Procurement Approval Workflow
Stop chasing approvers over email.
What changes when you build this
The gaps you're living with today,
and what this tool fixes.
Problems
- Purchase requests arrive via email, Slack, and spreadsheets — finance has no single queue to triage
- Approvers sit on requests for 5+ business days because routing rules live in someone's head, not in the system
- Budget owners approve purchases without seeing how much of their quarterly allocation is already committed
- Month-end close gets delayed because 15–20% of purchase orders are missing receipts or approvals
- Audit prep takes weeks of digging through email threads to reconstruct who approved what and when
Solutions
- Every purchase request enters one queue with status, owner, and dollar amount visible at a glance
- Routing rules send each request to the right approver based on amount, department, and category — no manual forwarding
- Budget consumption updates in real time so approvers see remaining allocation before they sign off
- Missing documents and incomplete approvals surface daily, not during close week
- Full audit trail captures every approval, rejection, and escalation with timestamps and decision notes
What the data model looks like
Refine generates this table structure from your
prompt. Edit columns, types, and relationships after.
100%
Mistakes to avoid
These are the failure patterns teams hit most often
when building this.
Approval routing by memoryFix: Encode routing rules by amount, department, and category so requests never wait on someone guessing who's next.
Approval routing by memory
Fix:Encode routing rules by amount, department, and category so requests never wait on someone guessing who's next.
Blind budget approvalsFix: Show remaining budget allocation on the approval screen so every sign-off is an informed decision.
Blind budget approvals
Fix:Show remaining budget allocation on the approval screen so every sign-off is an informed decision.
Missing documentation at closeFix: Require receipt and PO attachment before a request can move past 'Submitted' status.
Missing documentation at close
Fix:Require receipt and PO attachment before a request can move past 'Submitted' status.
SLA without escalationFix: Pair every SLA timer with an automatic escalation to a backup approver after the deadline passes.
SLA without escalation
Fix:Pair every SLA timer with an automatic escalation to a backup approver after the deadline passes.
No audit trailFix: Log every status change, approval, and rejection with timestamp, actor, and decision note automatically.
No audit trail
Fix:Log every status change, approval, and rejection with timestamp, actor, and decision note automatically.