Purchase order approval workflows control who must approve a PO before it opens and can go to the vendor. Route POs by amount, job, vendor, vendor type, cost code, account, budget, or class.
To approve a PO once workflows are set up, see Approving purchase orders.
1. Understand purchase order statuses
The Purchase Orders page has four tabs:
Draft: POs you are still building.
For approval: POs waiting on one or more approvers.
Open: POs that are approved and active.
All: POs across every status.
Important: Approvals apply to Adaptive POs only. A PO that came from QuickBooks, Procore, or an external source cannot be sent for approval. Use Convert to Adaptive PO first.
Note: Draft and For approval are Adaptive statuses. They never sync to QuickBooks. A PO syncs once it is approved and reaches Open.
2. Open approval workflow settings
Go to Automations.
Open the Approvals tab.
This page lists your workflows and fallback workflows. From here you can add, edit, copy, deactivate, or delete a workflow.
3. Create a purchase order approval workflow
Click Add workflow.
Enter a Title.
Under Applies to, select Purchase orders.
4. Add workflow conditions
Conditions decide which POs the workflow applies to. Purchase orders support these conditions:
Amount
Job
Vendor
Vendor type
Cost code
Account
Budget
Class, if class tracking is on for your company
For example, you can route every PO over a set amount to a company admin, or route POs for one vendor type to the person who manages that trade.
Note: Card holder and card transaction conditions are not available for POs. Those conditions apply to expenses.
5. Choose approvers
Under The following people should approve the transaction, choose the rule for the first step:
Require all: Every selected approver must approve the PO.
Require either: Any one selected approver can approve the PO.
Auto-approve: POs matching this workflow are approved automatically.
Then select the users or roles.
Note: Auto-approve can only be used as the first step, and you cannot combine it with more approval steps.
6. Add more approval steps
Use Add step when a PO needs more than one round of approval. For example:
Step 1: Require either the project manager or the estimator.
Step 2: Require all company admins.
Adaptive routes the PO through each step in order. The PO stays in For approval until every required step is complete.
7. Save the workflow
Click Save. Adaptive asks whether to apply the workflow to All existing drafts or Only new transactions. The first evaluates POs already in Draft; the second applies the workflow going forward only.
8. Create a fallback workflow
A fallback workflow is the default approval path for POs that match no other workflow. To create one:
Go to Automations.
Open the Approvals tab.
Find the fallback workflow section.
Click Add fallback workflow.
Under Applies to, select Purchase orders.
Select the users or roles who should approve unmatched POs.
Click Save.
Important: Without a fallback workflow, a PO that matches no workflow is approved automatically the moment someone sends it for approval. It moves straight to Open with no review.
9. Approvals and vendor signatures
The option to send a PO to the vendor for signature stays hidden until the PO clears approval and reaches Open. For more, see Sending Purchase Orders for Signature.
10. Restart approvals when a PO is edited
By default, editing a PO that is waiting for approval keeps the approvals it already has. To clear them instead, go to Automations, find Approval settings, and turn on If a user edits a purchase order, restart the approval workflow.
With the setting on, Adaptive asks you to confirm with Restart the approval workflow? before it saves. Confirming clears every approval already given, and each approver must approve again.
11. Edit or turn off a workflow
To change a workflow, open it from the Approvals tab and edit the title, conditions, or approvers. To stop a workflow from applying, edit it and set it to Inactive. Delete it if you no longer need it.
12. Troubleshoot workflow issues
If a PO goes to the wrong approver, check:
The workflow's Applies to value is set to Purchase orders.
The workflow conditions match the POs you intended.
The approver step uses the correct users or roles.
A fallback workflow is not routing unmatched POs unexpectedly.
Two workflows do not overlap in a way that changes the approval path.
The approver has permission to view and approve the PO.
If a PO cannot be sent for approval, confirm it is an Adaptive PO. Convert it first if it came from QuickBooks, Procore, or an external source.
Managing workflows needs the Manage approval workflows permission. Admins can update roles and permissions under Settings → People.
If you have questions that aren't answered in our Knowledge Base, please reach out to us at [email protected].