Overview
Ramp Bill Pay isn't only fast, it has approval and permissions features to ensure your payment goes to the right vendor.
We strongly recommend you set up Approval Layers and give users AP Clerk permissions. Here's how to do it.
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Approval Layers
Create an Approval Layer: You'll find your current Approval Layers in the Bill Pay Settings page. Approval Layers are set based on the transaction amount and can have as many steps as you like. Each step can have one or many approvers, just make sure that you have one Admin per Approval Layer.
Approval history: every bill has an approval history, no matter how many steps it went through. You can view a bill's approval history at the bottom of a bill's detail page.
- What happens if you change an approval process after a bill is paid? the bill is still paid and the approval history shows the previous approval process
Can I set a permission so no one can pay a bill they created? Not currently. This is a feature we are working. Please note, if an admin creates a bill, their approval step is auto-approved and only the remaining approvers are required.
AP Clerks
An AP Clerk is someone at your business who needs the ability to draft, create, edit, and approve bills, but doesn't need to pay them. It's an optional set of permissions that many businesses grant to their Bookkeepers so they can closely participate in both card transactions and bill payments.
Assign an AP Clerk: if you're an admin, you can navigate to the Bills Settings page and type in as many AP Clerks as you'd like into the People section. Get them further involved by adding them as approvers in an Approval Layer.
Vendor Owners
If you have a specific employee who manages the relationship with a specific vendor, you can assign them as a Vendor Owner. This lets them approve bills going to that vendor, without giving access to any other bill nor any other part of Bill Pay. This is perfect if, for example, Head of Marketing needs to approve all Facebook Ads spend. Just assign them as a Vendor Owner.
Assign a Vendor Owner: you can assign a Vendor Owner when you're creating a bill for a new vendor or in the Bill Vendors page. Make sure to add them to your Approval Layers.
Approval notifications
Bill Pay has a series of notifications and communications to keep your bills from being stuck in 'needs approval'.
Email:
- A bill needs your approval (users: Designated Vendor Owner, Designated approver, Admin approver)
- A reminder 2 days after you were assigned an approval step (users: Designated Vendor Owner, Designated approver)
- You completed your approval step and either rejected or accepted a bill (users: Designated Vendor Owner, Designated approver)
- A bill has been fully approved (users: Designated Vendor Owner, Designated approver)
Slack (DM or Business alerts channel)
- Bill created and approval process began: Business alerts channel
- A bill needs your approval (users: Designated Vendor Owner, Designated approver, Admin approver): DM
- A reminder 2 days after you were assigned an approval step (users: Designated Vendor Owner, Designated approver): DM
- A reminder 2 days after a bill hasn't been acted on (users: AP Clerks and Admins if they are the bill creators)
- A reminder 3 days after you were assigned an approval step (users: Designated Vendor Owner, Designated approver): DM
- A bill has been fully approved: Business alerts channel
- A bill has been rejected (users: All approvers or bill creators): DMs and Business alerts channel
Ramp App: in-app alerts appear for Admins and AP Clerks until the bill is canceled or the requested approver approves the bill. Additionally, Admins, Business Owners, and AP Clerks can see all bills that need approval in the Approvals page.