Every organisation has its own rules for who can approve spending. A school may need the business manager over £5,000 and the head over £25,000; a company may need Finance over £10,000 and a director over £50,000. In SupplierVault the budget holder always signs off a purchase request, and you add the extra sign-offs your organisation needs above the amounts you choose. Separation of duties settings make sure no one person can approve their own work.
Where to find it
Admins open Settings and find the panel Purchase sign-off limits ("Who must approve, and from what amount"). Everyone else can see the limits but not change them. The settings are included in every plan.
How to set your sign-off limits
- In Purchase sign-off limits, select Add a sign-off level. You can have up to 4 levels.
- In Over (GBP) (or your reporting currency), enter the amount above which this sign-off is needed. Amounts are before VAT.
- In Who signs off, choose either Anyone in a team (for example Finance) or A named person (for example your finance director).
- In Name shown, give the level a clear name, such as "Finance director sign-off". This is what people see on the request and in tasks.
- Select Save sign-off limits. Until you save, the panel shows "Not saved yet", and Undo changes puts things back. Remove deletes a level.
Two levels can't have the same amount. If you remove every level you'll see "Only the budget holder signs off. No extra sign-offs are set."
Example
| Over (GBP) | Who signs off | Name shown |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | Anyone in Finance | Finance sign-off |
| 50,000 | A named person: Priya Shah | Finance director sign-off |
A £4,000 request needs only the budget holder. A £12,000 request needs the budget holder and Finance. A £60,000 request needs all three, each from a different person.
What happens on a purchase request
- The budget holder signs off first.
- Each level the amount is over then gets a task "Level name: PR reference title (£x)", due in 2 days. It goes to the named person, or to the first suitable person in the team who isn't the requester, hasn't already signed and isn't away. If the named person is away and has set cover, it goes to whoever is covering for them.
- Each level appears as a check on the request, for example "Needed because it is over £10,000 (someone in Finance)". The person signing sees Approve: level name.
- After each sign-off you'll see what's still needed, such as "Still needed: Finance director sign-off". When everything is signed, the request moves to Approved, to order.
A level set to a team can be signed by anyone in that team. A level for Finance also accepts anyone in a team whose name includes "Finance" or "Accounts". The history records each one, for example "Finance sign-off signed off (over £10,000)".
See Purchase requests for the rest of the process.
Requests in another currency
The request's cost is converted to your reporting currency using the daily exchange rate (or a rate Finance has fixed in Settings › Exchange rates) before it's compared with your limits. If there's no rate for that currency, the amount is counted 1:1. See How figures are calculated.
Changing limits later
- New limits apply to requests still waiting for sign-off. Requests already signed off keep the sign-offs they had.
- Every change to the limits is kept in the audit trail.
- If the price on a request goes up after sign-off, the budget holder must sign again, and any new levels it now crosses are added.
Separation of duties
Some rules are always on, and the database enforces them, so they can't be got round:
- Nobody can sign off a purchase request they raised.
- Each sign-off on a request must come from a different person: "You've already signed this request. Each sign-off must come from a different person".
- A request can't be approved until every level it needs has signed: "This request needs … before it is approved".
- Sign-offs are always recorded as the signed-in person.
- When someone is away, a colleague can sign off for them using cover while away. The sign-off is recorded as given on their behalf, and the same rules apply: nobody can sign on behalf of the person who raised the request, and one person still can't sign two steps, whether for themselves or as cover.
- Whoever records a change of bank details can't make the call-back to check it: "You recorded this change, so someone else must make the call-back. That's the check that catches fraud." The person who made the call-back can't release payments. If an admin has ticked names in Settings › Organisation › Who can release new bank details, only those people, or whoever is covering for them, can release, and nobody can release on behalf of the person who recorded the change or made the call-back. See Bank details and fraud checks.
One rule is optional. In Settings › Organisation, under Separation of duties, tick A supplier's manager can't approve their own supplier to go live. When it's on, someone other than the supplier manager must give go-live approval, and nobody can approve on the supplier manager's behalf while covering for them.
Showing auditors the rules
The Supplier controls summary evidence pack lists the sign-off limits in force and checks every approved request: signed by people other than the requester, each sign-off by a different person, and every level needed signed. See Audit evidence for auditors.
Good to know
- Set up your teams on the Stakeholders page first, so the right people get the sign-off tasks.
- If nobody suitable is in the team, the sign-off task is created for the team without a named person. Add someone to that team, or choose a named person instead.
- Limits are compared with "over": a request for exactly £10,000 doesn't need a level set at 10,000.
Related
- Purchase requests
- Settings
- Stakeholders and templates
- Audit evidence for auditors
- Cover while you're away
- Custom roles