Purchase request workflows that actually get approved
How to design purchase request (PR), quotation, and purchase order (PO) approvals that are fast enough for operations and tight enough for auditors.
PR → Quotation → PO → GR
Every spend over a threshold should travel this path. Under the threshold, a simplified one-step PR keeps friction low while preserving the audit trail.
A starting set of thresholds
These are bands to start a discussion with, not a rule any system should hard-code. Every organisation lands somewhere different, and the numbers move as it grows — so what matters is that the bands are yours to configure and change, not the vendor's to decide.
- Under $100 — direct manager only
- $100–$1,000 — manager, then finance
- Over $1,000 — manager, finance, then executive director
- Separately: how many supplier quotes each band requires
The purchase request path, end to end
Approval routing is configured, not hard-coded: a workflow is a list of steps, and each step names a kind of approver — line manager, department head, budget owner, finance team, a role, or a specific person — which is resolved against whoever raised this particular request. One workflow therefore serves every department.
- 1RequesterDraft
Raise the request
Items, quantities, estimated amounts, the budget account it is charged to, and — where it applies — the project or grant funding it. A draft is editable and belongs entirely to the requester.
- 2HumanetiPending approval
On submit: check the funding, hold the money, find the first approver
A grant-funded request is checked against the grant: it must be active and the date must fall inside the grant period. The amount is then reserved against the budget — an open commitment, so the next requester sees what is genuinely left rather than a figure that ignores everything already in flight.
- 3Humaneti
Gates that run on every single approval
Before any approver's decision is accepted: the sourcing band for this amount must be satisfied — and quotes are counted by distinct supplier, so three quote numbers from one vendor do not pass a three-quote band. Where the company requires it, the approver must confirm no conflict of interest. And a debarred vendor, or one whose trading licence has expired, blocks the approval outright.
- 4Approver
Each configured step decides in turn
A step can require a written comment before it will accept an approval. Conditions attached to a step can send the request to a different step, skip a step, or reject it outright based on amount, category, or procurement method — so a $50 stationery order and a $50,000 vehicle do not travel the same road.
- 5ApproverApproved
The last step settles the commitment
When no further step resolves, the request is approved: the budget reservation is settled and every line moves to approved. If it was a sole-source or emergency purchase approved at a waiver step, who granted that waiver is stamped separately from the ordinary approval — an ordinary final approver is never recorded as having granted one.
- 6HumanetiPO issued
Approval creates the purchase order
A purchase order is raised to the selected vendor and a draft goods receipt is prepared against it, in the same moment as the approval. Nobody re-keys the approved request into a PO, so the PO cannot quietly differ from what was approved.
- 7ReceiverPartially received → Received
Record what actually arrived
Receipt is per line and per condition: quantity accepted, quantity rejected. A short delivery leaves the receipt partial rather than forcing a yes-or-no on the whole order.
- 8HumanetiCompleted
Close only when receipt matches
The request closes off what was actually received, not what was ordered. Where the purchase becomes an asset, the asset record is created from the order — and if it was donor-funded, it carries that donor's ownership for restitution reporting.
Every step writes an approval record — approver, decision, comment, timestamp — and a rejection releases the budget reservation rather than leaving money committed to a purchase that will not happen.