Because the purchase order carries the chart of account code, approving a purchase order means the spend, the budget and the coding has been reviewed by someone qualified to confirm this, so when the supplier invoice arrives, it lands against the account you intended.
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Purchase Orders and Work Orders
Purchase orders and work orders do different jobs, and each has its own approval workflow.
Work orders are the operational instruction - the task, the site context, the photos, and the contractor doing the job.
Purchase orders contain financial information - the chart of account codes, tax codes that commit the spend to a budget.
A purchase order can be linked to a work order, but the two approvals run independently. Approving or rejecting one document has no effect on the other.
Note: If you use both purchase orders and work orders, set up an approval workflow for each. A linked work order that has been fully approved will not release its purchase order. The purchase order still needs its own approval.
When a Purchase Order Needs Approval
A purchase order enters the approval workflow when it is submitted for approval. Its status changes to Awaiting Approval and it appears in the Approvals Hub under the Purchase order approvals tab.
Purchase orders still in Draft do not trigger the approval workflow.
Purchase Order Approval Statuses
Draft - being prepared; no approval required yet.
Awaiting Approval - submitted and waiting on a decision from the assigned approvers.
Approved - approved through all steps; the spend is committed and the purchase order can be sent to the supplier.
Rejected - declined by an approver. The purchase order is not cancelled - it returns to the submitter to correct and resubmit.
Failed - error in workflow processing.
Note: Rejecting a purchase order does not delete or cancel it. The document remains in an 'Awaiting approval' state and stays in place to be amended and send for approval again.
How Workflows Work
When a purchase order is submitted, Re-Leased evaluates it against all published purchase order workflows for that company. If it matches a workflow's conditions, it progresses through each step in order.
Example: Step 1: Purchase order total > $1 → Property Manager approves. Step 2: Purchase order total > $5,000 → Finance Manager approves. A $6,000 purchase order triggers both steps and needs approval from both, in sequence.
If a purchase order matches no conditions at all, it passes through automatically and is approved without review. To make sure nothing bypasses your approval process, consider creating a first step that would capture all purchase orders.
More details on approval workflows here
Submitting a Purchase Order for Approval
Create or edit the purchase order you want to submit.
Complete all required and optional fields
Click Submit for approval.
The status changes to Awaiting Approval and the workflow starts automatically.
The assigned approvers receive an email notification with a link to review.
If you have the Can approve purchase orders permission, you will also see a Save and Approve option, which approves the purchase order immediately and bypasses the workflow.
Note: To stop users bypassing your workflow, remove the 'Can approve purchase orders' permission from their role. They can still approve as part of a workflow step.
What the Approver Sees
Approvers receive an email notification and can also find pending purchase orders in the Approvals Hub.
Go to Approvals in the main navigation, or click the link in the notification email.
Select the Purchase order approvals tab.
The list shows all purchase orders divided into tables by their approval status: Awaiting Approval, Rejected, Completed, or Failed.
Under Awaiting approval,click any row to open the full approval detail - supplier, line items, chart of account codes, tax codes, totals, and any linked work orders
How to Approve a Purchase Order
Open the purchase order in the Approvals Hub.
Review the detail. Check the supplier, the cost, compare to your budget, then check the coding - chart of account codes, tax codes and company allocation. This coding carries through to the supplier invoice when it arrives, so it is worth a proper look.
Click Approve.
Optionally add a comment for the audit trail, then confirm.
Once every step is approved, the purchase order status changes to Approved and the spend is committed.
How to Reject a Purchase Order
Open the purchase order in the Approvals Hub.
Click Reject.
Add a comment explaining the reason. This is required for the audit trail.
Confirm the rejection.
The purchase order leaves the workflow and returns to the submitter, who receives an email with your comment. The Submit for approval button reappears on the purchase order. Once the submitter corrects it and resubmits, a fresh approval workflow starts from step one.
If the purchase order has a linked work order, that work order is unaffected and keeps its own status. Cancel or amend it separately if you no longer want the job to go ahead.
Bulk Approval
In the Purchase order approvals tab, tick the checkboxes on the rows you want to approve.
Click Bulk Actions.
Select Approve.
Optionally add a comment that applies to all selected purchase orders, then confirm.
Bulk approval is best kept for low-value, routine orders. Anything where the coding matters is worth opening individually.
How to Build a Purchase Order Approval Workflow
Navigate to Settings > Automation > Approval Workflows.
Click Create a new workflow.
Choose Purchase order approval.
Enter a Name, an optional Description, and select the Companies this workflow applies to.
Click Next.
Click + Add a step to configure your approval steps.
Click Publish changes to activate the workflow.
The approval type shows as a Purchase order approval badge in the top-right corner of the editor. Save your progress at any time with Save as draft. Draft workflows appear in your workflow list but will not process any approvals until you publish them.
Defining Approval Steps
Click + Add a step in the workflow diagram.
Enter a Name for the step.
Under Conditions, set the rules that trigger this step - select a Field, choose an Operator, and enter the Value. Click Add condition to add more rules.
Multiple conditions in a single step use AND logic, so all must be true for the step to trigger.
Under Approvers, select who reviews this step - by Role, specific Users, or a Team. Only users with permissions for all companies selected for this workflow will appear in the list.
Under Escalation, select the backup approver to notify if the primary approver does not act in time.
Under Reminders, set how quickly approvers are chased. Choose from 12 hours, 1 day, 2 days, 1 week, or Custom. A preview timeline at the bottom of the panel shows when the initial notification, reminder and escalation will be sent.
Click Apply changes to save the step.
Repeat to add further steps in the workflow.
Step Conditions
Purchase order total - the most common trigger.
Chart of Accounts fields - route orders coded to particular accounts to a specialist approver.
Contact Tags - route by the tag associated with the purchase order contact
Contact category - route by the contact category
Approver Types
User - a specific individual. Only users with access to all companies in the workflow appear in the list.
Team - all members of a team receive the approval request.
Role - routes to the Property Manager or Facilities Manager assigned to the purchase order's property.
Filtering Purchase Order Approvals
Use the filter panel in the Purchase order approvals tab to narrow the list:
Approvers - show only purchase orders assigned to a specific approver.
Companies - filter by organisation.
Date range - set date period when document was approved
Purchase Order Approval Permissions
By default, users who can create purchase orders can also approve them without a workflow. To enforce approval routing:
Navigate to Settings > Company & Users > Maintain User Roles.
Select the role to update.
Toggle Can approve purchase orders off.
Click Save User Role.
Users without this permission see Submit for approval instead of an approve option.
Note: Users added to an approval workflow step can still approve purchase orders even with this permission turned off. Being able to raise a purchase order does not automatically let you approve one. These are separate permissions. Can approve purchase orders and Can approve maintenance work orders are also separate, so a user may be able to approve one document and not the other.
Users with Administrator privileges can approve any purchase order at any point in any workflow, regardless of step assignment. Keep administrator override for genuine exceptions.
Managing Email Notifications
Each approver receives an email for every approval request assigned to them. To reduce the volume, switch to a daily digest:
Go to Personal Profile Settings.
Update Notification Preferences.
Enable Daily To-Do List Digest.
Audit Trail
Every approval action is logged in the Comments and History section of the purchase order - who approved or rejected it, when, any comments, and which workflow step triggered at each stage.
What Happens If an Approved Purchase Order Is Changed?
If you edit a purchase order after it has been approved, it returns to Awaiting Approval status, the approval workflow restarts automatically. The purchase order goes through the full approval process again before it can be re-approved. This protects you from a coding change slipping through on an already-authorised order.
Best Practices
Put a finance approver on the final step. The purchase order is where coding is authorised, so someone who can verify the chart of account code and budget should see it before it is approved.
Set up both workflows if you use both documents. Purchase order and work order approvals run independently, so a work order workflow alone leaves your coding unreviewed.
Remove bypass permissions from roles that should only approve via workflow.
Use teams over individuals for approver assignment so vacation and coverage are handled.
Add comments when rejecting - required for audit integrity, and it tells the submitter what to fix.
Review workflows quarterly to keep approvers and thresholds current.