Approving Purchase Receipts using the Purchasing Approval Workflow

Overview

When a Purchase Receipt enters the Purchasing approval workflow, Aspire notifies the assigned approver and updates the receipt’s Approval Status. This article explains how approvers approve or deny receipts and how PR creators can respond to denials.

Things to know

  • Approvals occur only when the PR is in the Receipt Status of New.

  • Approving a step moves the workflow forward; denying a step requires a comment and stops the workflow.

  • Users in higher-level roles can approve the PR at any time after the workflow begins. Users in the same role or a lower role can view the Approval Log but cannot take action on the PR.

  • If any step is denied, the workflow stops and the PR returns to the creator for edits and resubmission.

  • Editing a denied PR and resubmitting restarts the approval process (the PR re-enters the workflow if it still meets the approval threshold).

  • All decisions and comments display in the Approval Log.

Requirements

You must be assigned as an approver in a Purchasing workflow and have permission to open and update PRs.

For more information on how Purchasing approvals work, visit Purchasing Approval Workflow Overview.

Steps

Approve or deny a purchase receipt (approvers)

Use these steps to review and act on purchase receipts that require your approval:

  1. Open the PR from the email notification. The email includes a link that opens the PR in Aspire.

  2. Review the PR details. You see the Approval Status, the Approve and Deny options, and access to the Approval Log.

  3. Choose one of the following actions:

    1. Approve the PR. Select Approve, enter a comment if needed, and select Save. If additional approval steps exist, the workflow moves to the next step. If this is the final step, the PR’s Approval Status updates to Approved.

    2. Deny the PR. Select Deny, enter a required comment explaining the decision, and select Save to complete the denial.

  4. Optional: Select Approval Log to view the approval history. The Approval Log displays all approvals, denials, timestamps, and comments.

Resubmit a denied purchase receipt (PR creators)

If your PR is denied, follow these steps to restart the approval workflow:

  1. From the denial email, open the PR.

  2. Review the denial comments in the Approval Log.

  3. Update the PR as needed to address the approver’s feedback.

  4. Select Submit for Approval. After you save your edits, the PR will re-enter the approval workflow if it still meets the configured threshold(s).

Withdraw a purchase receipt from approval (PR creators)

If you submit a purchase receipt for approval and need to make changes before the workflow completes, you can withdraw it from approval.

Use these steps to withdraw a purchase receipt:

  1. Open the purchase receipt that is currently in approval.

  2. From the Approval Status action card, select Withdraw.

  3. Enter a comment explaining why you are withdrawing the receipt.

  4. Select Save to complete the withdrawal.

When you withdraw a purchase receipt:

  • The receipt is removed from the approval workflow.

  • The Approval Status returns to New.

  • The purchase receipt becomes editable again.

  • No further approval requests are sent.

After making updates, you can submit the purchase receipt for approval again at any time if it still meets the approval threshold.

Next steps

Once approved, a PR can move forward to Received. If you’re unsure why a PR isn’t progressing:

  • Review the Approval Log to see which approvals are still pending or why a denial occurred.

  • If the PR never entered the workflow, contact an administrator to check the workflow configuration, thresholds, branches, and permissions.