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Request approval for a purchase order

When a purchase order approval policy is on, a draft purchase order can't be opened or sent to the supplier until it's approved. If your own approval is enough, you approve the draft in one click. If it isn't, you request approval and the policy sends the purchase order to the right people. The examples on this page use the chapter's policy: Priya Shah or Sam Turner approves purchase orders up to $10,000, and only Sam Turner approves anything larger.

Before you begin​

  • A purchase order approval policy is on. See Set up purchase order approvals.
  • To request approval, your role needs the Purchase Orders → Edit permission. Without it, Request Approval doesn't appear, so ask a buyer to request it.
  • To approve in one click, you need to be an approver on the policy for the purchase order's amount. Approving comes from the policy, not from a role permission. See How approvals work.
  • The purchase order is a Draft with at least one product line or cost line. See Create a purchase order.

Check what the draft needs​

Open the draft from Orders → Purchase Orders. The Approval card under the header shows the tier the total falls into, the amount, and what happens next:

The card showsThe header showsWhat it means
Approving this will go to: followed by names and the tier, such as Sam Turner (Over $10,000)Request ApprovalYour approval alone isn't enough. Request approval and wait for the people named.
You can approve this directly, with the tierApproveYour approval completes every step, so you can approve the draft in one click.
No approval needed, with the tier's bandApproveThe amount falls in an auto-approve band. Anyone who can edit purchase orders can open it.

Each tier and step can need more than one person. When a tier has more steps, the card adds then 1 more step (or more) after the first approvers' names. If nobody is left who can approve a step, the card warns you, for example Nobody can approve step 1 (Owner approval) — it would escalate to administrators. You can still request approval. Administrators and anyone with Approval Policies → Override & re-route can then finish the request. See Override or re-route a stuck request.

Request approval​

  1. Go to Orders → Purchase Orders and open the draft.

  2. Point to Request Approval to see who it goes to.

    The tooltip reads Will go to: followed by the approvers and tier, for example Will go to: Sam Turner (Over $10,000).

  3. Click Request Approval.

    The Request Approval dialog says Submit PO-0066 for approval. The approvers below are notified and the PO opens once the approval is complete. The Will go to: box repeats who gets it.

  4. Optional: in Note to approvers (optional), add context for the approver, such as Second volume order for the spring range. The note can be up to 1,000 characters.

  5. Click Request Approval, or press Ctrl+Enter (⌘+Enter on a Mac).

What you'll see: a message confirms Approval requested — sent to Sam Turner. The order stays a Draft, and the header adds an Awaiting Approval chip. On the Approval card, the status changes to Awaiting approval, the headline reads Waiting on Sam Turner, and the timeline shows your request and note.

Each approver gets an Approval Requested alert in SKU.io, and by email if email is turned on for them.

To hear by email when your request is approved or rejected, turn on email for Approval Decision in Settings → Alerts & Notifications → My Notifications. See Get approval requests by email.

While the request is waiting​

  • The order can't move on yet. It can't be opened, sent to the supplier, or paid a deposit. In the More menu, Record Proforma Invoice / Request Payment explains PO-0066 must be approved before a deposit can be requested.
  • You can follow up. On the Approval card, Send reminder nudges the approvers, and Withdraw (also Withdraw Request in the header) takes the request back while nobody has approved it. See Withdraw a request or send a reminder.
  • You can still edit the draft. If you make a change that matters to the approval, such as changing the total, the pending request is replaced by a new one and any approvals already given are cleared. See How re-approval works.

Approve a draft in one click​

When your approval completes the whole request, you don't need to ask anyone.

  1. Go to Orders → Purchase Orders and open the draft.

    The Approval card reads You can approve this directly, for example for a $2,150.10 order in the Up to $10,000 tier.

  2. Click Approve. For a purchase order going to an Amazon FBA warehouse, the button reads Reserve Inventory.

What you'll see: a message confirms Purchase order approved. The order moves from Draft to Open, and the Approval card reads Approved by Priya Shah.

One-click approval works when you're listed on every step of the tier, or on the final step of a higher tier, and each step needs only one approval. When a step needs more than one person, such as Any 2 or All of several people, you can't complete it alone, so the draft goes through a request. When the policy's Self-approval rule is Never, one-click approval is off: you request approval and someone else approves. See Set approval rules.

Self-approved

If you raised a request and you're the only person who can approve it, the default Self-approval rule lets you approve it yourself. Your approval is labelled Self-approved on the timeline and in the queue's History, so anyone reviewing it can tell. A one-click approval of a draft you're listed to approve isn't labelled, because you approved it as a listed approver.

After the purchase order is approved​

When the last step is approved, the order opens automatically: it moves to Open, its quantities count as incoming inventory, and whoever requested it gets an Approval Decision alert, unless they approved it themselves.

To send it to the supplier, click Submit. While a purchase order policy is on, sending needs the Purchase Orders → Edit permission. Purchase Orders → Approve alone isn't enough, because approving comes from the policy. An approver whose role can't edit purchase orders can approve the order, and then a buyer sends it. See Approve and submit a purchase order.

If the request is rejected​

The order stays a Draft, and the header shows an Approval Rejected chip. The Approval card reads, for example, Rejected by Sam Turner, with the reason underneath and on the timeline.

  1. Read the reason on the Approval card.
  2. Fix what the approver asked for, for example by changing quantities or lines.
  3. Click Request Approval again.

What you'll see: a new request starts from the first step. The rejected request moves into History on the Approval card, so the full trail stays on the order.

Request Approval also appears in two other cases. For more, see How re-approval works.

  • An Open purchase order whose changes since approval were rejected or withdrawn. It can't be sent again until the changes are approved, or until you change them back.
  • A Closed purchase order that the policy sent for approval but that closed without ever being approved, for example a dropship purchase order that was fully invoiced first. It can't be reopened, sent or given a deposit, and the tooltip reads This purchase order was never approved — request approval before reopening or sending it.

Next steps​

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