Transfer Approvals

Overview

Transfer Approvals adds a review step to your transfer workflow. Instead of processing a transfer as soon as it is created, PayMongo routes it to the approvers you designate and holds it until they approve or deny the request.

Once you enable Transfer Approvals in Product Settings > Transfers, every new transfer created in the account requires approval before it moves forward. Approvers review and act on these requests from the shared Requests & Approvals dashboard, where they can see the transfer details and decide whether to approve or deny it.

Transfer Approvals uses the same approval templates and Requests & Approvals dashboard shared across other PayMongo products, including expenses and invoices. If your team already configured approval templates for another product, you can reuse the same approach for transfers.

Who is this for

Transfer Approvals is for account owners and team members who need an extra layer of control before money moves out of an account:

Account owners who want to require sign-off on transfers before they are processed, and who configure approval templates and enable the feature in Product Settings. Team members with the appropriate permissions can also change approval settings.
Finance and operations teams who act as approvers, reviewing transfer requests and approving or denying them from the Requests & Approvals dashboard.
Teams already using approvals for expenses or invoices who want the same review process applied to transfers.

What you can do

Create approval templates with different modes (sequential, require all, any approver).
Assign team members or linked child accounts as approvers.
Enable or disable transfer approvals from Product Settings.
Review and act on pending requests from the Requests & Approvals dashboard.
Track the status of all transfer requests.

How Transfer Approvals works

The account owner creates an approval template in Product Settings > Approvals.
The account owner enables approvals and selects the active template in Product Settings > Transfers.
Any transfer created in the account generates an approval request.
The assigned approver or approvers review and approve or deny the request from Requests & Approvals.
Approved transfers proceed to processing. Denied transfers are rejected.

flowchart TD
    A[Create approval template] --> B[Enable transfer approvals\nand select template]
    B --> C[User initiates transfer]
    C -->|set to pending| D[Approval request created]
    D -->|approve| E[Transfer processed]
    D -->|deny| F[Transfer rejected]

    classDef setup fill:#e8f0fe,stroke:#4285f4,color:#1a3c6e
    classDef pending fill:#fef7e0,stroke:#f9ab00,color:#664d00
    classDef success fill:#e6f4ea,stroke:#34a853,color:#1e5631
    classDef error fill:#fce8e6,stroke:#ea4335,color:#8b1a1a

    class A,B setup
    class C,D pending
    class E success
    class F error

Request statuses

Dashboard status	API status	Meaning
Pending	`pending`	The request is waiting for an approval decision.
Approved	`approved`	All required approvers have approved the request. The transfer proceeds to processing.
Rejected	`declined`	An approver has denied the request. The transfer does not proceed.
Closed	`closed`	The request was closed without a decision.

Approval modes

Mode	How it works	API stage mode
Sequential	Each approver must approve in order. The request moves to the next approver only after the current one approves.	`single` (one stage per approver)
Require all	Every approver must approve. The order does not matter.	`all_of` (one stage with all approvers)
Any approver	A single approval from any approver is enough.	`any_of` (one stage with all approvers)

Before you start

Make sure that:

Your PayMongo account has transfers enabled.
At least one team member or linked child account is added to serve as an approver.
You are an account owner, or have the Manage Approvals Settings and Manage Transfers Settings roles, to access Product Settings.

Permissions

Team members need the Manage Approvals role to access the Requests & Approvals page. The role includes three permissions:

Permission	What it allows
`approvals.view`	View approval requests on the dashboard.
`approvals.approve`	Approve pending requests.
`approvals.reject`	Deny pending requests.

A team member without this role cannot see or act on approval requests.

Configuring Transfer Approvals requires separate roles that gate access to Product Settings:

Role	What it allows
Manage Approvals Settings (`manage_approvals_settings`)	View and update approval templates in Product Settings > Approvals.
Manage Transfers Settings (`manage_transfers_settings`)	View and update the transfer approvals toggle and active template in Product Settings > Transfers.

Account owners always have access to both pages. A team member without the matching role sees the tab grayed out in Product Settings and gets a 404 if they navigate to it directly.

Continue with these guides

Set up Transfer Approvals — Create an approval template and enable approvals for transfers.
Review Transfer Approval Requests — Approve or deny pending transfer requests from the dashboard.
Test your Transfer Approvals setup — Verify that your approval flow works before going live.