Order approval workflow
Let normal orders move. Send only the exceptions for approval.
Check the rules that matter, route unusual orders to the right person and keep the rest of the order flow moving.
SO-2104
- Price
- Applied
- Stock
- Available
- Credit
- Within limit
- Terms
- Standard
Confirm order
SO-2105
- Price
- Applied
- Stock
- Available
- Credit
- Exceeded
- Terms
- Standard
Approval required
Finance Manager
Order rejoins the main flow
One rule outside its limit.Not the whole order stopped.
Not every order should wait for approval.
Normal order
All checks inside their limits
Continue
Exception order
One rule outside its limit
Ask the right person
Routine orders should keep moving.Exceptions should ask for attention.
What can trigger an approval?
- Reason
- The order takes the account past the limit the business set for it.
- Approver
- Finance
- Next step
- Approve, ask for part payment, or hold until the account is cleared.
- Reason
- The discount requested is above the level a salesperson can give alone.
- Approver
- Sales manager
- Next step
- Approve, counter at a lower figure, or decline and keep the standard price.
- Reason
- The customer has asked for longer than the business normally gives.
- Approver
- Finance or management, depending on policy
- Next step
- Approve for this order, agree a standing arrangement, or decline.
- Reason
- The order is large enough that somebody senior should see it before it is committed.
- Approver
- Management
- Next step
- Approve, or check supply and production before confirming.
- Reason
- The date or the place is outside what the business normally commits to.
- Approver
- Operations
- Next step
- Approve a revised date, arrange a special dispatch, or propose an alternative.
None of these is switched on by default. Which rules apply, and at what limit, is something a business decides — and the right limit is rarely the same in two companies.
Send the exception to the right owner.
- CreditFinance
- DiscountSales manager
- Special termsFinance or management, depending on policy
- Delivery exceptionOperations
Approval ownership depends on the company’s policy. In a smaller business all four of these may be the same person, and that is a perfectly good answer.
Keep the order visible while it is waiting.
A waiting order should be findable without anybody chasing it. How long approval ought to take is your business’s decision, not a number this page can set.
Example order
SO-2105
Waiting for approval
- Reason
- Credit limit exceeded
- Requested by
- Neha
- Approver
- Finance Manager
- Waiting since
- Today · 11:20
The approver should see enough context to decide.
- Customer
- Who is asking.
- Order value
- How much is at stake.
- Reason
- Which rule was crossed.
- Current limit or rule
- Where that data is connected.
- Requested exception
- What is actually being asked for.
- Relevant note
- Whatever the salesperson wrote down.
Six things, not the whole order. An approver sent forty line items will approve them without reading them, which is the same as having no approval at all.
What happens after the decision?
- ApproveThe order continues
- Request changeReturns to the owner, with the reason
- RejectThe order remains unconfirmed
The exact statuses depend on how your order process is set up. What matters is that all three outcomes are visible, and that a rejection is not simply silence.
Avoid approval by message alone.
Approved in a chat
- “Sir, approve this order?”
- A reply somewhere in the thread
- Nobody can find it a week later
Recorded against the order
- The order
- The reason
- The approver
- The decision
- When it was recorded
This is about being able to find the decision later, not about compliance. Nothing here claims an audit trail, legal validity or tamper-evidence.
What creates the exception, and what follows it.
- Customer-specific PricingWhere the discount that needs approving is asked for.
- Sales Rep OrderingThe salesperson who needs to know before promising anything.
- Bulk OrderingWhere one long order can raise several exceptions at once.
- Order Status TrackingWhat “waiting for approval” looks like to everybody else.
Which orders really need approval — and which are waiting unnecessarily?
Show us how order exceptions are approved today. We’ll help identify what can move normally and what should reach the right decision-maker.