When finance teams compare small business accounting software for approval control, MYOB is a strong candidate for wholesale, distribution, and trade businesses. Its approval functionality is capable, but delegation of authority requires deliberate configuration. The default MYOB setup does not enforce approval hierarchies or spending thresholds without specific user role and workflow decisions.
What most implementations miss is the sequencing: building the delegation policy first, then configuring the system to reflect it, rather than letting MYOB’s default settings define what controls exist. What to evaluate before configuration is whether MYOB’s native capabilities cover your authority structure, or whether an additional approval layer is needed for multi-level or threshold-based control.
How MYOB Compares for Approval Control
Before configuring, it helps to understand what MYOB does natively versus what requires additional tools:
Capability | MYOB AccountRight | MYOB Business | Dedicated approval layer |
|---|---|---|---|
User role-based access | Yes | Yes | Enhanced with AP-specific roles |
Bill approval step | Yes, basic | Yes, basic | Multi-level, condition-based |
Spending threshold enforcement | No | No | Yes |
Sequential multi-approver routing | No | No | Yes |
Audit trail for approvals | Bill-level history | Bill-level history | Full decision log |
Delegation/substitute approver | No native function | No native function | Configurable |
Cross-entity approval | No | No | Yes |
MYOB AccountRight is the version most commonly used by wholesale and distribution businesses in Australia due to its inventory module. MYOB Business (formerly Essentials) is the cloud-first version used by smaller businesses. The approval functionality is similar across both: sufficient for a single-approver workflow, limited for anything more structured.
Checklist: Delegation of Authority Prerequisites
Before configuring anything in MYOB, document answers to these questions:
Who holds financial delegation authority in this business, and at what levels?
What is the maximum invoice value each authorised person can approve independently?
Are there categories of expenditure (capital, operational, subcontractor) that require different approval paths?
Who is the default delegate when the primary approver is unavailable?
How is delegation of authority communicated and updated when roles change?
Which staff should be able to create bills but not approve them?
Which staff should be able to approve bills but not process payments?
Does the business have more than one entity, and if so, are approval structures the same across entities?
The answers to these questions are the delegation of authority policy. The MYOB configuration that follows should reflect that policy, not the other way around.
Step 1: Design the Delegation Matrix Before Opening MYOB
A delegation matrix maps financial authority to roles and thresholds. A basic structure for an Australian construction or wholesale SMB might look like this:
Transaction type | Up to $5,000 | $5,001 to $20,000 | $20,001 to $50,000 | Above $50,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Operational invoices | Office Manager | Financial Controller | CFO | Director sign-off |
Capital expenditure | Financial Controller | CFO | Director sign-off | Board resolution |
Subcontractor claims | Project Manager + Financial Controller | Financial Controller + CFO | CFO + Director | Board resolution |
Recurring supplier invoices | Financial Controller | Financial Controller | CFO | Director sign-off |
This matrix is the delegation of authority document. It should be signed by a director or the board, stored securely, and reviewed at least annually. The MYOB configuration enforces the steps this policy describes, but the policy itself sits outside the software.
A bookkeeper managing AP for a manufacturing business in Newcastle received a $38,000 subcontractor invoice for approval. Her MYOB access allowed her to approve bills up to any amount. The delegation policy said invoices above $20,000 required CFO sign-off. Because MYOB didn’t enforce the threshold, the policy was only as reliable as the bookkeeper’s memory of it. When a fraudulent invoice for $34,000 arrived constructed to resemble a known subcontractor, it was approved and paid before the anomaly was noticed.
Step 2: Configure User Roles in MYOB
MYOB’s user access is managed through the Settings area. The relevant roles for AP control are:
For MYOB AccountRight:
In the Setup menu, go to Preferences > Security to enable password access.
In the Company File Access section, assign individual access levels per user.
The key access rights to control for AP are: Enter Purchases, Approve Purchases, Pay Bills, and View Purchases.
A staff member who processes invoices should have Enter Purchases access but not Approve Purchases.
A financial controller who approves but doesn’t pay should have Approve Purchases but not Pay Bills.
Payment processing should be restricted to the minimum number of named staff.
For MYOB Business:
Go to Settings > Users.
Each user is assigned an access level: Owner, Administrator, or Standard.
Standard users can be restricted from specific functions via role settings.
The equivalent segregation structure: invoice processors on restricted Standard access, approvers on Standard with approval rights, payment processors on a separate named access level.
Control checkpoint: After configuring roles, log in as a test user with invoice-only access and attempt to approve a bill. The system should block this action. If it doesn’t, the role configuration is incomplete.
Step 3: Build the Purchase Approval Workflow in MYOB
MYOB’s purchase approval workflow routes bills from draft to approved status before payment processing is available.
In MYOB AccountRight:
Go to Setup > Preferences > Purchases.
Enable the “Approve Bills Before Payment” option.
When a bill is entered, it is saved in draft status.
An approver with Approve Purchases access opens the bill and approves it.
The approved bill becomes available in the Pay Bills function.
In MYOB Business:
Bills created by invoice-only users are saved as drafts.
An approver reviews and approves the bill, moving it to the Approved status.
The Awaiting Payment queue is only accessible to users with payment processing rights.
Control checkpoint: Confirm that a bill in draft status cannot be included in a payment run without passing through the approval step. Test this with a draft bill and a user who holds payment access but not approval access.
Step 4: Establish the Threshold Enforcement Process
MYOB does not enforce spending thresholds natively. A bill of $150,000 and a bill of $500 follow the same approval path in the default configuration.
For businesses where thresholds matter (which is most businesses above 10 invoices per week), threshold enforcement must be handled in one of two ways:
Option 1: Documented policy with named approvers per threshold level
The invoice processor notes the amount and routes the bill to the correct approver based on the delegation matrix. The approver is responsible for confirming the amount is within their authority before approving. This relies on human compliance with the policy.
Option 2: Additional approval layer integrated with MYOB
A dedicated AP platform sits in front of MYOB, reads the invoice amount, and routes it to the correct approver based on configured thresholds. The approved invoice is then published to MYOB. This removes the human compliance variable from threshold routing.
For businesses processing more than 50 invoices per week or where the average invoice value creates meaningful financial exposure per error, Option 2 is worth the investment. Approval workflows that enforce thresholds automatically remove the policy-versus-practice gap that manual threshold management creates.
Step 5: Configure the Payment Authorisation Step
The final control in the delegation structure is payment authorisation: who can actually release a payment once a bill is approved.
In MYOB, this is controlled through the Pay Bills function and the banking access settings:
Restrict Pay Bills access to named users only, separate from the approval function.
For online banking integration, ensure bank feed credentials are held by a separate person from the bill approver.
For businesses using direct debit or automated payment: confirm that the payment initiation step requires a separate login or confirmation action from a second named user.
Control checkpoint: The person who approved the bill should not be the same person who initiates the payment. Test this by confirming which users can access both the Approve and Pay functions. If the same user can do both, the segregation of duties control is incomplete.
Step 6: Set Up the Audit Trail Review
MYOB records bill history showing creation, approval, and modification events. This is the native audit trail.
To make the audit trail useful as a control rather than just a record:
Schedule a monthly review of approved bills above a defined threshold (for example, all bills above $10,000)
Confirm each high-value approval was made by a user with the appropriate authority level
Flag any approvals made by users outside their delegation limit for follow-up
Document who conducted the review and the date
This review does not need to be extensive. For most SMBs, a 30-minute monthly check of high-value approvals is sufficient to catch anomalies before they compound.
Step 7: Document and Communicate the Final Structure
The configured MYOB setup and the delegation of authority document should be stored together, reviewed together, and updated together when roles or thresholds change.
The documentation package should include:
The delegation of authority matrix (who can approve what, at what amounts)
The MYOB user access configuration (who has which roles)
The payment authorisation list (who can release payments)
The named delegate for each approver when unavailable
The date of last review and the date of next scheduled review
This package is what a board, auditor, or financial controller refers to when verifying that AP controls are in place. The MYOB configuration enforces the workflow; the documentation proves the authority structure behind it.
Questions to Ask Before Finalising the Configuration
If the primary approver approves a bill above their delegation limit, what happens? Is there any system check or is it caught in review?
When a new supplier is added to MYOB, who validates the bank details? At what step does that happen?
If an approver leaves the business, how quickly can their access be revoked and their approval queue redirected?
Does your external accountant or bookkeeper have view-only access to the approval history, or full Standard access?
Are the approval thresholds in the delegation matrix still appropriate for current revenue levels, or have they not been updated since the business was smaller?
Who This Configuration Fits and Who It Doesn’t
Business profile | Recommendation |
|---|---|
Under 15 invoices/week, single approver, single entity | MYOB native approval with basic role setup is sufficient |
20-80 invoices/week, threshold controls required | MYOB native approval plus documented delegation policy; review quarterly |
Multiple approvers with different authority levels | MYOB native is insufficient for threshold enforcement; consider an additional approval layer |
Multiple entities, shared AP team | MYOB native does not span entities; a multi-entity AP platform is required |
Wholesale or distribution with inventory-linked AP | MYOB AccountRight with structured role configuration is the recommended starting point |
When to Add an AP Automation Layer
When you compare small business accounting software options, the limitation of MYOB’s native approval function becomes clear above a certain complexity threshold. MYOB is an accounting platform, and its approval functionality is designed for basic workflow control, not for multi-level, threshold-enforced delegation hierarchies.
The signal that a dedicated AP automation layer is worth adding is usually one of these: an approval override that shouldn’t have happened, a payment that went through above someone’s delegation limit, or a month-end audit question that the bill history couldn’t answer cleanly.
Adding AP automation integrated with MYOB doesn’t replace the delegation structure. It enforces it automatically, removing the reliance on human compliance with a documented policy that most staff will follow most of the time, but not every time.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I compare small business accounting software options for approval control in Australia?
When comparing MYOB, Xero, and other platforms for approval control, the key questions are: does it support role-based access that enforces segregation of duties? Can it route invoices to different approvers based on invoice amount? Does it maintain a structured audit trail for all approval decisions? MYOB and Xero both handle basic single-approver workflows. Neither enforces threshold-based routing natively. For businesses that need multi-level delegation, a dedicated AP automation layer integrated with the accounting platform is the practical approach.
Does MYOB support a delegation of authority for invoices?
MYOB supports role-based access control that can restrict who creates, approves, and pays bills. This provides the structural foundation for a delegation of authority. However, MYOB does not natively enforce spending thresholds: an approver with Standard access can approve a bill of any amount within their role’s permission. Threshold enforcement requires either a documented manual process or a dedicated approval platform integrated with MYOB.
What is the difference between MYOB AccountRight and MYOB Business for AP approvals?
Both versions offer similar basic approval functionality: draft bills that require an approver to move them to the payment queue. AccountRight is more commonly used by wholesale and manufacturing businesses due to its inventory module and is available in both desktop and cloud formats. MYOB Business is the cloud-native version better suited to service businesses. For AP approval control, both have the same limitation: no threshold-based routing and no multi-level sequential approval natively.
How should I handle approval delegation in MYOB when the primary approver is on leave?
MYOB does not have a built-in delegation or out-of-office function. When the primary approver is unavailable, the practical approach is: document a named delegate in the delegation of authority policy, temporarily grant that delegate the appropriate MYOB access level, and revoke that access when the primary approver returns. Permanent elevated access for a delegate creates ongoing risk. Time-limited access changes are safer and should be logged.
How often should a delegation of authority structure be reviewed in a small business?
At minimum, annually. The delegation matrix should also be reviewed whenever a key approver joins or leaves the business, when the business grows significantly (a threshold appropriate at $2M revenue may be too low at $8M), after any near-miss or fraud incident, and when the business adds a new entity or opens a new cost centre. The MYOB configuration should be updated to match any policy changes at the same time the policy document is revised.
Sources: ATO record-keeping requirements · ASBFEO small business resources