Use case · Purchase Approval Workflow
A Purchase Request That Does Not Need Chasing
Department request → manager approval → purchase team → vendor → receipt, with a clock on every step.
The flow
- Request raised by a department
- Routed by value and category
- Approved with context attached
- Purchase order generated
- Vendor follows up automatically
- Goods received against the order
- Quality hold, then stock
What changes
The same work, before and after
How it works today
- A request is sent for approval and then simply waits
- Approvers ask the requester for rate history and stock position
- Purchase orders are re-typed from the approved request
- Overdue deliveries are chased by whoever remembers
- Received material is available for issue before it is inspected
How it works after
- Every request sits in a named queue with a visible waiting time
- Last purchase rates, current stock and consumption trend are attached automatically
- The purchase order is generated from the approval, so the two cannot differ
- Open orders age automatically and chase themselves before the due date
- Receipt puts material on hold until inspection is recorded
The part people underestimate
The decisions that have to be made before any of this is built
- 01
The authority matrix
Who approves what, at which value, in which category and department, including exceptions. Getting this right is most of the work — the software is the easy part.
- 02
What happens on absence
An approver on leave must have a nominated alternate for that period, or the process stops. This is the single most common cause of approval delay.
- 03
The escalation clock
How long a level may hold an item before it is reminded, and before it escalates. Without a clock, 'pending' has no meaning.
- 04
The emergency route
Urgent purchases will happen. Better a defined fast path with a named authority and a mandatory reason than the same purchase happening off-system.
Management visibility
What this makes visible
- Every pending request, its approver and how long it has waited
- Which approval level is consistently slowest
- Open purchase orders by vendor with ageing
- Committed spend not yet invoiced
- Vendor on-time delivery and rejection rate
- Price movement per item from your own history
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Still unsure whether your processes are a fit? Walk us through one of them.
Book an Operations Automation ConsultationCan approvals happen on a phone?
Yes, and for approvers they usually should. The notification reaches the phone, the context is on the same screen as the decision, and the approval is recorded — which is the part WhatsApp cannot do.
Can it stop purchases that exceed a budget?
Yes, where budgets are maintained. Over-budget items can be blocked or routed to a higher authority, configured per category rather than as a single global rule.
How does it prevent the same thing being ordered twice?
By showing open requests and open purchase orders for the item at the point of raising a new one. Duplicate ordering is almost always an information problem, not a discipline problem.
Keep reading
The solutions behind this workflow
Purchase Workflow Automation
Automate purchase requests, approval levels, purchase orders, vendor follow-up and goods receipt — with rate history and a full audit trail.
Workflow Automation
We build workflow automation for approvals, notifications, escalations and handoffs — so purchase, production and quality processes move without anyone chasing them.
Inventory Management System
An inventory management system where stock updates because work happened — issues, consumption, transfers, reorder alerts and lot tracking.
Other use cases
Workflows that usually come next
Production Order Management
A confirmed sales order automatically creates the production workflow behind it.
- Sales order confirmed
- Production requirement created
- Material checked and shortages raised
- Work orders released to lines
- +3 more steps
Inventory & Reorder Management
Stock movement → consumption → reorder alerts → management visibility, with no separate update task.
- Material received and put away
- Issued against a job
- Consumption recorded as work happens
- Reorder level crossed
- +2 more steps
Quality Inspection Workflow
Production completion → inspection → approval or rejection → rework, with dispatch gated on the result.
- Production reports completion
- Inspection created and assigned
- Lot held from dispatch
- Parameters recorded against the lot
- +2 more steps
Employee Task Workflow
Task assignment → status update → approval → escalation → completion, with clear ownership throughout.
- Task created or raised by a rule
- Assigned to a named owner
- Status updated by the owner
- Approval where one is needed
- +2 more steps
Management Dashboard
All important operational information in one dashboard, produced by the work rather than compiled for a meeting.
- Work is recorded where it happens
- Metrics computed on agreed definitions
- Exceptions surfaced first
- Drill-down to the transaction
- +2 more steps
Next step
Your business has a process. Let's turn it into a system.
From manual workflows and disconnected departments to connected operations, automated processes and real-time visibility.