This article covers how to review, approve, and reject purchase orders. To set up who approves what, see Setting up and managing purchase order approval workflows.
1. Find POs waiting on approval
Open Purchase Orders.
Select the For approval tab.
Turn on Requires my approval to show only POs waiting on you.
Approvals apply to Adaptive POs only. A PO from QuickBooks, Procore, or an external source never enters the approval flow. Use Convert to Adaptive PO first.
2. Send a draft PO for approval
Open the Draft tab.
Open the PO.
Review the vendor, job, cost codes, amounts, and line items.
Click Send for approval.
If you are an approver on the PO, the dropdown next to the button also offers Send for approval & approve, which records your approval in the same step.
If the PO matches no workflow, it is approved automatically and moves straight to Open.
3. Approve a PO
Open the PO from the For approval tab.
Review the details and line items.
Click Approve.
If more approvers are still required, the PO stays in For approval until every step is complete. Once the last approver approves it, the PO moves to Open.
Note: A red This budget line is over-committed alert warns you when a line exceeds its cost budget. It is a warning only and does not block approval.
4. Reject a PO
Open the PO from the For approval tab.
Click Reject.
Add a comment. The comment is optional, but it tells the creator what to fix.
Click Reject to confirm.
A rejected PO moves back to Draft and shows a Rejected tag. Your comment is posted on the PO. When the creator sends it for approval again, the earlier approvals are cleared and the workflow starts over.
5. Bypass approvals
If your role includes Bypass approval workflows, you can approve a PO even when other people are still supposed to review it.
Bypass approvals appears next to Approve, or as the main button when you are not part of the PO's workflow.
To bypass:
Open the PO from the For approval tab.
Click Bypass approvals.
Confirm by selecting Bypass other approvals.
6. Approve or reject POs in bulk
Open Purchase Orders.
Go to Draft or For approval.
Select the POs.
Click Actions.
Choose the action you want.
From Draft you can pick Send for approval or Send for approval & approve. From For approval you can pick Approve, Reject, or Revert to draft.
Adaptive skips any PO where the action is not allowed for you or for its status, and reports what it skipped.
Note: A bulk rejection does not prompt you for a comment. Reject a PO on its own page when you want to explain the reason.
7. Send an approved PO to the vendor
The option to send a PO to the vendor for signature stays hidden while the PO is in Draft or For approval. Once the PO is approved and reaches Open, you can send it for signature or mark it as signed.
For more on signatures, see Sending Purchase Orders for Signature.
8. Move a PO back to draft
Use Revert to draft in the PO's Actions menu to pull a PO out of approval or out of Open. Adaptive asks you to confirm.
Important: Reverting a PO that has linked bills unlinks those bills.
9. Understand approval permissions
What you can do depends on your role and the PO's workflow. If Approve is unavailable, Adaptive explains why:
You are not an approver on this purchase order.
It is not your turn to approve this purchase order.
You have already approved this purchase order.
This purchase order is not pending approval.
Unlike bills, there is no standalone "approve purchase orders" permission. You can approve a PO when a workflow puts you on it, or when your role lets you bypass approval workflows.
Admins manage roles and permissions under Settings → People. Approval workflows are managed from Automations.
If you have questions that aren't answered in our Knowledge Base, please reach out to us at [email protected].