20 Sep 2024: Streamlined bill approvals and user roles

We are excited to announce a significant update to the Budgetly product, designed to simplify your bill payment process and empower your team with greater control. This release also introduces the ability to set bill auto-approval limits for users.

1. Bill auto-approval limits

Gain more control over your bills process by setting auto-approval limits for users.

  • New setting in company preferences: Admins can now set a default bill approval limit for users. The limit defaults to “No limit,” meaning users can pay bills using their pre-approved budgets without requiring admin approval unless a specific limit is set.
  • Flexible control: Set the limit to $0 if you require admin approval for every bill. If the input is cleared, users can pay bills with no limits or required approvals.
  • Dynamic updates: Any changes to the limit will immediately apply to all draft and newly created bills, ensuring your settings are always up-to-date.

Reminder: Bills requiring approval will alert users with a notification, "Bills over [$limit] require approval and payment by an admin," and provide a "Request approval" button for easy submission.


2. Streamlined approval process

When users request approval:

  • The bill status automatically updates from Draft to Awaiting approval.
  • Budgetly logs the action:
    [User] requested approval of bill for [$Amount] to [Supplier].
  • Admins are notified via email, with a direct link to review, edit, approve, or decline the bill.

For admins:

  • Easily review, approve, or decline bills (with reason) directly from your dashboard.
  • Approving bills triggers Payment.
  • Declined bills revert to Draft status, with a declined reason provided for transparency and action.


3. Unified user roles

To simplify role management, we’ve merged card user and bill user roles into a single user role.

  • Role rename: "Card user" is now "User."
  • Expanded permissions: Users can now make both card and bill payments and manage their own expenses using allocated budgets.
  • Admin updates: Admins retain full access, allowing them to manage all aspects of the platform, including budgets, approvals, users, and more.

Dashboard updates:

  • The “Money requests” feed is now “Awaiting approval” and includes both money requests and bills awaiting approval.
  • A new dropdown under “See all” links to Bill payments and Money requests, filtered by those awaiting approval.

4. New approval notifications

Stay informed with our new bill approvals notification system:

  • Approval requests: When a user requests bill approval, admin members of the budget linked to the bill will be notified. If no admin is available, the request will be sent to all admins as a fallback.
  • Successful payment: Users receive confirmation when their bills have been approved and paid.
  • Unsuccessful payment: Users and admins are alerted if a bill payment fails, with instructions on retry payment.
  • Bill declined: Users are notified with the reason if a bill is declined, ensuring clear communication.

This update is designed to enhance your team's efficiency and give you more control over your financial operations. We hope these changes improve your experience. Thank you for choosing Budgetly!

For further details or assistance, please visit contact our support team.


Stay tuned for more exciting updates!