Choose how many people approve a payment before it leaves.
Add owners to your business account and decide how many of them approve each payment. Everyone else on the team can see the account without being able to move money.
Receiving money is the main reason people open a Poplin account. See multi-currency accounts.
Example
Approval needed
A payment needs your approval
Daniel Osei proposed a $4,800.00 payment. It won’t be sent until it has the approvals your policy requires — yours could be one of them.
Review and approve
Set how many approvals a payment needs
You choose how many of your account’s owners must approve each payment. You can require up to one fewer approval than you have owners, so asking for a second approval takes at least three owners. That limit is deliberate: with more than one owner, it means one lost phone never locks the account. With one or two owners, any owner can send a payment alone.
- The person who proposes a payment counts as the first approval.
- The last approval sends the payment straight away.
- Owners approve with their passkey.
- Changing the policy goes through the current policy, like a payment. With a policy of one approval, any owner can change it alone.
- Any change to who approves or how many, whether adding or removing an owner or changing the policy, cancels payments still waiting for approval. They have to be created again.
Approvers hear straight away
When a payment needs approval, “A payment needs your approval” goes to every other owner. By default it arrives by email, push notification, in the app and in a linked Telegram chat, and each owner can switch the email, push and chat notices off. With a policy of one approval, payments don’t wait, so no one is asked.
One owner declining doesn’t end a payment on its own. A decline stops a payment only once it can no longer get the approvals it needs, which takes at least two declines. Say you have three owners and a policy of two approvals: two declines stop it, and the person who proposed it is told.
Everyone else can see, not move
View-only members see balances, activity, contacts and who is on the team. They can’t move money, approve payments, add or change contacts, invite people or change settings.
Adding and removing people
- Owners invite people by email. An invite is for a view-only member, who signs in to accept it. It expires after 7 days, with one reminder, and you’re told when they join.
- An owner removes a view-only member from that person’s page on the Team screen, after confirming it’s them. The member loses access straight away, and can be invited again.
- Making someone an owner goes through the approval policy, like a payment; with a policy of one approval, any owner can do it alone. The new owner first has to set up a passkey and account recovery.
- An account always keeps an owner. Taking someone’s ownership away goes through the approval policy in the same way, and the policy lowers itself if it needs to, so losing one owner never locks the account.
Everyone on the account shares one contact book and its payee alerts. For how Poplin protects the account, see security.
Team accounts — FAQ
Can a view-only member make a payment?
No. View-only members can see balances, activity, contacts and who is on the team. They can’t move money, approve payments, add or change contacts, invite people or change settings. Only owners can do those, and owners are co-equal on the account: no one owner outranks another.
Can two owners require each other’s approval?
No. An account can require up to one fewer approval than it has owners, so a second approval takes at least three owners. With two owners, either can send a payment alone. The limit is there so that one lost phone never locks the account.
What happens when an owner declines a payment?
A decline stops a payment only once it can no longer get the approvals it needs, which takes at least two declines. Until then the decline is recorded and the payment keeps waiting. When it does stop, the person who proposed it is told, and no money leaves the account.
How do owners approve a payment?
With their passkey. Each other owner is told a payment needs approval, by default by email, push, in the app and in a linked Telegram chat. The person who proposed it counts as the first approval, and whoever gives the last one sends the payment straight away.
What happens if an owner leaves?
Removing an owner goes through the approval policy, like a payment. Under a policy of one approval, any owner can make the change alone. If the policy would then ask for too many approvals, it lowers itself, so losing one owner never locks the account. Payments still waiting are cancelled and must be created again.
Can a personal account have a team?
No. Teams are for business accounts only. Owners, view-only members and approval policies don’t exist on a personal account, and the Team screen in the app is only for business accounts. If a team will share the money, open a business account.
Decide who signs off.
Open a Poplin business account, add your owners and choose how many of them approve each payment.