The bulk action of Approve on the applications tab can be confusing. If clicking Approve the expectation would be to just approve the application, not Approve, Award & Pay. If they can be separated out that would be helpful and clearer when there are multiyear grants approving and checking the box.
This can be separated in your program setup. It sounds like you have enabled the 'automatically create an award and payment equal to the request amount upon approval' option. If you unselect this box, you can approve the award and create multiple payment/multi-year grant award schedule.