How to set up bill approval in MYOB

Short answer

1. Check which MYOB product you use.
2. Limit who can record bills in MYOB.
3. Get each bill approved before it is entered.
4. Keep a record of who approved it and when.

Before you start

• Find out your MYOB product. MYOB Acumatica has built-in approval workflows. AccountRight and MYOB Business are different products.
• List who raises bills and who approves them.
• Decide your limits, for example every bill over $5,000 needs a second person.

The manual way in MYOB

MYOB Acumatica has approval maps that route bills through one or more approvers. MYOB Help describes single-stage, multistage and parallel approval for it. This guide is for the other products.

For AccountRight and MYOB Business, the manual method is a process, not a setting:

1. Limit access. In your file, set user access so only trusted users can record or edit bills.
2. Collect bills in one place, such as a shared inbox or In Tray. Do not let bills go straight into the file.
3. Send each bill to its approver by email or a shared sheet. Ask for a yes in writing.
4. Enter the bill only after the approval.
5. Save the approval email or note with the bill record as an attachment.
6. At month end, compare the bills list with your approvals.

Limits to know:

• MYOB does not enforce the process. It depends on people following it.
• Chasing approvals by email takes time and is easy to miss.

The Pulsify way

Pulsify holds the bill and sends it to MYOB only after approval.

1. Forward the supplier invoice to your Pulsify address. Pulsify reads the lines, codes the account and GST on each line, and runs its checks.
2. Open Approvals in the sidebar. Every company starts with a default rule: any Admin or Approver can approve.
3. To add your own steps, click Enable multi-step approvals. Click Add step, then Add approver, and pick a person, a team or a role.
4. Add a condition to each row: amount, supplier, GL account or job.
5. Click Try an invoice to see who would be asked. Then Save board.
6. When the last step is approved, Pulsify creates the bill in MYOB. Each approval is in the bill’s activity log.

Custom steps need the Approval Workflows Add-on, billed per company.

Worked example

Example Plumbing Supplies sends a $7,500 invoice. Your rule: bills under $2,000 are approved by the office manager. Bills of $2,000 or more also go to the owner.

Step	Who	Rule
1	Office manager	Any bill
2	Owner	$2,000 or more

The $7,500 bill goes to both. A $600 bill stops at step 1. Nothing is entered in MYOB until the last step is done.

Common mistakes

• Entering the bill first and asking for approval later. The bill is then in your books before anyone has said yes.
• Giving every user the same access to purchases.
• Keeping approvals in email threads you cannot search at audit time.

Next step

Try an invoice to run a bill through your own approval steps. Setup is in the approval workflows guide. We also have a post on designing a delegation of authority structure in MYOB.