Bill Pay permissions in Relay are role-based: Administrators run the full workflow, Bill Payers execute payments, and other roles view, upload, or manage without payment authority.
What you need before you start
A team member with the Administrator role, or an advisor with the Super Administrator role (only these two roles can change user roles)
The user you want to update already invited to your Relay account
Access to the Team section in your Relay dashboard
What can each team member role do in Bill Pay?
Team member roles control who can upload, approve, and pay bills inside your Relay account. Only Administrators can manage the full Bill Pay process end-to-end; Bill Payers can pay bills but cannot approve them.
Feature | Administrator | Manager | Bill Payer | Cardholder | Deposit Only | Read Only |
Upload bills | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
Set approval rules and approve bills | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
Make payments (ACH, wire, check) | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No |
Add or edit payees | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No |
Connect QuickBooks Online or Xero | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No |
View bill transactions | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
What can each advisor role do in Bill Pay?
Advisor roles govern what your accountant, bookkeeper, or firm staff can do inside your Bill Pay workflow. Only a Super Administrator can both approve and pay bills; most advisors cannot initiate or approve payments.
Task or feature | Super Administrator | Administrator | Manager | Bill Payer | Read Only |
View bills | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Categorize bills for accounting | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Set up Xero or QuickBooks Online connection | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Make payments | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Approve bills or set approval rules | Yes | No | No | No | No |
How do I change a user's role in Bill Pay?
Update a user's role from the Team section of your Relay account. The change applies to Bill Pay and every other area of Relay that uses role-based permissions.
Sign in to your Relay account.
Go to the Team section in Relay.
Choose either Team or Advisors, depending on which user you want to update.
Select the user and click Edit.
Choose a new role from the dropdown.
Save your changes.
The new permissions take effect immediately.
Who can change roles in Relay?
Only two roles can change other users' roles: a team member Administrator, or an advisor Super Administrator. Every other role can view the Team section but cannot edit permissions.
How should I structure roles for security?
Split approval and payment duties across different people so no single user can both approve a bill and pay it. Two rules cover most small businesses:
Keep Administrator and Super Administrator access lean; assign it only to team members who need full control of your business finances.
Separate approval and payment duties by using approval rules where one role reviews the bill and a different role releases the payment.
Common issues
You do not see the Edit button on a user's profile. Your role does not have permission to change roles. Ask an Administrator (team) or Super Administrator (advisor) to make the update.
A Bill Payer cannot approve a bill. Approval sits with Administrators only. Move the bill to an approval rule that routes to an Administrator, or promote the user to Administrator.
An advisor cannot see bills at all. The advisor is likely set to a role that excludes bill visibility. Update them to Super Administrator, Administrator, Manager, or Read Only.
A Manager can view bills but cannot pay them. That is expected. Managers have view-and-categorize access; assign the Bill Payer or Administrator role if the user needs to release payments.
What to do next
Now that role capabilities are set, you can put the rest of Bill Pay to work:
Set up payment approval rules so higher-value bills route to the right approver.
Assign team members to upload and categorize bills as they arrive.
Confirm that only the users you expect can release payments.
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