How to set up a purchase approval process for a small business

"Can I order this?" usually arrives as a text with no price, no vendor and no reason. The owner says yes or no from memory, nobody writes it down, and three months later nobody knows why the supply bill doubled.

A purchase approval process doesn't need accounting software. It needs four things.

1. Ask with the details up front

Every purchase request should include:

• What's needed and the vendor
• Estimated cost (required: no cost, no request)
• Needed by date
• Why: one sentence is enough

When the form asks, the approver never has to.

2. One approval step

Requests start in Review, where a manager checks the budget and approves or declines. Approved requests move on; declined ones close with a note, so the requester knows why.

Want a rule for big purchases? Add one so anything over your limit needs the owner before it can move to Ordered.

3. Record the order

In the Ordered step, whoever places the order adds the order number. When the box shows up, receiving can match it.

4. Confirm it arrived

Received closes the loop. Now you can answer "did that ever come?" in seconds.

What you get after a few months

• Spending by month and by location, from a report instead of a pile of receipts
• Who asks for what most often
• A record of every approval, by whom and when

Using the template

The free purchase request form template sets up the form (item, vendor, estimated cost, needed by, why) and the Review, Ordered and Received steps. Send approved requests to your accounting tools with a webhook or Zapier, and track spending with reports. Several stores ordering? See how locations work.