Protect your company from fraud and unauthorized payments with Qonto's Transfer Authorization feature.
This security control ensures that no single person, including the account Owner, can both initiate and approve a high-value transfer on their own. One team member creates the payment request, and a different person must review and approve it before the money moves.
You set an amount threshold (for example, €10,000), and any transfer at or above that amount automatically enters an approval queue instead of executing immediately. This separation of duties gives you peace of mind as your finance team scales.
Who can access the double validation feature?
The Transfer Authorization feature is available to companies with specific add-ons and plans:
Add-on requirement:
- You need either the AP ( Accounts Payable ) or ESM ( Expense and Spend management ) add-on activated on your account
- Both add-ons are available on Essential, Business, and Enterprise plans
Market availability:
- Available in all countries where Qonto operates.
Platform access:
- Policy configuration: 💻 Web only (you must use the desktop interface to set up thresholds and approvers)
- Approving and executing transfers: Both 💻 web and 📱 mobile (day-to-day approvals work on all devices)
Who can configure and approve transfers under the policy?
The double validation policy involves three distinct actions, each available to different roles:
Configure the payment policy:
- Only Owners and Admins can set up and modify the policy on 💻 web
- You'll define the threshold amount and designate who can approve transfers
- The policy applies only to new transfers created after activation, it's not retroactive
Initiate a transfer (subject to the policy):
- All roles (Owners, Admins, Managers, and Employees) can create a transfer request
- If the amount meets or exceeds your threshold, the transfer enters an approval queue instead of executing immediately
Approve and execute a transfer:
- Owners, Admins, and Managers with transfer permission can review and approve pending payments
- The same person who initiated the transfer cannot approve it, the system enforces this separation automatically
- Even if someone is selected as an approver in your policy configuration, they will be dynamically excluded from that approval step when they are the initiator of a specific transfer
☝🏼 Important: If you are the only eligible approver for your own transfer, the system will display a disclaimer and block you from proceeding. Make sure to assign at least two approvers in your policy to avoid being locked out of your own transfers.
How do I set up and activate double validation?
To configure a payment policy that enforces dual approval for transfers, follow these steps on 💻 web:
- Go to Settings → Approval Workflows
- Select Transfer Authorization as the workflow type
- Define your threshold amount, any transfer at or above this amount will require approval before execution (for example, €10,000)
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Designate the approvers, select which team members can review and approve payment requests
- You can set up multi-step approval with more than two people in the chain if needed
- Assign at least two people at the last approval step to avoid being blocked
- Save and activate the policy, it will immediately apply to all new transfers that meet the threshold criteria
Once activated, the workflow operates automatically: when a user initiates a transfer at or above the threshold, the payment enters an approval queue where a different person (not the initiator) must review, approve, and execute the payment.
The system enforces separation of duties between initiator and payor, the same person cannot request, approve, and execute the same payment.
💡 Note: If you already have approval workflows in place for supplier invoices or expense reports, activating Transfer Authorization will add an additional payment execution control. Your existing workflows will continue to handle business validation, while the Transfer Authorization policy will govern when the actual money moves out of your account.