Reviewing and approving a payment batch

After Payees and amounts, a payment batch has two more steps: Review, where you check what the batch pays, and Submit, where it is approved or sent to someone else to approve.

This appears only when it is turned on for your organisation, and you need the Can access Payments permission. Approving fields and batches, returning a batch and reassigning its reviewer also need Can approve Payment Batches. Labels that name Milestone, Application, Applicant and Contract use your organisation's own term if you've renamed it.

Review the payments

Review lists every payment in the batch: who it is to, what it pays for, the amount and the bank account it will be paid into.

The bank account comes from the payment's contract when the contract has one, otherwise from the applicant's profile. It is shown here but can't be changed here: bank accounts are changed on the contract or the applicant, by someone allowed to edit them.

You see the last digits of the account. If you can read the contract or applicant it comes from, select Show number to see the whole number. Each time you do, it is recorded.
If you can't read where the account comes from, or none is kept, the account shows as Not available.

Approve or decline payment fields

A milestone's template can mark some of its fields as needed for payment, such as an invoice. Each of those fields shows under Finance approval with what the applicant submitted, and Approve and Decline.

Each decision shows who made it and when.
Decline lets you add a reason. A declined field leaves the milestone Approved.
When every payment field of a milestone is approved, the milestone shows Finance Approved. A milestone with no payment fields never needs this.
You can change a decision until the batch is approved. After that, decisions are locked.

If you don't have Can approve Payment Batches, the buttons are there but you can't use them.

When you have checked everything, select Next.

Submit: approve now or send for review

Submit offers what you are allowed to do:

Approve now approves the batch yourself.
Send it to someone else for review sends it to another administrator who can approve payment batches. Choose them from the list; you aren't in it. If you don't choose anyone, Backed shows "Select someone to review this batch". They get a task linking to the batch, and an email if their email preferences allow it. The batch becomes Sent for Review.

Approve the batch

Before you approve, Submit shows how many payments and recipients the batch has, its total, its GST and your milestone approval limit. Your limit applies to approving milestones, not to this batch: a payment above it can still be approved here.

Approve Payment Batch can't be used while something stands in the way. Backed lists each thing, for example a payment with no amount, or payment fields still to approve, naming each milestone. Approve those fields on Review, or remove the payment, and the button becomes available.

Confirm unverified bank accounts

When the batch makes a first payment to a bank account that isn't verified for its current number, Submit shows Bank accounts to confirm: each recipient, whose account it is and its last digits. Choose how you verified them under How did you verify them?, add a Note if it helps, and tick "I have verified these bank accounts". Approve Payment Batch waits for both. When no account needs confirming, this doesn't appear. See Verifying bank accounts.

Approval asks you to confirm. Once approved, the batch and every payment in it are Approved, with your name and the time, and this can't be undone. Correct a payment after approval by editing or deleting it.

Return a batch or change its reviewer

While a batch is Sent for Review, anyone who can approve payment batches can:

Approve Payment Batch, as above;
Return to Draft: enter a note saying why. The note is required. The batch goes back to Draft, its reviewer is cleared, and whoever prepared it is notified with your note. They can change it and send it for review again.
Reassign Reviewer: choose someone else to review it. They get a new task.

After approval

Once approved, Backed shows "You have created a payment batch. You can now mark these Milestones as paid." Select Mark as Paid when the payments have been made. Recipients are notified.