Summary
Order approval rules hold an order back until someone has checked it. You write each rule in your own words - "Any Bidfood order over £50 needs approval" - and it applies to every order placed across your company, unless the rule names a particular site.
An order a rule catches doesn't reach the supplier. It waits in Approval needed until an approver either sends it on or declines it. No PO is created while an order is waiting, so nothing appears in Deliveries until it's been approved.
⚠️ Only Admins, and Managers with Create Rules & Accept Orders enabled, can create rules or approve orders.
Creating a rule
Open Orders and select the Approval rules tab.
Select New rule.
Type your rule in plain language.
Under Approvers, choose who should be emailed and allowed to approve the orders this rule holds. Leave it empty and every admin and manager with Create Rules & Accept Orders permission gets them.
Select Check rule. Edify shows how it has read the rule so you can confirm it's what you meant before saving.
Writing a rule that works
Be specific about three things: which orders the rule covers, the amount that triggers it, and whether those orders need approval or are exempt from it.
Rule | What it does |
Any Natoora order over £50 needs approval. | Holds Natoora orders over £50, at every site. |
All orders over £25 on Site A should be approved. | Holds every order over £25 placed at Site A, whatever the supplier. |
More than £500 a week from Natoora needs approval at each site. | Holds Natoora orders once a site has spent £500 with them that week. |
Amounts are read as including VAT, so a rule set at £50 holds an order once its total with VAT passes £50. A rule that works on a weekly total, counts from Monday to Friday and starts again each Monday.
Choosing approvers
Only Admins and Managers with Create Rules & Accept Orders can be chosen as approvers, so they're the only people the list offers.
Approving an order
Approvers are emailed when an order is held, and the order waits until someone acts on it.
Open Orders and select Approval needed.
Select the order you want to review. Each one shows the rule that caught it, so you can see why it's there.
Check the lines, quantities, delivery date and notes, and change anything that needs changing.
Select Approve and send to send the order to the supplier, or Decline to stop it.
Any change you make here happens before the order is sent, so the supplier receives the version you approved, not the one that was placed.
Approving creates the PO and sends it to the supplier. The order then moves to Deliveries and behaves like any other order from that point on.
A declined order shows as declined in Approval needed. Nothing is sent to the supplier.
If you placed the order
Everyone can open Approval needed to see which of their site's orders are still waiting, so you can check on an order you've placed without chasing anyone. Approving and declining stay with approvers.
Orders that aren't checked
Recurring orders go straight to the supplier. Rules aren't applied to them, so a spend limit set in a rule won't hold a recurring order.
Managing rules
Open Orders and select Approval rules to see every rule for your company. From here you can:
Switch a rule off to stop it applying, without losing it.
Edit a rule's wording or its approvers.
Delete a rule you no longer need.
Each rule shows who last changed it and when, and every change is kept in the rule's history.