Approvals protect organisations from unauthorised commitments, but poorly designed approvals slow everyone down. The goal is a process that is strict where risk is high and light where it is not.
Base levels on risk, not hierarchy
Use amount thresholds, document types, departments or companies to decide which levels apply. A small routine purchase should not follow the same path as a large capital commitment.
Enforce on the server
Hiding a button is not a control. The business action, such as confirming an order or posting a payment, must be refused by the server until approval is complete.
Plan for absence and change
- Delegation for approvers on leave, limited by date range.
- Timeouts and escalation when a request waits too long.
- Restart approval if key fields change after approval.
- Keep history even when the approval configuration changes later.
Make it configurable
Approval rules change as organisations grow. When levels and approvers are configuration rather than code, finance and operations can adapt without waiting for development.