Approve requests in bulk
When a lot of requests are waiting, you can select them in Orders → Approvals and approve or reject them together. SKU.io approves each one as you, on its current step, and skips any you can't approve, then tells you which ones it skipped and why. In the examples, Priya Shah approves up to $10,000, so an $18,650.00 purchase order that only Sam Turner can approve is skipped.
Before you begin
- You can only approve requests you could approve one at a time. Selecting a request you can't approve is allowed, but it's skipped. See Approve or reject a request.
- Waiting on me lists only requests you can approve. All pending lists everything still waiting, and is there only for administrators and roles with Approval Policies → View rules.
- A bulk approval doesn't add a note. To explain a decision, approve that request on its own in the review drawer.
Approve several requests
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Go to Orders → Approvals.
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Choose Waiting on me or All pending.
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Tick the box on each row you want, or tick the box in the header row to select every request on the page.
A bar appears above the list, for example 4 selected · 1 you can't approve will be skipped.
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Click Approve selected.
The confirmation is titled Approve 4 requests. It reads Each request is approved as you, on its current step. When some of your selection can't be approved, it reads 1 you can't approve will be skipped and listed afterwards. instead.
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Click Approve.
What you'll see: a message sums up the result, for example 3 approved · 1 skipped (over your approval limit — the "Over $10,000" tier needs Sam Turner). When anything was skipped, the Approve selected dialog lists each skipped document under Skipped, with its reason. Click Done to close it.
The approved requests leave Waiting on me. A request with more steps moves on to its next step's approvers: it counts as approved in the summary, but stays in All pending until the last step is approved.
Why a request is skipped
Each skipped request gets its own reason. The two most common are:
| Reason | What to do |
|---|---|
| Over your approval limit — the "Over $10,000" tier needs Sam Turner. | Nothing. The request waits for the people named. |
| You can't approve your own request — waiting on Sam Turner. | Nothing. Someone else approves requests you raised. |
For every other message, see the Approval messages reference.
Reject several requests
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Select the requests, as for approving.
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Click Reject selected.
The Reject 4 requests dialog reads The same reason is sent with each rejection. Requests you can't act on are skipped and listed afterwards.
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In Reason, type a reason of at least 3 characters. It's sent with every rejection.
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Click Reject.
What you'll see: a message such as 3 rejected · 1 skipped, and a Reject selected dialog listing anything skipped. Each requester gets an Approval Decision alert with your reason.
Bulk rejection runs in your browser one request at a time, so keep the page open until the message appears.
Approve a large batch
Selecting works one page at a time. To select more requests at once, set Per page at the bottom of the list to 50 or 100 first.
When you approve more than 25 requests at once, the work moves to the background:
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Select the requests and click Approve selected.
The confirmation adds This runs in the background — track it in the job tray.
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Click Approve.
What you'll see: the message Bulk approval started — track progress in the job tray. In the job tray, the Bulk Approve Approval Requests job shows its progress, such as Approving 60 requests. When it finishes, the job reads, for example, Approved 58 of 60 (2 skipped). The approvals list refreshes by itself.
You can keep working while the job runs. If you cancel it from the job tray, it stops approving, and the requests it already approved stay approved.
Approve from the Purchase Orders list
Orders → Purchase Orders has its own bulk Approve button. Under a purchase order approval policy it follows the policy, but it works differently from the approvals queue:
- Who sees it: roles with Purchase Orders → Edit or Purchase Orders → Approve.
- What it approves: each draft you could approve in one click opens, and each request waiting on you is approved, on its current step.
- What it skips: drafts over your approval limit, and anything else you can't approve, are skipped. They stay Draft. The confirmation warns you: Your approval policy applies: orders over your approval limit are skipped, and you can send them for approval afterwards.
What you'll see: a message sums up the result in the same words as the approvals queue, for example 1 approved · 2 skipped (over your approval limit). When anything was skipped, the Approve purchase orders dialog lists each skipped order, linked, with its reason, for example Over your approval limit — this PO (18,650.00 USD) requires: Sam Turner.
When some orders were skipped because they're over your limit, the dialog offers to send them for approval:
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Click Send 2 purchase orders for approval, for example.
The dialog explains that they stay drafts until the policy's approvers approve them.
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Check the message that reports how many were sent.
Each one is sent for approval in your name, so the people the policy names for it get an Approval Requested alert. The same button appears when every order you selected was over your limit. Click Done to close the dialog without sending anything.
For the list's other bulk actions, see Browse and manage the list.
Next steps
- Approve or reject a request: review one request at a time, with a note.
- Override or re-route a stuck request: finish requests nobody can approve.
- Approvals queue reference
- Approval messages reference