ApprovalMax

A must for any company with bill and expense approval needs

Comments: We have been using the app with clients, and it has improved payment turnaround for employee expense reimbursements and vendor payments, and reduced our team's time in chasing for approvals for bills.

Pros:

Seamless approval process for teams. The app can handle very complex approval rules, and even coverage when people go on vacation. They are actively developing, so we're seeing lots of new features all the time. They recently added receipt capture (get your bills and receipts into the app with ease and OCR that does the data entry for you!), and budget checking which helps approvers to confirm the expense to the overall budget without needing to jump into manual spreadsheets or accounting software. Notifications and the app make it easy to get approvals quickly and chase down outstanding approvals avoiding month end delays.

Cons:

Until recently, we missed having the receipt capture feature. That has been solved.

ApprovalMax - Game Changer

Comments: ApprovalMax has been transformative not only for our own operations but also in the accounts payable services we provide to clients. Getting ApprovalMax up and running is quick and straightforward. With just a few clicks, it connects to Xero (and also integrates seamlessly with Netsuite, QuickBooks, and CIN7), allowing us to set up customised approval workflows. These workflows can be as simple or as complex as needed, accommodating multi-level approvals with ease. Once configured, the system takes over, and approvers receive email notifications whenever a bill is awaiting approval. By importing budgets into Xero, approvers can immediately see the budget impact of each approval, a feature I find particularly useful for tracking expenses against budget in real-time. When a bill is approved, ApprovalMax automatically attaches a full audit trail in Xero, greatly simplifying our interactions with auditors, especially for our not-for-profit clients. With ApprovalMax, we’ve completely eliminated paper processes and gained oversight into pending approvals, enabling us to close month-end faster and more efficiently. Whenever I’ve needed support, the ApprovalMax customer service team has been prompt, knowledgeable, and responsive, making the experience even smoother.

Pros:

The simplicity of setting up a client with approval workflows

Cons:

The Slack integration is great for being notified of new bills to approve. But unfortunately you still need to have email notifications turned on. I'm sure they'll fix this soon.

Stay away there's better vendors out there.

Pros:

none really, approvals are not easily customizable, you cannot setup logic to look for double billing unless its same invoice number, too simple for what the charge

Cons:

After cancelling account they kept charging subscription, be careful to make sure you're not getting scammed like we did.

Great Product to use

Comments: Great overall experience - simple interface and intuitive. Has flexibility for various client structures and operations, from more simple to complex

Pros:

Ability to set approval matrixes to allow different organisational levels of approval. Also the ability to verify supplier banking details before they could be used.

Cons:

No real dislikes - would be handy to be able to make supplier payments directly from the platform, but not a deal breaker

Full financial control system

Comments: I’d definitely recommend it if you’re struggling to keep track of what’s going on, have budgets to track & need internal sign off. Having everything in one place, you can give staff access to ApprovalMax rather than the accounting system. They run regular demos & live webinars for support purposes as well.

Pros:

ApprovalMax is great if you have a team or separate finance team/external sign-off. It’s intuitive to use, easy to build workflows & a great app for approvers. The new features such as Capture, means you can deal with the whole approval process directly in the app, making it easier for users. It has good reporting including auditing for fraud purposes. Features such as being able to temporarily assign another approved when on holiday & have ‘either/or’ approval chains means it avoids bottlenecks.

Cons:

The partner dashboard isn’t the best for practices & seeing all your clients & subscriptions. Sometimes the set up can take a bit of time.

XERO Loves Approval Max & So Do We

Pros:

Ease of use and administration Visually pleasing Great back off support

Cons:

It would be great to get a summary report of all approved POs in a 24 hour period in the same format as the PO approval email sent to an individual who is not part of any workflows

Game changer

Comments: Overall I would recommend ApprovalMax. It's been a game changer for us and allows us to be paperless. Approvers can add a note when approving or rejecting. Easy to transfer workflow following staff change.

Pros:

ApprovalMax allows us to ensure all invoices are approved by the relevant members of staff AND management to reduce the risk of incorrect or fraudulent invoices being paid. The 'Report' function allows me to see who has invoices to approve, at both levels - though being able to sort alphabetically by Initiator or Management would be helpful

Cons:

Slow refresh rate can be frustrating as approvers think they've approved everything when they haven't.

Revolutionary Tool

Comments: Love this tool. It is a huge time saver, the audit trails are fantastic. Very reliable and easy to use.

Pros:

I love how easy it is to view invoices, purchase orders, etc. Great to see who else has reviewed and approved in the workflow. Seamless, quick and easy. Such a huge time saver, but this also ensures a clear audit trail!

Cons:

Search functions could improve slightly, but this is very minor.

Approval Max automating purchase orders with ease

Comments: Very good. Straight forward to use & the approval process is now far smoother.
There seems to be confusion sometimes n the best process & the knowledge library doesn't always give clear answers for some of the integrations.

Pros:

Workflow & automation of approval process

Cons:

Timely & repetitive having to copy a PO to bill. Lack of information available to users. Eg Whether a PO has been billed or paid. This information only appears for Bills.

Excellent choice of software

Comments: It’s is wonderful software and helps to control the workflow management of approvals to a greater extent.

Pros:

It’s easy to use and still understands the importance of every stage. This allows efficient access while less complex structure

Cons:

The workshops are too long and it’s difficult to keep track of new updates.

An excellent alternative for the old days of chasing for approvals

Comments: Very happy with the software. It has made for a much smoother approval flow and has given us so much time back to focus on other activities.

Pros:

It makes the process as automated as I can imagine. With no need for us to notify those in the approval flow or those who have yet to approve an invoice. It also houses a detailed audit trail which is very useful for identifying bottlenecks and other issues.

Cons:

There could be a better flagging system for when something is wrong with the invoice (for example if it's posting to a closed accounting date, it would be better if it flagged the poster rather than the first person required to approve)

Easy to use

Comments: This is a great way to make people accountable for their spending and have a double check on bills before they are paid

Pros:

This is a great "out of the box" software for tracking purchases and payments. You can create multiple users and authorization levels which is really handy

Cons:

The search function is a bit clunky and doesn't like the return key!! Matching invoices to Purchase orders is only available in the pro version

Great system

Comments: Is a great product which I would defintly recommend to others

Pros:

Its a great system, very useful and helps to speed up the approval process significantly.

Cons:

The appproval workflow can be a bit tricky to get right

Excellent functionality

Comments: Generally excellent - helped upgrade and professionalise our systems and make the more effective and efficient

Pros:

Works seamlessly with our accounting system - it has helped save a lot of time & money (& hassle for the finance team)

Cons:

Search is not always brilliant and sometimes tricky to follow links to original invoices etc

Very easy to install and use

Comments: Well thought out and designed product. Works seamlessly with Xero which is a huge plus point.

Pros:

Very simple set up and extremely effective

Cons:

Now you have the split screen and can view invoices whilst approving them, I have no other requirements

Approval Max - excellence on integration

Pros:

Approval Max is very easy to set up and use. What I love the most is the integration with other platforms, such as Xero and Dext. Easy to set up, search function and analytics.

Cons:

All is goo, we have been using it for a long time and continue to get the benefits of a compete platform.

Best Digital Approval Tool

Comments: Amazing!!! Especially helping to fully digitalise approval process and cutting down month end processing days.

Pros:

Audit report and instant upload to Xero.

Cons:

The inability to have bespoke adaptation.

Settling In Well

Pros:

I liked how easy it has made learning how to process invoices. I am new to working in finance and this has explained how my job works. Everything is user friendly.

Cons:

Nothing! I couldn't use another system after this!

Purchase Order Management

Comments: Overall we are extremely pleased with ApprovalMax and it was easy to implement then we anticipated with people picking it up quite quickly.

Pros:

The best things about ApprovalMax is the ability to be to create custom approval workflows and then have them automatically flow into our accounting software. It has streamlined our operations across multiple physical locations.

Cons:

I wish that their was previous for excel or other file types. It works very well with PDF but JPG are slow to load.

Approval Max Review - Amazing Product

Comments: Approval Max has saved the organization so much time as well as reduced human resource costs and paper! It has allowed for the procurement system to be paperless.

Pros:

Approval max has allowed for workflows to be created in seamless way. It has a connection with Xero and integrates seamlessly with Xero.

Cons:

There is absolutely nothing I dislike about the software.

Value for Money controls

Comments: ApprovalMax has been welcomed by all users so far as it simplifies and clarifies the purchase approval purchase and excuses non-finance staff from having to use the finance system to do their jobs. That in turn reinforces our segregation of duties and keeps the auditors happy.

Pros:

Easy to implement and interacts seamlessly with XERO

Cons:

Inability to accept authorisation by any one of several potential authorisers

An essential add-on for Xero

Pros:

We needed an approval workflow that was more advanced than the one provided by Xero, and ApprovalMax does the job very nicely. The ability to define approvers based on various criteria (we mainly use our location and department tracking categories) enables our budget holders to approve spending.

Cons:

I believe ApprovalMax is worth the monthly subscription price, but it does seem strange that it costs more than the product which it extends. Then again, I suppose Xero has many more subscribers.

I'm seeking your approval

Pros:

Workflow management; structuring of approval process

Cons:

Still in the trial phase - nothing comes to mind yet

Streamlines a difficult process

Comments: Very impressed with almost-instant, personal customer service.

Pros:

This software automates approval processes for accounts payable. I have used this in a volunteer association, saving time for volunteers and valuable paid administration time for staff. Volunteers can view and approve invoices for payment without needing to pop in to the office.

Cons:

Need some slight adjustments to workflows, but the approval max team are working on these and communicate updates regularly.

ApprovalMax Review

Pros:

It's a great platform for expenses approvals, where a manager can review and finance can have full control over expenses.

Cons:

Nothing. Everything is great. It's easy to figure out how to submit an expense for approval.