About line-level approvals for Purchasing

Line‑level approvals give you granular control over purchasing by routing each line through its own approval path, so approvers only review the items they’re responsible for. This reduces bottlenecks, improves accuracy, and supports complex scenarios using dimensions such as department, project, or location.

You can also configure approvals for restricted users to ensure the right stakeholders can act on only the lines they own.

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

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.

How approval rules are evaluated

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.