Roles in ApprovalMax (Xero)

Roles in ApprovalMax (Xero)

There are three types of roles in ApprovalMax: Account-basedOrganisation-based and Workflow-based roles.

Within one Organisation a user in ApprovalMax can have one Account-based or Organisation-based role and at the same time be assigned to several Workflow-based roles. In this case, the authorities of the roles will be extended.
Example, auditor who is assigned as an approver, will be able to make decision according to the rules set in the matrix. I.e. the combination of roles extends authorities.
Please see the detailed description of each role below.

Account-based role

  • Account Owner: manages the subscription, add/delete organisations, manages connections, invites users and assigns roles, sets up workflows. Account owner can see all requests within their organisation and can override decisions by forcing a rejection or forcing a final approval. This role is automatically assigned to the Account Owner and cannot be changed or given to a different user. 

    The change of Account owner can be done only with the 
    ownership transfer.

Organisation-based roles

The Account Owner or an Administrator directly sets Organisation-based roles in the User section of ApprovalMax. A User can only have one Organisation-based role within the same Organisation.



  • Administrator: sets up workflows, assigns roles, manages connections, and invites users. An Administrator can be a Requester and/or an Approver. Administrators can see all requests within their organisation and can override decisions by forcing a rejection or forcing a final approval.
  • Workflow manageris responsible for managing workflows and users within the Organisation.
  • Auditor: a read-only role which allows to better understand the approval workflow in operation, without the risk of accidentally changing, approving, or rejecting something.
  • User: the default role which is assigned to any user except Auditors and Administrators. Users can be a Requester and/or an Approver.

Workflow-based roles

Workflow-based roles are created from the configuration of the various workflows. Users can be Requester or Approver/Reviewer, and they can have even both roles at the same time. For a user the workflow-based roles can even change between different workflows, depending on the setup of the various approval workflows.


  • Approver: this role allows to make approval decisions (approve or reject), set up a Substitute, add other Approvers from their Organisation to the request as well as remove those that have previously been added. Approvers can only see those requests where they have to make a decision.
  • Default Approver: this role has the same authorities as Approver and can be added to a step if there are no Approvers with the rule “Always approves”.
  • Requester: this role allows to raise and change a request (Purchase order or Bill), add Approvers from their Organisation in any step of their request as well as remove those that have previously been added. Requesters can only see their own requests.
  • Reviewer: this role is assigned to an Approver and available only in the first step of Bill  workflow and allows review and edit Bill without sending it back to Xero. For more details, please refer to an article How does Bill review/editing work?
  • Watcher: this role informs about specific approval requests within the system so that they can closely monitor them. When a user is assigned as a Watcher to a request, they will receive notifications and updates regarding the progress and status of its approvals, even if they are not directly involved in the authorisation process.
For more information on who can access what in ApprovalMax please have a look at the article Who has access to approval requests.
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