Purchase Order Approval Process

Purchase Order Approval Process

Purchase Order value limits can be configured for both Inventory and Outsource Purchase Orders.


The minimum purchase value that will require approval can be optionally set in 3 different places

  • In System Setting (affects all Purchase Orders that exceed the set value)
  • On the individual Suppliers record and
  • On the User Details screen




If the settings are left blank, the purchase order approval workflow is not invoked.

If a value is applied only to a user, then Purchase Orders created by that user that exceed the set value will need to be approved.

If a value is applied to a supplier only the Purchase Orders for that supplier that exceed the set value will need to be processed thru the approval workflow.

If more than one of these settings are set, printIQ will apply the one with the lowest value.


When a Purchase Order is created, IQ will check these values if they have been set and will flag the purchase order for approval if the value of the Purchase Order is greater than the LOWEST setting.


A new purchase order status has been added to the purchase orders board called Awaiting Approval.




In order to approve a Purchase Order, the user must have the Purchase Approver role enabled



If the approving user has a Purchase Order Auto-Approval Limit set, they will only be able to approve purchase orders created by other users up to the value of that setting.


If a user has a limit of $1000 and creates a purchase order for $1200 it will need approval.

This can be approved by any user with the Purchase Approver role whose limit is either blank or is greater than the value of the purchase order.


For example:


Company Limit set to $2000

User limit is blank (no limit)

Create an Inventory PO with a value > $2000 and it is created with a status of Awaiting Approval…











As the user has no approval limit set, they can approve all orders. However having created the Purchase Order, IQ will still require the PO to be approved.





This can be done immediately and does not require the user to reload the PO.


Company Limit set to $2000

User Limit is set to $3000


All Purchase Orders over $2000 require approval, irrespective of who the creator was

This user can create and approve all Purchase Orders up to $3000 in value.



Company Limit set to $2000

User Limit is set to $1000


All Purchase Orders over $2000 require approval, irrespective of who the creator was

This user can create and proceed with Purchase Orders under $1000 – they will by=pass the approval process

For this user, all Purchase Orders created with a value over $1000 will require approval.




Outsource Purchase Order Workflow


While the workflow for approving Outsource Purchase Orders is the same as for Inventory Purchase Orders, due to the modal for creating Outsource Purchase Orders is a little different to the Inventory Purchase Order modal. It does not present the status progression bar across the top.


When creating an Outsource PO, which requires approval (where the creating user cannot approve it), the message below is presented on saving the PO and the Approve button appears (albeit unclickable as the user does not have access to approve it)…








However, when creating an Outsource Purchase Order that does not require approval, the message is slightly different and the Approve button does not appear…








Managing the purchase orders for approvals requires using the Inventory Purchase Order Board for approving Inventory POs and the Outsource Board to manage Outsource POs.












After approving an Outsource Purchase Order, the message in the PO is updated as follows…







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