Set up purchase order approvals

A purchase order approval policy decides who has to sign off on a purchase order before it's opened, sent to the supplier, or paid a deposit. You split amounts into tiers and choose the approvers for each one. This page builds the example used throughout the chapter: Priya Shah or Sam Turner approves purchase orders up to $10,000, and only Sam Turner approves anything larger.

Before you begin

• You need to be an administrator, or have a role with Approval Policies → Edit rules (which includes View rules). Edit rules lets you change policies but doesn't let you approve anything: approving comes only from being listed in a policy. See Approval permissions reference.
• Everyone you want as an approver must be a user in your account. You can also add a role, which counts every user who holds it.
• Approvers need an email address on their user account to get approval emails.
• Read How approvals work if tiers and steps are new to you.

Plan your tiers

Write the bands down before you start. A few rules decide how they fit together:

• Limits are inclusive. A tier marked Up to $10,000 covers $10,000.00 exactly, and $10,000.01 falls into the next tier.
• Amounts are in your base currency. The card title shows it, for example Approval tiers (amounts in USD, inclusive). A purchase order in another currency is converted at its own exchange rate when approval is requested, then matched to a tier.
• The amount is the purchase order total, including tax and other charges.
• The first tier starts at $0, and the last tier has no limit. Each tier you add starts one cent above the tier before it.
• SKU.io names each tier from its limits, for example Up to $10,000 and Over $10,000. You see these names in the approvals queue, alerts and emails. There's no separate name field.
• Someone on a higher tier's final step can also approve smaller amounts. In the example, Sam Turner can approve a $4,280 purchase order even though Priya Shah could too. A step set to All is the exception: it needs everyone listed on it.

A policy can have up to 10 tiers, and each tier up to 3 steps that run in order.

Steps

1. Go to Settings → Purchasing → Approval Policies.

   The page opens on the Purchase orders tab, which shows Purchase orders don't need approval yet while the policy is off. A green dot on a tab means that policy is on, and a grey dot means it's off.

2. Click Set up approvals.

   This turns on Require approval for purchase orders and adds one tier, named All amounts. It has No limit, with a lock icon, because the last tier always covers everything above the tiers before it. Nothing is saved until you click Save. If the policy was set up before and then turned off, its earlier tiers come back instead; change or delete them as you need.

3. In the Approvers box, type Sam and select Sam Turner.

   Sam Turner is now the only approver for large purchase orders.

4. Click Add tier.

   A new tier appears above the no-limit tier. Each new tier goes just above your highest limit, so add tiers from the smallest amount up.

5. In the new tier's Up to box, enter 10000.

   The hint under the box changes to $0 – $10,000, and the hint under the no-limit tier changes to More than $10,000.

6. In the new tier's Approvers box, select Priya Shah and Sam Turner.

   Leave Requires set to Any one, so the first approval completes the step. The other choices are described in the Policy settings reference.

7. In the Test an amount card, enter 12500 in Amount (USD).

   The card reads your unsaved changes, so you can test before you save. For this policy it shows A $12,500 PO goes to Sam Turner (Over $10,000 tier, 1 step). Try 10000 and 10000.01 too, to check the edge of the band. The card sits beside the tiers on a wide screen, and below them on a narrower one.

8. Click Save.

   Save is at the top right of the page and stays greyed out until you change something. One Save saves every tab you've changed. When it works, you see Approval policy saved. If it doesn't, see If Save shows an error.

9. In the Approver email notifications card, click Turn on email for everyone.

   Approvers always get an in-app alert, but it's easy to miss, and approval email is off for everyone until it's turned on. This sends each request, reminder and override to the approvers' inboxes as it happens. The switches save straight away, without Save. When everyone is on, the button becomes All approvers get emails. For the card's other states, see Get approval requests by email.

Add a second step to a tier

Some teams want two sign-offs on large orders, for example a manager and then the owner.

1. Open the tier's Tier actions menu (…) and click Add step.

   The new step reads then →.

2. Name it in the Name this step, e.g. Owner approval box.

3. Add its approvers in the Approvers box.

Must be someone who hasn't approved an earlier step is on by default, so one person can't approve two steps of the same request. To remove the step, click its ×. The Name this step box appears only when a tier has two or more steps; a tier with one step calls it Approval.

Skip approval for small amounts

To let small purchase orders through without approval, turn the first tier into an auto-approve band. For example, to skip approval up to $500 in the example policy:

1. Change the first tier's Up to amount to $500.

2. Open that tier's Tier actions menu (…) and click Auto-approve this band.

   The tier shows Auto-approve — no approval needed in this band.

3. Click Add tier, enter 10000 in the new tier's Up to box, and add Priya Shah and Sam Turner to it.

4. Click Save.

To check it, enter 250 in Test an amount. The card reads A $250 PO is auto-approved (Up to $500 band). A purchase order in an auto-approve band doesn't wait for anyone. Anyone who can edit purchase orders can open it with Approve. To undo it, choose Require approval from the same menu.

See what happens when a particular person asks

In the Test an amount card, choose a person in Raised by (optional).

With Raised by set to Priya Shah and an amount of 12,500, the card adds Priya Shah can't approve it directly — Over your approval limit. At 4,280 it says Priya Shah can approve it themselves in one click. The At a glance list underneath shows a few sample amounts and who each one goes to. Click a row to test that amount.

Choose people and roles

The Approvers box lists people with their email address, and roles with their member count, for example 3 members · role. A role you pick shows as a chip with its count, such as Purchasing (3). Approval follows the role: someone who joins it later can approve, and someone who leaves it can't. If your search finds nothing, the list says No people or roles match followed by your search.

If you list a role on a step that needs more approvals than the role has members, the step warns you: Requires 2 approvals, but only 1 person is in these approvers right now. Approvals will wait until enough people join.

If Save shows an error

When something needs fixing, SKU.io shows Fix the highlighted fields on Purchase orders before saving, opens that tab, and marks each field. The two you're most likely to see:

Message	What to do
Enter a limit	Every tier except the last needs an Up to amount.
Add at least one approver	Add a person or role to the step, or mark the tier Auto-approve this band.

For every other message, see Validation messages in the Policy settings reference. If you try to leave the page with unsaved changes, SKU.io asks You have unsaved changes. Leave without saving?

Next steps

• Set up deposit and bill payment approvals, so prepayments and bills get the same sign-off.
• Set approval rules, to decide whether people can approve their own requests, how reminders work, and when an edited purchase order needs approving again.
• Choose which purchase orders need approval, for imported, reorder, forecast and dropship purchase orders.
• Request approval for a purchase order, to see the policy from the buyer's side.
• Change or turn off a policy, once requests are in progress.
• Policy settings reference.