What are Approvals?
Approvals shows you all the steps in your active Procurement Requests (both New Purchases & Renewals) that are currently waiting on someone's approval to move the Request to the next step in the process.
The Approvals tab enables:
Procurement or operations managers to more easily see which approvals are blocking progress across all requests
Team leads to more effectively manage a team queue (i.e. Legal teams)
Individual approvers to manage their personal queue.
Where do I find Approvals?
You can find the Approvals tab in the menu.
How does the Approvals tab (ex Inbox) work?
Approvals (Inbox) help approvers centralize their approval tasks at the same place.
Approve from 'Approval' or from 'Requests'
When you click into an approval, you'll be brought to the request details page.
On this page, the workflow diagram viewer at the top of the page will be centered on the Approval step you clicked from and the Approval step will also be highlighted in the top-right corner of the page.
Multi-Role Approval Optimization
Overview
When you approve a task and have other pending approval tasks for the same request, Spendesk will show you a modal asking if you want to approve those additional tasks immediately, streamlining your approval process.
How It Works
Approval Flow:
You approve your first task (e.g., as Manager)
A modal appears asking: "You have additional approval tasks for this request. Would you like to approve them now?"
The modal shows other pending tasks assigned to you (e.g., Cost Center Owner, Department Head)
You can approve all at once or handle them separately later
Blocking Conditions - The modal won't include tasks that:
Are assigned to someone else
Are different types (vendor onboarding, vendor information validation, PO creation, finalize request)
Require form completion (even optional fields)
Depend on conditions not yet met
Benefits
Time Savings: Approve multiple roles in one session instead of returning multiple times
Faster Processing: Requests move through approval chains more quickly
Example
You approve a budget request as Manager. A modal appears showing:
"Cost Center Owner approval - pending"
"Department Head approval - pending"
You can approve both immediately or handle them later.