ApprovalMax and How It Integrates with QBO, Xero, Dext, & Hubdoc

If you use Xero & ApprovalMax together the process is as follows:

Dext or Hubdoc Xero ApprovalMax Xero

Firstly, you process all your bills using Hubdoc, taking advantage of the Document Interpretation and the Rules you can set up to make data-entry of bills simple & quick.
Importantly, when processing the bills in Hubdoc you need to mark each bill as Awaiting Approval. Hubdoc integrates with Xero and will send all the Bills to Xero, where you will find them in the Bills Awaiting Approval section of Xero.

Once the integration is setup between ApprovalMax and Xero, ApprovalMax will automatically pick up all bills that have gone to Xero and are in Awaiting Approval. It will then automatically process each bill through the Approval Process in the organisation as per the Approval Flows you have set up in Approval Max.

Those Approval Flows can be simple or complex depending on your needs. You may choose to have all bills for the entire organisation approved by one person (i.e., the CEO) in a small organisation. Alternatively, you may need something far more complex. For example, you may use Tracking Categories in Xero for different Cost Centres in the organisation. You could set up Approval Workflows that send different bills to different department managers depending on the Tracking Category used. You could then add in a second (or more) chain of Approval for a bill if it is over a certain amount.
An example of this would be Bill X has Tracking Category “Sydney” in it (as processed in Hubdoc). It is therefore automatically sent to the Sydney Department managers for approval. Once they have approved it, because it is over your set amount (i.e., $3,000), it will then automatically be sent to the General Manager of the Organisation for a second level of Approval. Once approved by both managers, Approval Max will move the bill out of Awaiting Approval and into Awaiting Payment in Xero ready to be paid.

Each bill in Xero will have the document attached to it (sent from Hubdoc) and an Audit Trail of the Approvals it has been through attached (sent from ApprovalMax).

The Process when using Dext and QBO with ApprovalMax:

Dext ApprovalMax QBO

This starts with bills being entered into Dext and taking advantage of the data capture & rules in Dext to make data entry simple and quick.

Dext is then integrated with ApprovalMax & Bills are sent directly to ApprovalMax to go through the Approval Flow set up for each bill.
Rules applying to ApprovalMax are the same in the Dext ApprovalMax QBO process as they are in the Hubdoc Xero ApprovalMax Xero process set out above.

Once a bill has been fully approved as needed and set up in the Flow, ApprovalMax then sends it to QBO as a Bill ready for Payment.

If you use Hubdoc and QBO and want to use ApprovalMax, you may need to consider switching to Dext, as Hubdoc does not at this stage integrate with ApprovalMax and QBO does not have the “Awaiting Approval” flow in it like Xero does. Therefore, your options are either to switch from Hubdoc to Dext and use the Dext ApprovalMax QBO flow above, or to enter bills directly into ApprovalMax (where you won’t have the data capture ability of Dext/Hubdoc) and then ApprovalMax will put the bills through the same Approval processes described above & then send the bills (including the documents) to QBO for bill payment. You could still use Hubdoc to send other documents besides Bills (i.e., Credit Card receipts).

ApprovalMax offers an easy, quick, paperless way for bills to move through an organisation and its various approvers. Approvers can approve easily from any device, without having to be behind their desk, or even in the office, state, or country. Approvers also have full transparency as they can see the bill itself from their device when approving.

For bookkeepers and accountants, it offers another training path as you can set ApprovalMax to send all bills to yourself or one of the senior members of your team, during the training/early stages of having a new bookkeeper working for you. This is an easy way to check their work and be able to quickly pick them up on mistakes and train them properly. From you/the senior manager, the bill can either be set up to go directly into QBO/Xero or it can continue through the clients Approval Pathway (i.e., their internal managers and then to QBO/Xero).

All in all, I find ApprovalMax to be a fantastic piece of software for my own training needs, as well as for any of my clients with multiple departments/cost centres, which makes it perfect for most Charities & Not-For-Profits as well as medium to large commercial businesses as these types of organisations usually have multiple Approvers & Cost Centres. The idea of removing the painful and inefficient trail of papers going from one desk to another in these types of organisations is super exciting and they will love any bookkeeper or accountant who recommends and then sets up this software trio for them.