Purchase Order Approvals

Approval limits make sure high-value purchase orders are reviewed by the right person before they are sent to the supplier. This article covers how approval is decided, how to set limits on a user, and how to work the Pending Approvals screen.

How approval works

When someone creates a manual PO, the system checks their own approval limit for that PO type. If the total is within their limit, the order is approved instantly and emailed to the supplier.
If the total is over their limit - or they cannot approve at all - the order is created as Pending Approval. The supplier email is held back until it is approved.
Company Admins can approve any purchase order, whatever the limits say.
Limits are set per PO type, so an order needs a type before it can be approved.
Subcontractor POs generated from the Subcontract Summary never need approval - they are approved and emailed automatically.

Setting a user's approval limits

Go to Settings > Users, open the user and choose the Purchase Orders tab.

Switch on Can approve purchase orders.
Enter a maximum £ value against each PO type the user is allowed to approve.
Leave a type blank to give the user no approval rights for that type.
Click Save.

These limits control both what a user can approve for others and what their own orders auto-approve at. A user with no limits can still create purchase orders - they will just always go to the approval queue.

Approval emails

When an order needs approval, everyone who could approve it receives an email - as long as they have Purchase order approval requests switched on in the Notifications tab of their profile. Switching it off stops the emails but does not remove their approval rights.
The person who created the order is emailed when it is approved or rejected.

For the full list of purchase emails and who receives them, see Purchase Order Emails and Notifications.

The Pending Approvals screen

Open it from the sidebar or the Pending Approvals button on the Purchase Orders screen. Everyone with access to purchase orders can see the queue; the Approve and Reject buttons only work within your own limits, and the Your Limit column shows what you can sign off for each order's type.

Review - click the order number to open the full order and check or edit it. You can also approve or reject from the panel on the order itself.
Approve - the order becomes New and is emailed to the supplier's saved addresses automatically. Tick several orders and use the bulk approve button to clear a queue in one go.
Reject - you can give a reason (optional). The order moves to the Cancelled tab, the reason is kept on the order, and the creator is emailed.

Re-approval when an order grows

If an approved order is edited and its total increases, the approval no longer stands:

If the person editing could approve the new total themselves, it is re-approved in their name automatically.
Otherwise the order goes back to Pending Approval and approvers are notified again. These orders show a Re-approval badge in the queue, with a note of who approved them last time.

Reducing an order's value never sends it back for approval.

Common questions

Why is an order stuck in Pending Approval? Nobody with a high enough limit has actioned it yet - check the order has a PO type set, and that your approvers have the notification switched on so they know it is waiting.
Do limits apply to subcontractor POs? No - POs generated from the Subcontract Summary are always approved automatically.
Can the supplier see an order before it is approved? No - the email to the supplier is only sent once the order is approved.
Where did a rejected order go? To the Cancelled tab. Open it to see who rejected it and why. If it should go ahead after all, create it again.