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Authorize a purchase order

See a list of purchase orders awaiting authorization and authorize them

Matthew James Finkel avatar
Written by Matthew James Finkel
Updated over 2 years ago

Once you’ve created a purchase order, mark it as authorized to say that it’s been approved. 

Purchase orders can be authorized when they’re orders; convert draft purchase orders to orders in order to authorize or mark as sent.

Why authorize?

A purchase order is essentially a request to spend company money. The authorization process puts in place a control so that 

Depending on your business, the person who authorizes a purchase order might be a member of the management team or someone in your accounts department. Smaller businesses might not have an approval process at all – you might look to implement one as you scale up.

How does authorization work?

Authorize a purchase order to say that it’s been approved. 

  • If your role lets you authorize purchase orders, purchase orders are automatically created as authorized.

  • If not, purchase orders are created with the status “open” and a user with permission to authorize can review and authorize at a later point.

Authorized purchase orders can be unauthorized, useful if your purchase order has been automatically authorized but you’d like it to be reviewed by a colleague.

See unauthorized purchase orders

To get a list of purchase orders waiting for authorization, filter selection in Resources > Purchase Orders to see “Waiting to be authorized”.

You may also create a custom view – handy if you’d like to include more information or filter by date See: Custom views

Authorize

From a purchase order, click Authorize under Actions to authorize a purchase order. 

Unauthorize 

Unauthorize by clicking Unauthorize from an authorized purchase order.

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