Purchasing

Line-level approvals for Purchasing

This idea came from you

Gain granular control and faster approvals by letting approvers act at the line level instead of only at the header. This feature ensures that each department, project, or location manager approves only what they own to reduce bottlenecks and improve accuracy.

Key benefits

  • Granular approvals: Approvers can approve or decline individual lines or the entire transaction.

  • Dimension‑based routing: Route lines by Department, Project, or Location for precise accountability.

  • Clear visibility: See per‑line status, including partial approvals or declines.

  • Flexible policies: Combine header‑level and line‑level rules to match real workflows.

Enable notifications so approvers can act promptly. You can also delegate approvals for out-of-office scenarios.

How it works

How you configure your approval policy matters. Approval rules are evaluated sequentially, one at a time, based on the order in which they appear in the policy.

Line‑level approval rules and value‑based approval rules do not work together as a combined rule. Each rule is applied independently to the transaction, and the current rule must be fully approved before the next rule is evaluated.

Example

Your approval policy includes:

  • A line‑level approval rule that routes each line to the department manager

  • A value‑based approval rule that requires approval when the total amount exceeds $100

If you create a purchase order for $150, it's first routed to the department manager for each line, based on the line‑level approval rule. After all line‑level approvals are completed, the purchase order is then routed to the value approver, based on the value approval rule.

The rules are processed in sequence. Configuring both rule types does not create a single, combined approval condition.

  1. Go to Purchasing > Setup > Configuration.

  2. Go to the Approvals section and make sure that Enable purchasing approval is selected.

  3. To create an Approval policy, select Manage.

  4. Either create a new approval policy or edit an existing one.

  5. Select the Purchasing transaction definition.

  6. For Rule type, select one of the following options:

    1. Line level approval by Department

    2. Line level approval by Location

    3. Line level approval by Project

  7. Select Save.

  8. Close out of the Purchasing approval policies window.

  9. Select Save on the Configure Purchasing page.

If your company uses both header-level and line-level approvals, approve transactions and line items in the transaction record.

You can approve transactions in the transactions list only when line-level approvals are not enabled.

  1. Go to Purchasing > All > Approve transactions.

  2. Select View next to the transaction that you want to approve.

  3. In the Entries section, select the line items to approve or decline.

Join the Early Adopter program

You can join the Early Adopter program by completing this form today.

Permissions and other requirements

Subscription

Purchasing
Regional availability

All regions
User type

Business user with admin privileges

Employee

Project Manager
Permissions

Administration, Purchasing

  • Application Subscriptions: List, View, and Configure.

Purchasing

  • Approve purchase transaction: List

  • Purchasing approval levels: Applicable levels
Configuration

Enable Purchasing approvals on the Configure Purchasing page.

Dependencies or other requirements

In Purchasing, enable these dimensions and assign a manager to each:

  • Department

  • Location

  • Project
Restrictions

If your company uses both header-level and line-level approvals, approve transactions and line items in the transaction record, not in the Approve transactions list.