You can use Approval Task Requests to ask an internal or external user to take action on a document.

By sending one to an internal or external user, you are requesting action from them on the sent document.

For example, in a team we have Jack, Mark and Lisa. I want to have Lisa approve a particular bill. I send an Approval Task Request to Lisa. Lisa receives it, acts on it and the invoice can carry on through the workflow with the record of these actions.

In the Company Settings section, you will find a selection of settings you can enable or disable to give you flexibility over how Task Requests work. These are:

To set up a User's Manager, head into the User section of the app, select the User in question and set up a Manager in the relevant drop-down menu.

To set up a User's Manager, head into the User section of the app, select the User in question and set up a Manager in the relevant drop-down. menu
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Get more out of Task Requests by building in more automation.

Assign an approver to a supplier so that every time you receive a new bill from the set supplier, a task will be automatically triggered to the designated approver. To set this up, go to Suppliers, select your supplier profile, then assign an Approver.

Activate Keyword Rule Automation under Company Settings. Once activated, you can set a unique keyword or phrase that will be used as a trigger to not only auto-assign a task but also automatically code GL Codes or Categories. This will be useful to direct bills to different approvers for the same suppliers based on the unique keywords or phrases set.

This will differ depending on the preferences enabled in your Company Settings.

From either your Approval Tab or your Review Tab, select the invoice and click the grey Task Approver icon to manually trigger a bespoke Task Request.

A box will pop up, and you are given two choices for how you want to send it:

A user can also opt in to email notifications for Approval Requests in My Profile > Communication preferences, then select 'Yes' for Receive Email notifications for Approval Requests. They will then receive an email, which includes a PDF copy of the PO's Bill, to let them know a task has been received. From this email, the recipient can select either Action Document or Go to My Tasks to manage the approval.

If a request is sent to a Lightyear user, they will receive a notification in their My Tasks section. Clicking this notification, displayed on the mail icon, will take them to the My Tasks page.

In the Pending tab, the user can Approve, Reject, Unassign, or Reassign any task they have received. They can also put a task On Hold to approve it at a later point.

The Actioned tab will show the user any previous task requests they have received and what action they took.

The Sent tab shows any Bill Tasks the user has sent and their status, such as whether the task has been authorised or is still pending. In a future update, this tab will also show Bill Tasks they have responded to.

Other actions in Panel 2 include:

Similar to the above, you can add users and provide Approval Task permissions to see their assigned tasks. Instead of accessing their tasks via the Communications tab, their view will be presented with tasks as the main view of the app.

This simplifies a user's view so they won't need to see all bills in an account and will only see the bills assigned for their review.

View and edit permissions are granted by selecting the option to Edit Approval Tasks when assigning permissions. This makes their view more convenient and secure. The Edit Approval Tasks permission specifically allows users to make changes to invoice details such as GL codes, line items, and tax fields, ensuring they can manage tasks effectively.

If a task was sent via email, the recipient will receive an email with a link to action the request. Clicking that link takes them to the task page.

On this page, they can Approve or Reject the task, or mark it as Not For Me if it was sent to them by mistake. As with a User task, they can leave a note, which shows on the bill's Activity Feed. They do not need to be logged in to Lightyear, or set up as a User within Lightyear, to action tasks sent via email. If Manager Approval is enabled, the Manager will see the User who approved the task initially.
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There are different actions a Task Approver can take on a document:

To approve the task, click the green Approve button within Panel 2. This sends the document back to Approvals, telling other users that it is ready to be exported to the accountancy software.

To reject the task, click the Reject button. This sends the document back to Approvals, telling other users there is an issue. You can leave a note in the text field to give more information on why it is being rejected.

If a task has been sent to you by mistake, you have two options to send it back. The first is the Un-assign button, which sends the task back and tells other users the task should be approved by another user instead. The second is the Re-assign button. Clicking this will display a pop-up modal, allowing you to choose another user to send the task to instead.

You can put the task On Hold if required. This will let other users know you have received and read the task, but are waiting to action it further.

If you need to dispute the document, or email the supplier about the document, click More in the task, then select Dispute or Email Supplier.

When a task is disputed, it will remain pending and move to the Disputed tab. You can remove the document from the Disputed tab by clicking More > Remove from Disputed.
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To email the supplier directly, enter the email address and body of the email, then click Send.

Once a Bill Task is sent, a clock icon will appear on the bill line to indicate this. The colour of the icon informs you of the status.

​ A dark blue clock shows that a Bill Task is still waiting for a response.
​A light blue clock shows that a Task is On Hold.
​ A green clock means the Task has been approved
​ A red clock means the Task has been declined.
​ A yellow clock means the user replied that the Task was not meant for them.
​ A blue people icon means a task has been approved, and is now waiting on a managers approval.
​ A green people icon means a bill has been approved by a manager.
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You can click any of these icons to get more information on the task sent.

Note that some of this information can differ depending on the stage of the task. For example, once a task has been approved, the Date Sent line will update to show the date and time the task was approved.

You can also approve tasks by using the Lightyear Mobile App. This feature allows you to quickly review the invoice that has been sent to you, then approve or reject it. Within the Mobile App, you can also reply using notes and mentions with the @ symbol.

For a full guide to the Lightyear Mobile App, see Mobile App for iOS and Android.

On your Home Screen, you'll see a new notification on the Lightyear app icon if there is a new Task to be approved .

After reviewing an invoice, you may want to reject it, enter a Note, place the invoice On Hold, or tap More to add an attachment, Unassign the invoice from you or Reassign it to another user.

Just as you swiped right to show the Approve button, swipe left on the invoice to reveal more options, and tap the appropriate action button.

Remember, you can use the @ symbol to mention members of your team that you want to make aware. They will receive a notification on their mobile device.