Approval & Execution

Approval & Execution is where your organization decides who has to approve a payment before any money moves, and who carries it out once it’s approved. You set the rules once, by the kind of payment and how much it moves, so nobody chooses them payment by payment.

You’ll find it in the sidebar under System Controls → Approval & Execution. The page is described as Who must approve an action, and who executes it, by what it does and how much it moves.

Why use it

• Bigger payments get more eyes. One approval for routine bills, two or three for large ones. The amount decides, not the person who drafted the payment.
• Nobody picks an easier rule. A payment falls under its policy by where the money goes and how much it is. Whoever creates it can’t choose a lighter one.
• The right people approve. Each approval can be limited to a group, such as Finance, or to named people. A large payment can need one approval from Finance and another from an Owner.
• Payments made outside Mezzanine are confirmed by the right people. For an account Mezzanine doesn’t send from, such as a bank account, you choose who may mark a payment executed.

How it works

1. Each payment falls under one approval policy, chosen by where the money goes: Money leaving the organization for bills, recurring payments and anything else paid to someone outside, or Between your own accounts for internal transfers.
2. Its amount picks the tier. When the payment is published, Mezzanine values it in US dollars and finds the tier that value falls in. The tier says how many approvals the payment needs, and who can give each one.
3. Approvers fill the tier’s approvals. Each approval is filled by one person it names. When every approval is in, the payment moves to execution. A tier with no approvals sends it straight there.
4. The paying account decides how it’s executed. From a Safe, the Safe’s owners sign up to the Safe’s own threshold. From a Universal Account, the people the Universal Accounts policy names sign before the money is released. From any other account, the people the Off-site accounts policy names mark it executed once it’s been paid there.

Approvers act from Requires Action. For the click-by-click version, see Approve, sign and send a payment.

When to use it

• When you set up your organization. Every organization starts with a default policy. Check it before money moves.
• When your team changes. Someone joins Finance, or an approver leaves.
• When your controls change, such as a board asking for two approvals on anything over $50,000.
• To see why a payment needs the approvals it does. View policy, beside a payment’s Process, opens its tier here.

Using the page

The page has two tabs, Approval policies and Execution policies, with the Simulator beside them. On a narrow screen, click Simulator at the top of the page to open it.

Approval policies

Two cards, one per kind of payment:

Card	What it covers
Money leaving the organization	Paying a third party: bills, payroll, batches, recurring runs and reimbursements. The apps it covers, such as Bill Pay and Recurring Payments, are listed under the title
Between your own accounts	Moves between accounts the organization owns. Nothing leaves. It covers Internal Transfers

Each card is a table of tiers. Value tier is the band of amounts, such as Up to $10,000, $10,000 to $100,000 or Over $100,000. Who must approve shows how many approvals the tier needs and who can give each one:

You see	What it means
Finance or Admin in one box	One approval, from anyone in either group
Two boxes joined by +	Two separate approvals, from two different people
Anyone	Any member of the organization can give it
No approval, goes straight to execution	Payments in this tier need no approval
A warning icon beside an approval	Nobody in the organization can give it today. Hover it to read Nobody in the organization can fill this slot today, so the Owner group stands in for it.

A new organization starts with these:

Policy	Tiers	Each tier needs
Money leaving the organization	Up to $10,000, $10,000 to $100,000, Over $100,000	1 approval, from Admin or Owner
Between your own accounts	Up to $100,000, Over $100,000	1 approval, from Admin or Owner

Raise the count on the larger tiers if you want more people to check them.

Execution policies

Three cards, one per kind of paying account. Each policy applies to every amount.

Card	What it does
Universal Accounts	Who releases approved money out of a Universal Account. One policy for every Universal Account, every app and every amount. Who must sign lists the signatures needed. A new organization needs 1, from Admin or Owner
Safe multisigs	Each Safe executes to its own threshold. Signatures are collected here; the threshold and the owners are set on the Safe. Each Safe is listed with its Threshold, such as 2 of 3, and its Owners. There’s nothing to edit here: the settings button on a row opens that Safe’s own settings
Off-site accounts	Approval unlocks the payment; someone runs it at the account under whatever controls that account has, then marks it executed here. The accounts it covers are listed under the title. Who marks it executed lists the confirmations needed. A new organization needs 1, from Finance, Admin or Owner

The Simulator

Enter an example of an action you might take and see what the process looks like, based on your configuration. Choose an Action, the From account and an Amount. The Simulator draws every step the payment would go through under your saved policies, and who could act at each one.

Under Example, Not started lets you click a row to sign it as someone that approval allows. Complete shows the example fully signed. Reset clears it.

Change a policy

1. On the card, click Edit.
   The table becomes editable. The other cards’ Edit buttons are greyed out until you finish.
2. On an approval policy, set where each tier ends in its amount box. The next tier starts there. Leave the last tier blank for no limit. Click + tier to add one.
3. To add an approval to a tier, click + approval (+ signature or + confirmation on an execution policy), then choose a group or person, or Anyone in the organization. Add more than one to the same approval to let any of them give it.
4. Click Save.
   You see, for example, Money leaving the organization tiers updated.

If the change affects payments already under way, a window titled Save … tiers? (or Save … policy?) lists what will happen first. Click Save tiers or Save policy to go ahead, or close it to keep editing:

You see	What it means
2 in-flight items will need re-approval	Payments partway through approval start collecting approvals again under the new tier
3 items will proceed without further approval	Payments the new rule no longer holds move on now
1 payment will be marked executed now	Payments from an off-site account the new rule no longer holds are closed as executed
1 withdrawal totalling $5,000 will be sent now	Payments from a Universal Account the new rule no longer holds are sent
Tier Up to $10,000 will no longer require approval	New payments in that tier will skip approval

Good to know

• A tier starts at its lower amount. A payment of exactly $10,000 falls in $10,000 to $100,000, not Up to $10,000.
• The value is taken when the payment is published. The Approval line on the payment form is an estimate. If Mezzanine can’t value the payment, the highest tier applies, and the payment says Value unavailable — highest tier applies.
• Each person gives one approval per payment. A tier with two approvals always needs two different people, even if one person belongs to both groups.
• You can’t save a tier your members can’t fill, such as two Admin approvals in an organization with one Admin. You see This tier cannot be satisfied by the organization’s current members.
• If an approver leaves later, the Owner group stands in for any approval nobody else can give, and the warning icon appears beside it.
• Every app follows the same policy. Every app declares one behavior, so a payment’s approval never depends on which account it leaves from. A recurring payment is tiered on each payment it creates, not on the series as a whole.
• Limits: up to 10 tiers per policy and 10 approvals per tier. Tier amounts are whole dollars, up to $2,000,000,000.
• If someone else saves the same card while you edit it, you see These tiers changed while you were editing. Click Re-apply my edit to apply your change to their version, or Discard.
• An approval can be taken back. While a payment is still waiting for its other approvals, an approver can click Revoke to withdraw theirs.
• A Safe’s threshold and owners aren’t set here. Change them on the Safe.

Who can use it

To…	You need
See the page and every policy	Membership of the organization. Anyone can open it
Change a policy	Manage approval policies, which only Owners and Admins can hold
See the Safes and off-site accounts on Execution policies, and choose a From account in the Simulator	View entities

Without Manage approval policies, the cards have no Edit button. Without View entities, Execution policies shows You do not have permission to view entities. in place of the accounts, and the Simulator shows only the approval step: Only approval is shown: the accounts need the View entities permission.