Approvals in Purchase Orders

Approvals in Purchase Orders

All purchase orders must be approved before they can be ordered.

You can configure multiple and multi-stage approvals for purchase orders in the Approvals tab within a purchase order.

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In most organizations, a purchase order must be authorized by a team of people. By configuring these approvals within the Purchases module, you can streamline the approval process in an organized workflow and ensure transparency on the items purchased.
   

Configure Approval Permissions for Users

Role Required: SDAdmin
Both requesters and technicians can be added as approvers.
For a user to be able to approve a purchase order, they need to have approval permissions.

To configure purchase order approval permissions for a user,
  1. Go to Setup > Users & Permissions > Users.
  2. Select the respective customer from the filter in the header.
  3. Click the user filter drop-down from the top to sort users as Requesters, Technicians, or All Users.
  4. In the list view, select the user(s) that you wish to assign approval permissions to using the checkboxes.
  5. Click Actions > Assign Approval Permissions.
  1. In the pop-up displayed, select Purchase Order Approver.
  2. You can set the approval limit to Unlimited or enter an amount up to which the selected users can approve.
  3. Finally, click Save.
 
 
 

Configure Approval Stages and Approvers 

Role Required: SDAdmin, Technicians Edit permission for Purchase.

Approval stages represent the levels or hierarchy of approvals that a purchase order needs to go through. You can add up to five stages for a single purchase order. The fifth stage of approval is the highest level of approval.  

To add the approval stages,
Go to the Approvals tab within a purchase order.
Click Add Stage to add the first stage of approval. Click to add subsequent approval stages.
In each approval stage, you can add multiple technicians or requesters as purchase order approvers. Only users with Purchase Order Approver permission will be listed as approvers. Learn more.
While configuring multiple approvers, you can mandate approvals from all approvers before moving to the next stage by enabling All the configured approvers have to approve the purchase order option. 
You can configure automatic approvals for approval stages by enabling Send Approval notification automatically when a Purchase Order is raised. This will automatically send the approval notification to the next round of approvers when a stage is completed. If this option is disabled, approvals will not be sent automatically. Instead, you will need to manually send the approvals by clicking .
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 The first approval must be sent manually. 
 

 Approval Process

You can have either any or all of the approvers approve a purchase order.  
 
'All the configured approvers have to approve the purchase order' is enabled
'All the configured approvers have to approve the purchase order' is disabled
  1. All designated approvers must give their approval for the purchase order to move to the next approval stage.
  2. The purchase order's status changes to Approved when all the approvals in each stage are received.
  3. If an approver at any stage rejects the purchase order, the approval status is changed to Denied and the approval process stops.
  4. If any stage has the approval status as Denied, the purchase order's status will change to Rejected.
 
  1. The purchase order moves to the next stage if any of the approvers approve it.
  2. The purchase order will be set to the Approved status if one approver from each stage has approved it.
  3. The purchase order will change to Approved even if other approvers in the stage have rejected or kept their approval pending.
 
 
Refer to these use cases for more information.
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When an approver has rejected a purchase order, you can resend the request for approval by clicking    against the rejected approval in the Approvals tab.
 

Approve or Reject the Purchase Order   

Users with Purchase Order Approver permission can approve or reject an approval. Click here to learn how to assign approval permissions for a user.  
Role Required: Technicians, Requesters, Purchase order owner

 Approve/Reject via Mail: 

The user to whom the mail is addressed gets an approval mail with the link. On clicking the approval link, a form with the purchase order details along with the Approve or Reject option will be displayed. 

 

Approve/Reject via the Approvals Panel: 

For approvers, their pending approvals are recorded in the My Pending Approvals panel. You can directly approve or reject the purchase orders from this panel.
  1. Click displayed in the application header.
  2. Select Take Actions against the purchase order pending your action.
  3. Enter your comments, if any, in the text box.
  4. Click Approve or Reject to make your choice.
 

 Approve or Reject via the Details Page: 

From the details page, approvers can either approve or reject the purchase order.
  1. Open a purchase order that is pending your action.
  2. Click Actions and choose either Approve this PO or Reject this PO.
  3. In the pop-up displayed, enter your comments.
  4. Select the Send mail notification checkbox if you want to notify a particular user of your action.
  5. Finally, click Send.
 
Alternatively, you can also click the approval stage on the Approvals tab and select Approve or Reject under the Status column.

 
 
After the purchase order is approved by the user, the status of the purchase order changes to Approved. If rejected by the approver, the status will change to Rejected.

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You can mandate approval comments and enable purchase order owner approvals under Setup >  General Settings > Approval Settings. Learn more.
 If you add a new item to the purchase order or edit the current item details after it is approved, the purchase order needs to be re-approved. 

 

Delegate Approvals   

Requesters and Technicians can delegate approvals in case of their unavailability and add another user as the backup approver.
SDAdmins can set up delegation of approvals under Setup > Automation > Delegation. Learn more.
You can delegate approvals from the purchase order details page or from the My Pending Approvals panel, which can be accessed from the header.
 
To delegate approvals from the purchase details page,
  1. Go to the Approvals tab within a purchase order.
  2. On the approval you want to delegate, click .
  3. Select a user from the drop-down list and click Delegate.
 
To delegate approvals from the My Pending Approvals panel,
  1. Click in the application header.
  2. Hover over the purchase order pending your approval and click .
  3. Select a user from the drop-down list and click Delegate.
 
 
To revert delegation, click Revoke Delegation on the approval. You can configure revoke notifications under Notification Rules. Learn more.
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Users can only delegate approvals assigned to them. The backup approver cannot delegate their approvals. 
 

Approval Notifications   

Role Required: SDAdmin, PurchaseCofig
You can configure approval notifications and email templates for purchase orders under Setup > Automation > Notification Rules > Request. Ensure you have selected the respective customer from the filter in the header.
The available notifications for purchase order approvals are as follows:
 
PO Requesters Notifications:
  1. Notify PO Requester when a purchase order is approved
 
Email Notification Templates:
  1. PO Approval Request (to approvers)
  2. PO Approval Notification (to PO owner and approvers)
  3. PO Rejection Notification (to PO owner and approvers)
  4. PO Closure Notification (to PO owner and approvers)
  5. Invoice Received Notification (to PO owner and approvers)
  6. PO Items Ordered (to PO owner and approvers)
  7. Payment Notification (to PO owner and approvers)
  8. Email Purchase Order Owner
  9. Email Purchase Order Vendor
  10. PO Cancellation Notification (to PO owner and approvers)
Learn more about notification rules.
 

Use Cases        

Scenario 1:
There is a single approval stage for the purchase order. Jack, Bella, and Carl are designated as the approvers, and the option All configured approvers must approve the purchase order is enabled.
Both Jack and Bella approve the purchase order, but Carl rejects it. Therefore, the purchase order status is set to Rejected.

 
Scenario 2:
There is a single approval stage for the purchase order. Jack, Bella, and Carl are designated as the approvers, and the option 'All configured approvers must approve the purchase order is disabled.
Bella rejects the purchase order, but Jack approves it. Carl's approval status changes to No Action Required, and the purchase order status is then set to Approved.

 
Scenario 3:
There are four stages of approval for the purchase order, with specific approvers configured for each stage. The option All configured approvers must approve the purchase order is enabled.
In stage one, all approvers approve the purchase order, allowing it to move to stage two. In stage two, Heather approves the purchase order, but John denies his approval.
The approval status of the stage changes to Denied, and the approval process does not proceed to the third and final stage.
The status of the purchase order changes to Rejected.

 
Scenario 4:
There are three stages of approval for the purchase order, with specific approvers configured for each stage. The option All configured approvers have to approve the purchase order is disabled.
In stage one, Bella approves the purchase order, so the approval action is not required from the other two approvers in stage one and the approval process proceeds to stage two.

In stage two, Heather rejects the purchase order. But Jean approves it. Hence, the approval action from the third approver, Carl, changes to No Action Required, and the approval process proceeds to stage three.

In stage three, Jack rejects the purchase order, but John approves it. Hence, no action is required from Wade. The approval process is completed, and the purchase order status is updated to Approved.

 

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