Understanding Approval Workflows
Learn how TreasuryPath's approval system works, including multi-step approvals, the Tasks page, and approval statuses.
Last updated March 2, 2026
Overview
TreasuryPath’s approval system ensures that payments and bills go through the right level of review before being executed. When a payment or bill matches a policy with a “Require Approval” action, it enters the approval workflow. Approvers see pending items on their Tasks page and can approve or reject them.
How Approvals Work
- A team member creates a payment or bill
- TreasuryPath evaluates the transaction against your company’s active policies
- If a policy with a Require Approval action matches, the transaction enters the approval workflow
- Assigned approvers are notified and see the item on their Tasks page
- Approvers review the details and approve or reject
- Once sufficient approvals are collected, the transaction proceeds to processing
If a policy with a Block action matches instead, the transaction is blocked outright and does not enter the approval workflow.
The Tasks Page
The Tasks page is your central hub for pending approvals. It shows all items awaiting your review, including:
- Payment Instructions that require your approval
- Bills that require your approval
Each task displays the transaction amount, the requester, and which policy triggered the approval. You can approve or reject directly from the Tasks page.
Multi-Step Approvals
Policies can define multiple approval steps that must be completed in order. Each step specifies:
- Step name - A label for the approval stage (e.g., “Manager Review”, “Finance Director Sign-off”)
- Assigned approvers - The team members who can approve at this step
- Required approvals count - How many approvals are needed at this step. If not set, all assigned approvers must approve.
Steps are ordered sequentially. Step 1 must be fully approved before Step 2 becomes active. This lets you build layered approval chains like “Manager first, then CFO.”
Approval Statuses
Each individual approval record tracks its own status:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Pending | Awaiting the approver’s decision |
| Approved | The approver approved the transaction |
| Rejected | The approver rejected the transaction |
| Ignored | The approval is no longer needed (enough approvals were collected at this step, or the transaction was rejected by another approver) |
| Cancelled | The approval process was cancelled (e.g., the underlying transaction was cancelled) |
What Triggers Approvals
Approvals are triggered by policies. A policy defines conditions (like payment amount over a threshold or payments to specific countries) and an action. When the action is “Require Approval,” any matching transaction enters the approval workflow.
Two types of transactions can trigger approvals:
- Payment Instructions - Matched by payment policies using conditions like instructed amount, currency, or destination country
- Bills - Matched by bill policies using conditions like bill amount or currency
See Setting Up Payment Policies for details on creating policies.
Approving or Rejecting
When you have a pending approval:
- Go to the Tasks page
- Click on the pending item to see full details
- Review the transaction amount, source, destination, and reason
- Click Approve to approve or Reject to reject
When you reject a transaction, it moves to Rejected status and the requester is notified. They can create a new transaction if needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I approve my own payments?
This depends on how your approval steps are configured. If you are assigned as an approver on a step, you can approve transactions at that step, including ones you created. Your admin can configure policies to exclude the creator from approving their own transactions by not assigning them to the approval step.
What happens if an approver is unavailable?
If an approval step requires fewer approvals than the number of assigned approvers (using the required approvals count), any subset of approvers can fulfill the step. If all assigned approvers must approve and one is unavailable, an admin may need to cancel and recreate the transaction or modify the policy.
Can I see who approved a transaction?
Yes. The transaction detail page shows the full approval history, including who approved or rejected at each step and when.
Do approvals apply to all payments?
Only payments that match an active policy with a “Require Approval” action go through the approval workflow. Payments that do not match any policy, or that only match policies with no approval requirement, proceed directly to processing.