2 · Approval

Who acts: approvers in the buyer's company, and its owner for some cases. Starts with: a request or an RFQ award that one of the company's rules catches. Ends with: approved (the orders go out), sent back for changes, or rejected.

Homeowners never see this step. Companies decide their own rules, so a small team might approve nothing and a large one might approve everything over a threshold.

Typical rules

The company owner sets the rules. The usual ones are:

Rule	Who must approve
Order above an amount	Any approver whose personal limit covers it
Order above a higher amount	Two different approvers
Project would go over budget	The owner
A correction brings in a substitute product	An approver

Each approver can have a personal limit. An approver with a USD 25,000 limit can approve orders up to that amount; above it, the approval waits for someone with a higher limit or the owner.

What the approver sees

The whole order before it is placed: the lines, the chosen suppliers, the total, the project and its budget, and the checks that triggered the rule. They then:

• Approve. The purchase orders are created and sent to suppliers. When two approvers are needed, the first approval waits for the second.
• Request changes. The request goes back to the buyer as a draft, with the approver's comment.
• Reject. It goes back with a reason; nothing is ordered.

Nobody approves their own request.

How it ends

Outcome	What happens next
Approved	Purchase orders go out: step 3
Changes requested	The buyer edits and issues again
Rejected	Nothing is ordered; the reason is kept on the request

The same step applies to RFQ awards: when the buyer picks winning quotes worth more than a rule allows, the award waits here before its purchase orders are created.