A Payment Request is a type of payment method which limits selected users from placing an order without this being approved first by another party, normally the account admin. It is a useful option if you want to limit some rights for users and control costs.
In this article:
How to enable the payment request workflow
- Enable Internal payment request and at least another payment method at account level. To do so, click on your initials at the top-right corner, then Settings > Payment.
Note: As an option, you can also select Send payment request to all payment responsibles by default to automatically send a notification to all users with Approve & pay permission enabled.
- Enable Payment request as the only payment method for the group(s) you want to be able to use this feature.
- Assign Approve & pay and See payment methods permissions to at least one person in the account (go to Team > Roles).
Note: Approve & pay will allow to receive payment requests and approve or reject them, while See payment methods will allow to see all available payment methods at the account level, regardless of the payment method enabled for a specific group - this is essential to ensure that the approver can pay for the orders.
Tip: You can create a dedicated role with specific permissions (e.g. called Approver) and assign this role to the people you want to approve orders. If you want to restrict the payment approval at group level (i.e. to have one approver per group responsible to approve all the payment requests from users in that group), you can create the Approver role and assign it to the person responsible for approval in each group.
Important: It is recommended to assign Approve & pay permission to at least 2 users who can then approve/reject payment requests. This way if one approver is unavailable, the users will still get their orders approved without delays.
Payment request workflow
- After adding items to the cart and selecting the delivery address and the recipient, the user will continue to check out.
- On the payment page, the user will select Payment request as payment method. Note: Users placing the order will not have to select a billing entity, for that will be done by the approver. Users will still be able to see the total price for the order.
- The user will then select the person(s) that will approve their order, from a list of users whose role has Approve & Pay permission enabled.
- If Send payment request to all payment responsibles by default is selected in the account settings, the user won't be able to select the approver and the request will be sent to all the approvers in the account.
- An email notification will be sent to the approver(s), who will then review the order and either approve or reject it. In case you approve the order, remember to edit it if necessary, and complete the payment process using one of the payment methods available to the group(s) you belong to. If you do not approve the order, simply click on the 'Reject payment' button. You can optionally add a note that will be visible to the user who submitted the order for approval.
- Also, a separate tab for approvals is provided on the left side menu where only the orders that require payment approval are shown pre-filtered. A reminder will be sent after 24 hours in case no action is taken.
