Approve or dispute

Required user role: Bill approver, AP Processor
Required permission: Approval Management, Process Bills, Approve Bills

When a bill is pending your review, you can approve it to move it forward for payment, send it back to AP for changes, or dispute it with the payee. What you can approve depends on your company's approval setup. For configuration details, go to:

Applicable bill statuses:

Pending approval: The bill has been submitted and is waiting in the approval chain.
Pending AP action: An approver sent the bill back to AP with required changes.
Pending payment: The bill has completed approval and is ready for payment.
Pending payee approval / Pending payee invoice: Applies when payee approval is required in addition to internal approval.

Approve a bill

When a bill requires your approval, you receive an email notification. You can approve bills from Home, from the Bills list, from within an open bill, or directly by email.

If Home is enabled, you can approve bills as soon as you log in.

Home for employees

In To do:

Select one or more bills.
Click Approve or Approve selected.

To review a bill before approving, click the bill icon to open it in Bills.

Home for finance

In the Bills section, click Pending approval or Pending AP action to open the Bills list.

From there, you can approve directly from the list, open a bill to review details, or use the 3-dot menu for additional actions.

When you open a bill from Home, you can move to the next or previous bill without returning to Home. Use the navigation arrows to move through your queue, and check the position indicator — for example, 3 of 12 — to see where you are. The list follows your active Home filters. When you reach the last bill, you return to Home automatically.

To approve from the Bills list:

Click Bills in the left menu.
Click Pending my approval.

If you want to approve multiple bills, select one or more bills using the checkboxes and click Approve in the top blue bar.

Helpful columns:

Coding status: Indicates whether the bill is ready for approval.
Approval progress: Shows your position in the approval chain.

Once you approve the bill:

The next approver is notified, if you are not the last approver.
The bill moves to Pending payment. If you are the last approver.

If you do not want to approve, you can instead:

Send back to AP: Add a reason explaining required changes.
Hold payment: Prevent the bill from being paid until released.
Delete: Permanently delete the bill (if permitted).

Review bill before approving it

To review the bill details before approving it:

Click the bill to open it.
Review the Bill summary for important notices.
Click the Activity tab to view comments, attachments, and history.
- If everything is correct, click Approve bill.
- If prompted, click Submit to move it forward.
- If you cannot approve the bill, click the 3-dot menu in the top right and select an alternative action.

Replace yourself as an approver

If you are unavailable, you can replace yourself in the approval chain.

Click the 3-dot menu next to the bill.
Select Replace approver.
Complete the required fields.

If you have multiple bills pending, select the checkbox in the pop-up to apply the replacement to all bills awaiting your approval. You can replace the approver for up to 20 bills at a time.

Approve on behalf

If permitted, you can approve a bill on behalf of another approver. From the 3-dot menu, select Approve on behalf.

Status impact:

If internal approval only, the bill moves to Pending payment.
If payee approval is required, the bill moves to Pending payee approval or Pending payee invoice.

Retract your approval

If a bill has not been paid yet, you can retract your approval.

Click Bills in the left menu.
Click Pending payment.
Click the 3-dot menu next to the bill and select Retract approval.
Enter a reason.
Click Submit. The bill moves to Pending AP action for further processing.

Approval emails use a refreshed design that highlights key bill information and renders correctly on mobile, so approvers can review and act from any device.

To approve a bill by email:

Open the bill approval email.
Review the bill summary.
Click Approve bill.

You can also send the bill back to AP or choose other available options directly from the email.

If two-factor authentication is enabled for email approvals, you receive a verification code before approval is completed.

Dispute a bill

Dispute a bill when there is a discrepancy you need to raise with the payee before the bill moves to Pending payment. You can dispute bills in Pending review, Pending approval, Pending AP action, Pending matching, or Review matching status.

To disable the Dispute action for specific approvers, contact Tipalti Support.

To dispute a bill:

Click Bills in the left menu.
Go to the relevant view: Pending review, Pending my approval, Pending AP action, or PO matching.
You can either:
- Click the 3-dot menu to the right of the listing, then select Dispute.
- Click on the bill to open it, click the 3-dot menu in the top right, then select Dispute bill.
Enter a reason for the dispute and click Confirm. This reason is shared with the payee.

You can also dispute from an email notification: if you receive an approval email, click Dispute bill to go directly to the bill.

Cancel a dispute

If the issue is resolved and you want to cancel a disputed bill:

In Bills, go to All bills.
Find the bill using search.
Click the 3-dot menu to the right of the listing, or open the bill, and click Cancel dispute.

Common questions