The approval and delegation matrix
Configuring who approves what and at which thresholds, handling delegation and absence, and testing the policy before you depend on it.
How-toFor Business owners, Firm staff
How rules are evaluated
A rule matches on the kind of record, an amount range, and optionally on category, entity, or vendor. Matching rules determine who must approve and in what order. Nothing that matches no rule requires approval.
Designing a policy that works
- Set the base threshold where an approver will genuinely look. Too low and it becomes a rubber stamp.
- Add a second tier for amounts that would materially hurt if wrong.
- Require approval regardless of amount for related-party payments, professional fees, and any new vendor's first bill.
- Require that preparer and approver differ above your base threshold.
- Name a backup for every approver.
- Keep the number of rules small enough that someone can explain the policy from memory.
Delegation and absence
Delegation lets an approver hand their authority to a named colleague for a period. It is recorded, so an approval made under delegation shows both the delegate and the authority they acted under.
Common questions
Then the owner approves. That is the honest answer for a small business, and it is a real control — it is the absence of any second look that creates exposure, not the absence of a dedicated finance team.
Yes, for higher tiers. Both must approve before the item posts.
Create a bill just above each threshold and confirm it routes as intended, then void it. Ten minutes of testing beats discovering at year end that a rule never fired.
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