Purchase order approvals

Approvals keep spend under control, a submitted PO can’t reach a vendor until the right people sign off. Villva supports simple single-level approval up to a full rules-based matrix.

Single-level approval

The basic flow: a submitted PO routes to eligible approvers.

1. An approver opens a PO pending their approval.
2. They Approve: the PO moves to Approved and can be sent to the vendor.
3. Or they Reject with a mandatory comment: the PO goes back to the buyer as Rejected.

A pending PO can never be sent to a vendor, and every decision (approve/reject, comment, approver, time) is audited.

Thresholds and auto-approval

Approval is driven by a configurable value threshold:

• POs above the threshold require approval.
• POs below it auto-approve and become active.
• Thresholds are evaluated in your base currency (using the exchange rate at the PO date).
• Approval status (pending / approved / rejected) shows on the PO detail with the full chain.
• Approvers are notified on submit, and the requester is notified on the decision (in-app and email).
• Delegation and reminder emails are supported so approvals don’t stall.

Two-level approval

For larger spend, configure a higher threshold that requires two approvals: Level 1 then Level 2, for extra scrutiny:

• Below the lower threshold: no approval.
• Between the thresholds: single-level.
• Above the higher threshold: both levels must approve, in order.

A rejection at either level moves the PO to Rejected. Thresholds are configurable per business unit.

Approval matrix

For complex policies, an approval matrix captures rules that map a combination of category, value band and business unit to an approver chain, for example, capex above a limit routes to the CFO, while consumables auto-approve.

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Add a screenshot here: the approval matrix mapping category / value-band / business-unit rows to approver chains, with the effective-date and precedence columns.

• The highest-precedence matching rule wins.
• Rules carry effective dates, history is preserved, and you can preview a rule against a sample PO before it goes live.
• Editing the matrix needs the settings permission, and rule changes are audited.

Who can approve, and the self-approval guard

• Only users with the purchase-approve permission can approve or reject; anyone else is refused.
• The PO creator can never approve their own PO: at any level. Self-approval attempts are denied and audited.

This makes approval authority a real control, not a rubber stamp. A rejected PO can be resubmitted for a fresh round (or edited back to draft), with the approval history preserved.