Who signs off what, and nobody signs off their own.
Approval routing is data, not a policy in a drawer. A threshold, the people at each stage, and a rule that the person who raised it is never one of them.
| PO-202609-00214 · 18,400.00 | Purchasing Manager | waiting | 2 days |
| PO-202609-00219 · 46,900.00 | Finance, then VP | stage 1 of 2 | today |
| TR-202609-00031 · Mactan | Purchasing Manager | waiting | 4 hours |
| PO-202609-00221 · 9,250.00 | raised by A. Bacus | refused | own order |
| PO-202609-00208 · 31,000.00 | approved 14:02 | approved | R. Yap |
| Threshold | above it, two more sign | 20,000.00 |
Amount-based approval routing for purchase orders and stock transfers, with stages, delegation, and nobody approving what they raised.
What it actually does.
The threshold is a setting, not a release
Up to the amount you set, one person signs. Above it, the order goes to finance and then to the VP. Moving that line is a setting somebody with the right permission changes, and the change is itself recorded — it is not a ticket to us.
- A rule per document type: purchase orders and stock transfers today.
- Stages run in order, and the order is yours to set.
- Raising the threshold is a change with a name and a date against it.
An order waiting is the expensive kind of nothing: the supplier is waiting and the person who raised it assumes somebody has it.
The requester is never an approver
Not a convention that people follow when they remember. The database refuses it, so it holds on the busy Friday as firmly as on the quiet Tuesday — including for the owner.
- Somebody who raised it cannot approve it, whatever else they hold.
- An approved order freezes: amend it and you get a revision, with the original intact.
- A delegation covers leave without handing over an account.
Including the refusal and the change to the rule itself. A control you can move without leaving a mark is not a control.
Waiting is visible, not remembered
An order sitting unapproved is the most expensive kind of nothing: the supplier is waiting, the stock is not moving, and the person who raised it assumes it is in hand. Every one that is waiting is on a screen, with how long it has been there.
- What is waiting, on whom, and since when.
- Overdue approvals are raised rather than left to somebody noticing.
- Every decision keeps the reason and the person, permanently.
The ones people ask about this.
Can we have different thresholds per branch or per company?
Yes. A rule carries conditions, so a branch, a company or a document type can each have its own line, and the most specific one wins.
What happens when an approver is on leave?
A delegation. Their authority moves to somebody named, for a period, and the decision is recorded as made under that delegation — not as though they made it themselves.
Can the owner just approve everything?
The owner can hold every permission and still cannot approve an order they raised. Some permissions go further: voiding an approved document is reserved, which means a wildcard does not grant it and it has to be written against a role by name.
Does an approval change what got ordered?
No. An approved order is frozen. Anything else is a revision, which keeps the original exactly as it was approved and records what changed between them.
Nothing here is a separate product.
Procurement
Requisition to order to receipt, three-way match, landed cost
See the pageAudit & controls
Every change, who made it, and what it looked like before
See the pageSecurity & access
Enforced in the database, down to the action
See the pageAccounting
Multi-entity double-entry, consolidation, intercompany
See the pageSee it on your own figures.
Bring one ordinary day from your business and we will run it through in front of you, on your own items and your own prices.