What Are Approval Rules?

Approval rules decide who has to sign off before a sensitive action goes through, like sending a payout, changing bank details, releasing a tax form, or permanently deleting a file. They stop any one person from moving money or changing records alone.

How it works by default

Every covered action already needs someone other than the person who prepared it to approve it. You don't have to set anything up for that.

If you're the only person in your workspace who can approve payments and payouts, you can approve your own work so you're never stuck. You confirm with your password and a code each time, and the approval is marked as approved alone in the history. Invite a teammate with Approve payments and payouts to add a second check. As soon as someone else can approve, the person who prepared an item can't review it again, and any reviewer counts in your rules apply.

Approval rules let you go further for the actions you choose, for example:

• Require two reviewers for any payout of $250,000 or more.
• Require an owner to approve changes to bank details.
• Require three reviewers for capital calls on one specific investment.

Approval rules vs. roles

These two settings work together but answer different questions.

• Roles decide who can do something at all. A Viewer can't prepare a payout, and only people with Approve payments and payouts can review one. See What Roles and Permissions Are Available?
• Approval rules decide how many people must agree before a covered action takes effect, and whether one of them must be an owner.

In short, roles control access, and approval rules control sign-off. A role stops the wrong person from acting. An approval rule stops the right person from acting alone.

Propose rules

1. Go to Settings and choose Approval Rules.
2. Click Propose Policy (available to owners).
3. Click Add Review Rule. For each rule set the Action, Investment (or All Investments), At or Above (USD), and Required Reviewers. Tick Require an Owner Who Did Not Prepare This if needed.
4. Set Approval Lasts for (Minutes) and the Reason for This Policy.
5. Click Send to Another Reviewer.

Rule changes are reviewed too. Another reviewer must approve the proposal before it takes effect, even in a one-approver workspace. Choose a reviewer count your team can actually meet, or covered actions will get stuck waiting.

Which actions are covered

Approval rules cover payments and payouts, ACH and bank payment files, bank details and payment limits, unit values and unit trades, return and fee terms, partner fees, ownership transfers, capital calls, opening a raise and its closings, tax forms, file deletion and retention, and raise and investor membership reviews. The full list is under Actions These Rules Cover on the Approval Rules page.

How rules combine

When more than one rule applies, the strictest one wins: the highest number of reviewers is used, and an owner is required if any matching rule requires one. A rule for All Investments also applies to each individual investment. When rules change, the stricter of the old and new rules applies to the change itself.

Approvals expire if not every required reviewer signs off within the time you set. Past versions are listed under Policy History, and every sign-off is listed under Approval History.

Syndelo is in preview. eSign and investor payments require live provider setup; a demo or sandbox action does not complete a live transaction. Confirm availability for your workspace before relying on either.