How to Approve Purchase Requests from Email or WhatsApp

Why purchase approvals stall

Requisitions rarely wait because the approver disagrees. They wait because the approver is in a meeting, on the road or simply not logged in to the purchasing system. A request for safety boots or a replacement part sits for days, and the requester chases by phone.

Teams work around it. Approvals are given by text message or verbally and the buyer places the order anyway, so the approval record no longer matches what was bought. Or the manager logs in once a week and approves a stack of requests without reading them.

Approval works best when the decision reaches the approver where they already are, with enough detail to decide, while the record, the stage order and the rules stay exactly the same as in the system.

Why this happens

• Approvers have to log in to see what is waiting.
• Approvals given verbally are never recorded.
• Stages wait with no reminder.
• Nobody knows who the current approver is.
• Approvers who are away have no delegate.

Biznsbook addresses this through one-time approval links by email, WhatsApp approval links, staged approval workflows, reminders for waiting approvals in Procurement, with every decision recorded on the requisition stage it belongs to.

Small gaps in purchasing rarely fail loudly. They show up later as numbers nobody can explain. Recording each step where it happens removes the guesswork.

Step-by-step: Approve Purchase Requests from Email or WhatsApp

Written for buyers, approvers and finance teams using Biznsbook Procurement.

1. Set up approval stages. In Procurement → Settings, build the workflow. A stage can be anyone in a role, a specific user, the requester's reporting manager or department head; tick All approvers to require every member.
2. Submit the requisition. When the requisition reaches a stage, each approver of that stage receives an email with a one-time link.
3. Add WhatsApp for phones. If the approver's phone number has at least eight digits, a WhatsApp link is sent too. The message needs a template named procurement_approval approved in Meta; without it only the email is sent.
4. Approve or reject from the link. The approver opens the link and chooses approve or reject. The same rules apply as on screen, including the block on approving your own requisition, and the page confirms the result.
5. Know when a link stops working. The link works for 14 days, only for the current stage, and stops once anyone acts on that approval or the requisition is rejected, revised or cancelled.
6. Resend when needed. Open the pending requisition and choose Email and WhatsApp the approval link to send the links again.
7. Rely on reminders and delegation. An hourly check emails the current stage once it has waited longer than the hours in Settings (default 48). Approvers who are away can delegate to another user for a date range.

Review results after the first full monthly cycle. Adjust roles, mappings, or approvals where the same exception repeats.

Screen-level flows live in the Help Center. This guide focuses on the business process; help articles cover click-by-click navigation.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Mistake 1: Approvers have to log in to see what is waiting. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in orders placed without a recorded approval.
• Mistake 2: Approvals given verbally are never recorded. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in orders placed without a recorded approval.
• Mistake 3: Stages wait with no reminder. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in orders placed without a recorded approval.
• Mistake 4: Nobody knows who the current approver is. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in orders placed without a recorded approval.
• Mistake 5: Approvers who are away have no delegate. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in orders placed without a recorded approval.

Each of these turns into a question the buyer cannot answer quickly. Fix the process on the record rather than in email threads or spreadsheets.

Best practices that hold up as you scale

• Set up approval stages — In Procurement → Settings, build the workflow.
• Submit the requisition — When the requisition reaches a stage, each approver of that stage receives an email with a one-time link.
• Add WhatsApp for phones — If the approver's phone number has at least eight digits, a WhatsApp link is sent too.
• Approve or reject from the link — The approver opens the link and chooses approve or reject.
• Know when a link stops working — The link works for 14 days, only for the current stage, and stops once anyone acts on that approval or the requisition is rejected, revised or cancelled.

Keep the stages simple, set a reminder you will actually act on, and give travelling approvers a delegate.

How Biznsbook supports this workflow

one-time approval links by email is part of Biznsbook and works on the same records as the rest of purchasing, so the decision, the stock and the books stay in step and every action is recorded with who did it and when.

WhatsApp approval links is part of Biznsbook and works on the same records as the rest of purchasing, so the decision, the stock and the books stay in step and every action is recorded with who did it and when.

staged approval workflows is part of Biznsbook and works on the same records as the rest of purchasing, so the decision, the stock and the books stay in step and every action is recorded with who did it and when.

reminders for waiting approvals is part of Biznsbook and works on the same records as the rest of purchasing, so the decision, the stock and the books stay in step and every action is recorded with who did it and when.

Approving needs the approve permission and being the current approver or delegate. Procurement is an add-on that requires Purchase; it ends at a draft purchase order.

Suggested implementation timeline

1. Week 1: Set up one-time approval links by email and the permissions the people involved need.
2. Week 2: Run the real process in Biznsbook only, with no side spreadsheet, for one team or site.
3. Week 3: Review what was recorded with the people involved and tighten the rules where they disagreed.
4. Month 2: Roll out to every team or site.
5. Ongoing: Reviewing approval times each month.

Related guides

Cluster hub: Procurement guides. Module: Procurement software. Also see approve a purchase requisition.

How stages, skips and reminders fit together

Stages run in order, and the links always belong to the current stage only. A stage can be a role, a named user, the requester's reporting manager or their department head; for a role stage one member is enough unless All approvers is ticked, in which case every member except the requester must approve. When the stage completes, the next stage's approvers receive their own links.

If the requester is the only person who could approve a stage, for example the sole Company Admin raising their own request, that stage is recorded as Skipped so a one-person company can still buy. Submit is refused, with the reason, when a role has nobody in it or when every stage is filtered out by amount or department limits.

Rejecting needs a reason. A rejected requisition never becomes a purchase order; the requester opens it and chooses Revise, which returns it to Draft and starts a new approval round with fresh links. Once a requisition is approved, the buyer turns it into a draft purchase order, which then follows the normal Purchase process.

Approvers who are away can delegate to another user for a date range under Procurement Settings, and the hourly reminder only emails; it never reassigns an approval on its own.

Metrics to track monthly

• Requisitions waiting per stage
• Hours waited before approval
• Approvals made from links versus on screen
• Reminders sent this month

Start with three metrics; trend direction matters more than a single point-in-time snapshot.

Manual workarounds vs Biznsbook

Compare common manual workarounds with Biznsbook one-time approval links by email and the related capabilities.

Reviewing approval times each month

Each month, look at requisitions that waited longest at each stage and who the approver was. Shorten the reminder hours if approvals routinely wait, add delegates for people who travel, and check that the WhatsApp template is still approved in Meta.

Write the approval limits and who approves what into your purchasing policy.

Frequently asked questions

How this differs by industry