What this does
Purchase order settings let you turn the PO approval workflow on or off, set an approval threshold, configure a default approver, and assign individual approvers for specific staff members. When enabled, purchase orders must be submitted and approved before they can be linked to supplier bills.
When to use it
Set this up when you first start using purchase orders, or whenever you need to change who is responsible for approving orders.
Step by step
- Go to Settings (via the account menu in the top bar)
- Select the Purchase Orders tab (visible on eligible plans)
- Tick Enable purchase order approvals to turn on the workflow — purchase orders will appear in the Expenses menu and can be linked to supplier bills
- Once enabled, select the Approver from the dropdown (the person who approves orders by default); leave blank to auto-approve all POs
- Set the Approval Threshold (£) — POs at or above this amount require approval; below this value they auto-approve
- Set the Bill Variance Tolerance (%) — if a bill total is within this percentage of the linked PO, it links without a reason; if it exceeds this percentage, a variance reason is required
- To assign a different approver to a specific team member, use the Per-Staff Approver Overrides section: select the Staff member, select Their approver, then click Add Override
- Added overrides appear in the table; click Remove to delete an override
- If no override is set for a staff member, the default approver above is used
- Click Save PO Settings to apply all changes
- To disable the workflow later, untick Enable purchase order approvals and save — new POs will skip the approval step entirely