# What is a signing rule?

URL: https://www.orla.finance/en/glossary/signing-rule
Markdown twin of that page. Append `.md` to any Orla page URL to get one.

A signing rule says how many people, and which ones, must approve a payment before it leaves, usually set by amount: over $2,000, two signatures.

Banks call it dual control, dual authorisation or the four-eyes rule, and the idea is the same everywhere: one person can make a mistake or be fooled, two are much harder to fool at once. The rule is written in amounts and roles: anything over $2,000 needs two signatures, anything over $10,000 needs both founders, a payment to a new payee needs one more than usual.

Two details decide whether a rule protects anything. The person who proposed a payment must not be one of its signers, or the second signature is the same person twice. And a large payment split into small ones must be checked on its total, or the rule is a speed bump rather than a gate.

A signing rule is not a budget. A budget says how much a part of the company may spend in a month; the rule says who must look at one payment before it leaves. A company needs both, and the rule should win when they disagree.

#### How this shows up in Orla

In Orla the first rule, above this amount this many signatures and only to a payee in the address book, is on every plan, the free one included; several rules and named approvers come with Scale. Signing rules stand above every [payment mandate](https://www.orla.finance/en/glossary/payment-mandate): where a rule asks for two people, two sign, whatever the budget says.

The proposer never signs their own payment, and a batch is checked on its total, so a payroll split into small rows needs the same signatures as one large one.

#### Related terms

- Payment mandate: https://www.orla.finance/en/glossary/payment-mandate
- Three-way match: https://www.orla.finance/en/glossary/three-way-match
- Accounts payable: https://www.orla.finance/en/glossary/accounts-payable

#### Read next

- Pay bills on time: https://www.orla.finance/en/use-cases/pay-bills
- Every brake on Safety: https://www.orla.finance/en/security