A purchase approval workflow makes sure spending is checked by the right person before it happens, without making every small request wait. A good one is easy to describe in a few sentences. If yours isn't, that's the first thing to fix.
1. Decide what needs approval
Start with what the process is for: stopping spending nobody agreed to, and leaving a record. It doesn't need to catch every coffee. List what your team actually buys, such as software, equipment, travel and contractors, and decide which of them the process covers.
2. Set thresholds
Thresholds are what keep an approval process quick. Most requests should go through the lowest tier. The right numbers depend on your business, but the shape is usually the same:
- Low value: approved automatically, and recorded.
- Medium value: approved by a budget owner or finance.
- High value: approved by a director or founder as well.
Write the rule down as you'd say it to a new hire: "Under £500 goes straight through. Up to £5,000 needs finance. Above that needs a director."
3. Collect the right details up front
Most delays come from going back to ask for missing information. A short request form should capture what the approver needs to decide:
- What is being bought, and from whom
- The amount, and whether it recurs
- The budget or team it belongs to
- Why it's needed, and by when
4. Route by the record
Routing should come from what's on the request, not from who the requester happens to ask. Amount decides the tier, and team or budget decides the person. Name roles, not people, so that the workflow still works when someone changes job.
5. Plan for absence and silence
This is the step most processes skip, and it's where they stall. Give every approval step a due time and decide what happens when it passes: remind the approver, then escalate to a named backup. Nobody should be able to block a purchase by being on leave.
6. Decide what happens after approval
Approval isn't the end of the work. Tell the requester, raise the purchase order, notify whoever places the order, and post to the team's channel if that's how they work. These steps can usually run automatically, and they're what people forget.
7. Keep the record
For each request, you should be able to see who approved it, when, and under which rule. Keep this with the request itself rather than in an inbox, so month-end and audits don't turn into searches.
An example
A team member requests a £2,400 laptop. It's over the £500 limit for automatic approval and under the £5,000 director limit, so it goes to finance alone. The task waits with the finance approver and escalates if it passes its due date. Once approved, the requester is told and the order is raised, and the record shows the whole path.
Start small
Run the process for one team for a month, then adjust the thresholds using what you see. If nearly everything lands in the middle tier, the lower limit is too low.
In Amazity you'd describe this process in plain words and get a draft to try on sample data before anyone relies on it. See how it works.