Approval workflows

Approval workflows for every invoice, order and payment.

Unibuild routes purchase requests, orders, supplier invoices, expense claims and payment runs to the right people by your own rules: value, job, department, supplier or budget. Approvers act from the email, the phone or the office portal, and every decision is recorded.

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A site manager in a hard hat and hi-vis approving on a tablet

One firm’s rules

Nine kinds of spend, nine approval routes.

Illustrative approval rules at a specialist contractor: the bands and roles are examples, and every route is the firm’s own choice.

Approval routes at one firm (illustrative)
Spend	Route
Small order	One approval, by the contracts manager
Mid-band order	Any one member of the approval committee
Order above the top band	Two different people, one of them the finance director
Order over the job budget	Adds the commercial director
Matched invoice, within tolerance	Approved under the firm’s rules
Invoice with no order	Department head codes and approves
Expense claim	Line manager, then accounts
New supplier or bank change	Accounts, then a director
Payment run	Finance director, final approval

Set once: The rules were agreed at implementation and built into Unibuild. Changing a band or a role later is a setting, not a project.
Applied every time: Each order, invoice, claim and run found its route from its value, job, department and budget, with nobody choosing who to send it to.
Approved anywhere: Approvers acted from a push notification, from the email or from the office portal.
Kept moving: Reminders went out on schedule, one stalled approval escalated, and the director’s approvals passed to a delegate during leave.

The rule Authority, not availability Every decision named and timed

Problems we solve

Six approval problems. All six solved.

From the approver on a roof to the order approved without anybody seeing the budget.

The approver is on a roof until four.

Solved Approve from the phone, or straight from the email without signing in.

Approved by “OK” in an email thread.

Solved Every decision is recorded with a name, a time and any comment.

One person raises the order and approves it.

Solved Nobody approves their own spend, and big spends need two people.

Nobody knows who has the invoice.

Solved Live status for every approval: who has it and for how long.

Chasing approvals is somebody’s whole Thursday.

Solved Reminders go out automatically, then the approval escalates.

Approved without anybody seeing the budget.

Solved The approver sees the budget, and over-budget spend takes a longer route.

6/6Solved in one module

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What it does

Approval workflow software built around your rules.

Routes by
your conditions

Every route is chosen from conditions you set, simple for small spends and as detailed as your controls need for large ones.

Value bands
Job, department or company
Supplier and cost code
Budget position

Your rules, applied every timeLive

Multi-step
approval

As many steps as a spend needs, each one a named person or a group, with branching where the conditions change.

One person
Any one of a group
Every member of a group
Two different people

Shared accountabilityLive

Approve
anywhere

Approvers view, approve, reject, query or comment from wherever they are, with the full document in front of them.

Push notification in your app
From the email, no sign-in
Office portal
Daily digest if preferred

Decisions from siteLive

Reminders and
escalation

Reminders go out on the schedule you set. A stalled approval escalates, and approvers on leave hand over to a delegate.

Automatic reminders
Escalation rules
Delegates during leave
Nothing chased by hand

Nothing sits for a weekLive

Line-item
approval

Lines on one invoice or order for different jobs or departments go to each one’s own approver.

Split by job
Split by department
Complete when all approve
Part approval recorded

The right person per lineLive

Actions in
the route

A route does more than collect signatures. Each step can trigger the next piece of work automatically.

Issue the order to the supplier
Email the requester or supplier
Update details on the record
Export to the accounts

Approved means doneLive

Budget beside
the decision

The approver sees the job, the budget left and the spend already committed before they decide.

Budget left
Committed spend
Supplier history
Over budget, longer route

Cost controlLive

Live status
and reports

Every approval shows who has it and for how long. Reports show what is waiting, average approval times and bottlenecks.

Who has it now
Time at each step
Average approval time
Ask Unibuild who is holding it

Bottlenecks in plain sightLive

Audit
trail

Every approval, rejection, query, reminder and change is recorded with a name and a time, and kept for seven years.

Named and timed
Comments kept
Nobody approves their own
Locked once approved

The answer for the auditorLive

The process

How an approval route works.

Six stages from a spend entering the route to the decision on record. Free to use in your own procedures.

Flow diagram of an approval workflow in six stages: a spend enters the route, the rules choose the route, the right people approve, reminders and escalation keep it moving, approval triggers the work, and every decision is on record — How an approval route works: six stages from a spend entering the route to the decision on record.Free to use, copy, change and share, with no conditions. Download the PNG

Three ways to approve

Invoice and purchase approval, compared.

Invoice and purchase approval: email and signatures, preset approval software, and Unibuild
The question	Email and signatures	Preset approval software	Unibuild
Who approves	Whoever is asked	Chosen from preset options	Your rules, built for you
Approving away from a desk	A reply from the phone	The vendor’s app	Your own app, or the email
Large spends	One signature	Extra steps	Two different people, by value band
Budget at the decision	Not seen	Sometimes shown	Shown, and over budget takes a longer route
Chasing	By hand	Reminders	Reminders, escalation and delegates
The record	Somebody’s inbox	A log in the tool	Named and timed, on record
Approvers you can add	Anyone	Limited by user licences	Unlimited users

Built around your firm

Your limits, your people,
your process.

Approval routes are built around the controls your firm already has, however many steps they take. Any change you ask for is built for you, inside the monthly fee. That is how bespoke software works here.

Orders: Purchase requests become orders once approved, in purchase orders.
Invoices: Supplier invoices arrive read and matched from invoice processing.
Expenses: Site purchases and claims follow the same routes in expense management.
Payments: Payment runs and supplier bank changes are approved in accounts payable automation.
Your app: Approvals arrive in your own branded staff app, published on the App Store and Google Play under your company’s name and icon.
Your controls: Every route leaves the audit trail a finance officer or auditor asks for.

A site manager in a hard hat and hi-vis checking a phone in front of heavy plant

Questions

Asked by finance directors
and office managers.

What is an approval workflow?

The route a request for money takes before it is committed or paid: who approves it, in what order, and under what conditions. In Unibuild one approval engine covers purchase requests, orders, supplier invoices, expense claims, payment runs and supplier changes.

What does invoice approval software do?

It sends each supplier invoice to the right person for sign-off, records each decision, and shows finance what is approved, rejected or waiting. In Unibuild the invoice arrives already read and matched, so the approver decides on a checked document.

Can approvals be multi-step?

Yes. A route can have as many steps as you need. A line manager might approve first, then a finance director above a value, with the commercial director added when the job budget is exceeded.

Can a group of people approve?

Yes. A step can need any one member of a group, or every member. Work can also go round a group in turn, or to whoever has the fewest approvals waiting, skipping anyone on leave. Above your top value band, an order needs two different people.

Can an approver ask a colleague to approve as well?

Yes. Any approver can send a request to a named person for an extra approval outside the usual route. It is recorded like any other step.

Can we approve invoices by email only?

Yes. Approvers receive an email with approve and reject actions in it, and can respond from the inbox without signing in. The decision is recorded exactly as if it were made in the portal.

Can we approve on the mobile app?

Yes. Approvals arrive as a push notification in your own branded staff app on iOS and Android, where approvers view, approve, reject and comment on orders, invoices and claims.

What happens when an approver is on holiday?

Their approvals pass to a delegate for the dates of their leave. An approval that stalls for any other reason escalates to the next person.

Do approvers get reminders?

Yes. Reminders go out on the schedule you set, or as a daily digest, and escalation rules move an approval on when it has waited too long.

Can small spends be approved automatically?

Yes, if your rules allow it. A matched invoice within tolerance, or a spend below a value you set, can clear without a person. Every payment run is still approved by name.

How do purchase requisitions work with approvals?

A requisition is the internal request to spend. It follows its approval route, and once approved it becomes a purchase order sent to the supplier, with nothing retyped. Requisition and order compared.

Can we report on how long approvals take?

Yes. Reports show what is waiting, who has it, average approval times and where approvals stall. Ask Unibuild who is holding up approvals and it answers from the live records.

What is the best approval workflow software for UK businesses?

One built around your own controls rather than a vendor’s presets. Unibuild routes orders, invoices, expenses and payment runs by value, job, department, supplier and budget, from the phone or the email. Unibuild is bespoke business software for UK trades and specialist contractors, in daily production since 2016.

Do approvers need a paid licence each?

No. Users are unlimited, so every approver, requester and accounts clerk is included in the one monthly figure, fixed for three years.

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