Purchase approval workflow
A purchase approval workflow with the right sign-offs.
How a request moves from the person who needs it to a purchase order: up to three approvers, partial approval, quote comparison, deadlines, delegation and a budget check.
In the Avantix Procurement Portal, purchase requests are approved by the Department HOD, the Purchasing HOD and, above a set amount (RM 5,000 by default), the COO, and then go to the Purchasing Team. Urgent Special Approvals skip the Department HOD. Approvers can approve some line items and decline others, return for revision or reject. The Purchasing Team starts procurement with the next PO number for the year.
The stages
Who approves, and what they check.
Designing your own rules? Read how to set purchase approval limits and PR vs PO.
| Step | Approver | What they look at | What they can do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Department HOD | Is this purchase needed? Budget position of their department. Sees only their own department's requests. Skipped for urgent Special Approvals. | Approve all or some lines, return, reject |
| 2 | Purchasing HOD | Supplier and price: last purchase price and % difference on every line, quote comparison, price history per part. Final approval when the value is at or below the COO amount. | Approve all or some lines, return, reject |
| 3 | COO | Final sign-off for requests above the amount set by the admin (RM 5,000 by default). Below it, this stage is skipped automatically and logged. | Approve all or some lines, return, reject |
| Then | Purchasing Team | Starts procurement (the next PO number for the year), records the supplier, final unit prices and notes. | Record purchase, mark completed |
Partial approval and revisions
Fix one line without starting a new form.
Paper forms force a choice: sign the whole thing or send it all back. Here each line is its own decision.
Partial approval
Approve the bearings and gloves, decline the cutting fluid. Approved lines move on; the requester is notified which item was declined.
Return for revision
Instead of rejecting, send it back with remarks such as "add a second quotation". The request keeps its stage while the requester revises it.
Reject
Ends the request, with a required reason. Re-submitting starts again from the first stage.
Re-submitted without changes
Lines, quantities and prices unchanged: back to the stage that returned it.
An item was changed
Approval restarts from the first stage, so a changed price or quantity is seen by every approver.
Three request types
Same route, different paperwork.
| Type | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Purchase Request | Everyday purchases: line items with part number, name, quantity, unit price and supplier. |
| Quotation Approval | Approving a supplier quotation (reference, date, terms, lead time), compared with the other quotes received. |
| Special Approval | Purchases that need a written justification. Marked urgent, they skip the Department HOD. |
Deadlines and budget
See how long each request has waited.
- Days waiting at the current stage shown on every request.
- Overdue highlight once a request passes the deadline days set by the admin.
- Approval Timeline report: time taken at each stage, to find the bottleneck.
- Budget check: committed spend, what this request adds, and an over-budget warning, against each department's annual budget.
- Remind approver: once a request is overdue, the requester can nudge the approver, once a day.
- Out of office: a stand-in covers an approver's queue for set dates; actions are recorded as "X for Y".
- Bulk approval for routine requests, with price and quote warnings listed first.
- Discussion on each request: ask a question without returning it.
After the last approval
Approved requests go straight to Purchasing.
- Fully approved
Ready for Purchasing
It appears in the Purchasing Team's Ready list.
- Start procurement
PO number
The next number for the year.
PO-2026-0001 - Purchasing Team
Records the purchase
Supplier, final price per item, notes.
- Completed
Price history updated
Final prices become the next comparison. How price checks work →
Purchase approval questions
What are the approval levels in the Avantix Procurement Portal?
Requests pass up to three approval stages, Department HOD, Purchasing HOD and COO, and then go to the Purchasing Team. The COO only approves requests above a set amount (RM 5,000 by default), and urgent Special Approvals skip the Department HOD.
Can an approver approve part of a purchase request?
Yes. An approver can approve some line items and decline others in the same request. Declined items are marked and the requester is notified; approved items continue to the next step.
What is the difference between returning and rejecting a request?
Rejecting ends the request. Returning for revision sends it back to the requester with comments so it can be fixed and re-submitted.
Does a revised request go through all approvers again?
Only if something changed. A returned request revised without changes to lines, quantities or prices goes back to the stage that returned it. If any of those changed, approval restarts from the first stage. A rejected request that is re-submitted always restarts from the first stage.
How does the system handle approvals that take too long?
Every request shows how many days it has waited at its current stage. Requests past the deadline set by the admin are flagged as overdue, the requester can send a Remind approver notification once a day, and the Approval Timeline report shows the time taken at each stage.
What happens when an approver is on leave?
The approver sets Out of office with a stand-in and a date range. The stand-in sees those requests in their queue marked as covering, and actions are recorded as made on the approver's behalf. If the same person would sign two stages of one request, the system warns them and asks for confirmation.
Can urgent purchases skip the queue?
Special Approval requests require a written justification and can be marked urgent. Urgent Special Approvals skip the Department HOD and start at the Purchasing HOD. Any request can also carry a Low, Medium, High or Urgent priority.
When does the COO need to approve?
Only for requests above the amount set by the admin, RM 5,000 by default. After the Purchasing HOD approves, the system checks the value of the approved lines. At or below the amount, the request is final and the COO stage is recorded as skipped. Setting the amount to 0 sends every request to the COO.
Book a demo
See it with your own departments.
Message us on WhatsApp. We'll walk a request through each stage, with the price check, budget and PO.
Prefer email? info@avantix.my
- Tell us how you buy todayDepartments, who signs, roughly how many requests a month.
- See it workingA request goes through each stage, with price check, quotes, budget and PO.
- Ask about pricingTell us your departments and users, and we'll come back with a quote.