Payables has its own five roles, set by an Admin in Payables Settings. They are separate from your wamo team member access levels (Director, Manager & Accountant, Employee). The one place the two meet is releasing a payment, explained below.
The roles
Role | Typical permissions |
Admin | Full access — manage settings, roles, approval policies, team, vendors, bills and payments. |
AP clerk | Day-to-day bill handling — add, edit, code and review bills, and manage vendors. Cannot approve bills, release payments or change settings. |
Approver | Reviews and codes bills, and approves or rejects the ones routed to them. Cannot add bills, manage vendors or pay. |
Payer | Releases payments on approved bills. |
Viewer | Read-only — can see everything, take no action. |
Permissions at a glance
Capability | Admin | AP clerk | Approver | Payer | Viewer |
Add and edit bills | Yes | Yes | — | — | — |
Code and review | Yes | Yes | Yes | — | — |
Approve bills | Yes | — | Yes | — | — |
Release payments | Yes | — | — | Yes | — |
Manage vendors | Yes | Yes | — | — | — |
Change settings and roles | Yes | — | — | — | — |
View everything | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Give each person the least access they need. Only Admin and Payer can release payments, so keep those two roles tight.
How Payables roles work with your team member access
To release a payment, a person must be allowed to do it in both places:
Their Payables role must be Admin or Payer, and
their wamo team member access must allow sending money. Employees, and Manager & Accountant team members, cannot send money from the account — see [Link: Managing your team].
In practice:
A team member with Employee access who is made Admin or Payer in Payables can do everything that role allows — except release the payment.
A Director who is made Viewer in Payables can see every bill, but cannot approve or pay any of them.
Frequently asked questions
Who can change someone's Payables role? Only an Admin, in Payables Settings.
Can an Approver approve a bill they submitted themselves? Yes. If you want a second person to sign off, build that into your approval policies.
Can an Approver change a bill before approving it? An Approver can review and code the bill, then approve or reject it. Editing the extracted details is done by an Admin or AP clerk — see [Link: How do I review and edit a bill before submitting it?].