Bookkeeping

Who Can Send Money Out of Your Zoho Books?

By Automate Accounts and Consulting

Zoho Premium Partner

Updated October 27, 2026 3 min read

The short answer

In its October 2026 update, Zoho Books changed how vendor payments work when payment approval is turned on. A payment is entered and submitted for approval first, and once approved, any user with an active bank integration can send it online. Worth a few minutes to check who can approve payments in your account, and who can send them.

Zoho Books has changed how vendor payments work when payment approval is turned on. Payment details are entered and submitted for approval first. Once a payment is approved, any user with an active bank integration can send it online, and offline payments are recorded using Mark as Paid.

With approval switched on, Zoho says further actions on a payment can be performed only after it's approved.

What changed

Payment approval itself isn't new in Zoho Books. Approvals can already be set up on Payments Made, alongside modules like Bills and Purchase Orders. What the October update changed is the flow around it, which Zoho describes as unified: payment details are entered, submitted for approval, and then sent online or marked as paid.

Along the way, a vendor payment moves through these statuses:

Draft
Pending Approval
Approved or Approval Rejected
Paid

Why it matters

Under this flow, two groups of people are involved in every online payment. With Simple Approval, any admin or approver can approve a payment. Once it's approved, any user with an active bank integration can send it online.

Worth a quick check: is payment approval switched on in your account, and who on your team can actually push a payment out today?

Frequently asked questions

How do I turn on approval for vendor payments in Zoho Books?

Go to Settings, open the Payments Made module and click the Approvals tab. The default is No Approval. You can choose Simple Approval, where any admin or approver can approve; Multi-Level Approval, with up to 10 levels of approvers; or Custom Approval, where criteria you define decide which approvers are needed.

Who can send a payment once it's approved?

According to Zoho's October update, any user with an active bank integration can start the online payment after approval. That's why it's worth knowing exactly who on your team has that access.

What about offline payments?

Under the new flow, payment details are submitted for approval first either way. Once approved, an offline payment is recorded using Mark as Paid instead of being sent online.

Automate Accounts is a Zoho Premium Partner helping businesses streamline operations through Bookkeeping, Zoho implementation, Business Process Automation, CRM Solutions, Migrations to Zoho Applications, and ongoing Advisory services across the US and Canada.