This article provides answers to some of the most frequently asked questions (FAQ) related to the Payhawk roles and role extensions.
How will the new built-in roles affect the existing Payhawk Administrator and Accountant roles?
Your current roles will remain unchanged. The new IT Administrator, Senior AP Specialist, and Auditor built-in roles will be added alongside the existing ones. This allows you to continue operating as you do today, while giving you the flexibility to assign your employees more granular permissions at your own pace.
What is the difference between the existing and the new permissions of Team Managers?
The updated Team Manager role extension builds on the existing one without changing how it is assigned or how it functions by default. The upgrade of the permissions introduces new optional capabilities, for example, inviting or removing employees, issuing cards, and managing card controls. These features can be enabled or disabled through role extension settings and are turned off by default.
Does the Payhawk Executive Assistant get access to the executive’s account?
No. The Executive Assistant role extension is assigned to a user who assists an executive, allowing them to perform specific actions on the executive’s behalf, such as creating and submitting expenses or requests. The Executive Assistant will use their own Payhawk account and select the executive as the owner when creating expenses or requests. This removes the need for insecure practices like password sharing.
What if the newly added roles don’t fully meet our company’s needs?
As of October, 2025 Payhawk supports the creation of fully customizable roles, offering even greater granularity for companies that require more advanced segregation of duties.
Does an Out-of-Office replacement inherit the same entity access and approval permissions as the original user?
No. The Out-of-Office feature in Payhawk only redirects approval requests to the replacement approver's Inbox. It does not grant additional permissions or access to entities that the replacement does not already have.
For flexible approval coverage across multiple entities (for example, during vacations), you can do either of the following:
Assign the appropriate roles and entity access to replacement approvers in advance.
Include multiple approvers in the approval workflow to provide redundancy.