ApprovalMax vs Pulsify comes down to how much of accounts payable you want one tool to do. ApprovalMax is an approval layer. It sits on Xero, QuickBooks Online or NetSuite, routes bills through multi-step workflows and since 2025 sells OCR capture and payments as add-ons and warns approvers about duplicates and changed bank details. Pulsify is the whole AP process in one place for Australian businesses on Xero and MYOB. The invoice comes in, every line is coded from that supplier’s history, the checks run, the approval routes and the bill is created in the ledger.
This comparison covers capture, line coding, approval routing, PO matching, fraud checks, integrations and price. Vendor pages are linked and prices are as of September 2026.
What ApprovalMax does
ApprovalMax controls who approves which bills, at what amount and in what order. It replaced the email chain and the single-click Xero queue with rules. For a lot of Australian businesses on Xero that was the first real approval workflow they had.
It sells three plans, Standard, Advanced and Premium, each priced per organisation with unlimited users. Standard covers approval workflows for bills, purchase orders, credit notes and sales invoices. Advanced adds bill-to-PO matching, budget checking synced from Xero, auto-approval for low-risk bills, expense claims and a review step where a reviewer can edit a bill before it’s approved. Premium adds verification of Xero batch payments, a public API and phone support. Multi-entity is unlimited on every plan, but each entity is its own paid organisation.
Two add-ons sit outside the plans. ApprovalMax Capture takes bills by a dedicated email address or bulk upload, reads the supplier, invoice number, amounts and tax with OCR and drops them into the workflow as draft requests. It’s billed monthly by document count and works on all three plans. ApprovalMax Pay handles supplier payments, with some features limited to UK businesses.
On fraud, ApprovalMax warns approvers about a duplicated bill, matched on invoice number, supplier, date and amount. It warns about a suspicious change to supplier bank details. It also emails administrators when a bill is changed in the ledger after approval. It pulls in bills that were approved directly in Xero without going through the workflow. All of these are warnings. Nothing is blocked.
What it doesn’t do is connect to MYOB or code lines from history. Coding uses the accounts and tracking categories already in Xero, chosen by a person or a rule.
What Pulsify does
Pulsify is the AP process from inbox to ledger for Australian businesses on Xero and MYOB.
You forward documents to a Pulsify address or upload them. Pulsify works out whether each one is a purchase order, an invoice, a credit note or a supplier statement. It splits a bundled scan into its parts. It then codes every line with the account and GST treatment it learned from that supplier’s past invoices, so a freight bill with fuel surcharges and customs duty is coded the way it was coded the last twenty times.
Before the bill reaches an approver it runs the checks: duplicates against the full bill history, a changed BSB or account number, an ABN that’s invalid or not registered for GST, totals that don’t add up, an invoice addressed to a different customer and a supplier missing from Xero or MYOB. Each is a flag on the bill for a person to decide. Pulsify doesn’t block and it doesn’t move money.
Approval routing matches on supplier and amount range and runs in steps. Approvers can approve, reject, send back or reassign, on desktop or phone. Every action is logged. PO matching is two-way at line level, quantity and unit price against the order. It tracks partial and progress claims. The approved bill is created in Xero or MYOB as draft, awaiting approval or authorised, with the coding on it.
ApprovalMax vs Pulsify side by side
| ApprovalMax | Pulsify | |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice capture | Capture add-on, billed per document | Included, email or upload |
| Bundled scans split into documents | Not stated | Yes |
| Line coding | Xero accounts and tracking categories, set by a person or rule | Account and GST per line, learned from supplier history |
| Approval routing | Multi-step, roles, thresholds, budgets, auto-approval on Advanced | Multi-step by supplier and amount range |
| Approver actions | Approve, reject, comment, edit on review step | Approve, reject, send back, reassign |
| PO matching | Bill-to-PO on Advanced plan | Two-way, line level, partial and progress claims |
| Duplicate warning | Yes, on number, supplier, date and amount | Yes, against full bill history |
| Bank detail change alert | Yes | Yes, BSB or account number |
| ABN check | Not listed | Invalid or not GST registered flagged |
| Totals that don’t add up | Not stated | Flagged |
| Edited after approval | Alert to administrators | Bill is created after approval, so no window |
| Audit trail | Permanent record of every decision | Every action logged |
| Mobile approvals | iOS and Android app | Yes |
| Xero | Yes | Yes |
| MYOB | No | Yes |
| QuickBooks Online | Yes | No |
| NetSuite | Yes | No |
| Pricing basis | Per organisation, plus Capture and Pay by volume | Per document across all entities, from $25 a month |
| Free trial | Yes, no card | 30 days, no card |
Approval routing compared
ApprovalMax has more routing options. Pulsify has enough for most Australian SMBs.
An ApprovalMax workflow can have several steps, each with its own conditions. On the Advanced plan a step can check the bill against a budget synced from Xero or approve it automatically when it meets a rule. Roles let you route to a job title rather than a named person. Substitution rules stop a chain stalling when someone is on leave. If your approval matrix crosses amount with department with project, ApprovalMax builds it with fewer workarounds.
Pulsify routes on two things, supplier and amount range, in as many steps as you set. A bill from a subcontractor over $20,000 can go to the project manager, then the director. A bill under $2,000 from a regular supplier can go straight to accounts. Pulsify doesn’t check bills against budgets. What it adds is that the bill arriving at the approver is already coded and checked, so the approver is deciding on a clean bill rather than one that still needs a bookkeeper’s pass afterwards.
Invoice capture and line coding compared
Capture is close to level now. ApprovalMax Capture and Pulsify both take bills by email or upload and read the header fields. Pulsify also classifies the document type and splits bundled scans, which matters when a supplier sends six invoices in one PDF.
Coding is where they differ. ApprovalMax leaves it to the accounts and tracking categories in Xero, chosen by the requester, a reviewer or a rule. Pulsify learns the coding from how that supplier’s invoices were coded before and applies it line by line, including the GST treatment. It flags lines it isn’t sure about. On a 20-line electrical invoice with mixed GST, that’s the difference between an approver reading a finished bill and a bookkeeper coding one first.
Fraud and error checks compared
Both tools warn rather than block. Both now watch for the two checks that matter most. ApprovalMax flags duplicated bills and suspicious bank detail changes at the approval stage. It alerts administrators to bills edited after approval or approved outside the workflow. Pulsify flags duplicates, a changed BSB or account number, an invalid or non-GST-registered ABN, totals that don’t reconcile, an invoice addressed to a different customer and a supplier not in the ledger.
The check that isn’t in ApprovalMax’s list is the ABN. Payment redirection scams cost Australians AU$166.8 million in 2025, a 9.3% rise on the year before, according to the ACCC’s Targeting Scams report. An ABN check is a cheap extra signal on the same bill. Read the mechanics on bank account change fraud and duplicate invoice detection.
Pricing compared
ApprovalMax charges per organisation. A group with three Xero files pays three Standard, Advanced or Premium subscriptions, with volume discounts, plus Capture on top billed by document count each month if it wants OCR. The AUD figures are on ApprovalMax’s Xero pricing page.
Pulsify charges by document volume across every connected entity. Plans start at $25 a month for 50 documents and $69 for 100, then $159 for 250 with four entities and $369 for 750 with eight, all in AUD ex GST as of September 2026, with extra documents charged per document. There is no separate capture fee because capture is the product. The 30-day trial needs no card. Use the AP automation ROI calculator to put your own volume and entity count against both models.
Where each fits
ApprovalMax fits a business on Xero, QuickBooks Online or NetSuite whose bills are coded correctly before they reach the approval queue and whose approval rules are the hard part: budgets, roles, several dimensions, batch payment sign-off. It also fits a business that already runs it and only wanted the fraud warnings, because those are now in the product.
Pulsify fits a business on Xero or MYOB where the work before approval is the problem. Complex invoices, a bookkeeper coding by hand, a supplier list long enough that a changed BSB would slip through, several entities on one bill. Businesses that run ApprovalMax plus a capture tool and want one subscription are the most common switchers. The switching guide covers approvals already in flight.
Pulsify has a 30-day free trial with no credit card. Start the trial with your own invoices or book a demo and we’ll set up your approval chain with you on the call.
Sources: ACCC Targeting Scams report · ApprovalMax pricing for Xero · ApprovalMax Capture · ApprovalMax integrations · ApprovalMax fraud detection features
Also comparing: ApprovalMax alternatives · Hubdoc vs Pulsify · Lightyear vs Pulsify
Further reading: Switching from ApprovalMax to Pulsify · ApprovalMax + Dext vs Pulsify · Best invoice approval workflow software for Xero