goes through the workflow. The certificate says when the person who submitted a bill also approved it.
In new workflows, one decision covers all of a person's steps. Someone who approves at one step also clears later steps where they are an approver. Each workflow can change this in its own settings.

These are controls over your money, so choose them deliberately. Weakening one asks you for a reason, which is kept in the audit log.

Add the people

Everyone who takes part is listed under People. Someone without a login still approves from the emails sent to them. See Add approvers and people and Approve by email.

Set up a workflow