Tiếng Việt
日本語At many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in Vietnam, purchasing still runs on approval emails, a Zalo message asking “has this been approved yet?”, or a paper sign-off sheet passed between departments. When purchase order volume is low, this can work well enough.
But as the company grows and the number of suppliers and orders increases, the lack of a clear approval process makes it easy to overspend budgets, buy duplicate items, or delay orders that get “stuck” on someone’s desk for no clear reason.
This article walks through how Odoo’s Purchase module sets up a multi-level automated purchase approval workflow, based on order value and approver role, helping SMBs control spending without slowing down day-to-day purchasing.
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💡 Insight: The biggest risk in manual purchasing isn’t a shortage of approvers it’s the lack of a clear approval threshold tied to order value. When every order, whether worth 500,000 VND or 500 million VND, has to go through the same “ask the boss” step, approvers get overloaded on small orders while control gaps slip through on large ones.
COMMON SMB SITUATION
Common problems with manual purchase approvals
At many SMBs, the requester (the department with a need), the approver (a manager or director), and the person who executes the purchase (procurement, accounts payable) typically don’t work in the same tool. Purchase requests are sent by email or chat, approvers reply with a one-line message, and no one keeps a full record of who approved what, when, and under what budget.
This way of working creates three recurring problems. First, without an approval threshold tied to order value, small orders (office supplies) and large orders (equipment, raw materials) go through the same approval process, overloading approvers and slowing down orders that genuinely need fast handling. Second, when an approver is away or traveling, orders easily get stuck because there’s no delegate-approval or automatic escalation mechanism. Third, the lack of a centralized approval history makes it hard for accounting to reconcile records when a dispute arises with a supplier or during an internal audit.
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Roles involved in purchasing (request, approve, execute) that are typically siloed across tools at SMBs
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Approval thresholds based on order value when the process still runs on email/chat
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Single place holding the entire approval history once the process runs on Odoo Purchase
THE SOLUTION
The solution: a multi-level automated purchase approval workflow in Odoo
Odoo’s Purchase module lets you configure approval thresholds and approval levels directly in the system, tied to the Purchase Order and, where needed, to the preceding Request for Quotation (RFQ). The entire process from request, to approval, to conversion into a confirmed order happens on the same record.
Approval thresholds based on order value
Administrators set the value above which a purchase order must go through a “Confirm Order” step performed by someone with approval rights, rather than being confirmed directly by the person who created it. Orders below the threshold can be processed immediately; orders above it automatically move into a pending-approval state.
Multiple approval levels by role and department
For higher-value orders, the system can require approval across multiple levels (department head, then director) based on access groups (Access Rights) and record rules configured to match the company’s actual organizational structure.
Centralized notifications and approval history
Approvers get notified directly in the system (and by email, if configured) whenever an order is waiting on them. Every approval, rejection, or edit request is logged on the order’s chatter, creating a complete, searchable history for reconciliation or audits.
REAL-WORLD BENEFITS
Benefits of automating the purchase approval process
Once approval thresholds and levels are configured in the system, the clearest difference shows up in how fast small orders move and how well large orders are controlled.
| Task | Before Odoo (manual) | After Odoo Purchase |
|---|---|---|
| Low-value orders | Still wait on email/chat approval like large orders | Auto-confirmed below the threshold, no approval wait |
| High-value orders | Single-level approval, easy to miss budget control | Automatically routed through multiple approval levels by value and role |
| Looking up approval history | Scattered across emails and messages, hard to compile | Centralized on the order’s log, instantly searchable |
IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
Implementation notes for a purchase approval workflow on Odoo
Before configuring approval thresholds, SMBs need to agree with leadership on specific value tiers (for example: auto-confirm under 10 million VND, department-head approval for 10-100 million VND, director approval above 100 million VND) and who serves as a backup approver when someone is away this is an internal decision-making step, not a technical one, and it usually takes longer than the system configuration itself. Access rights also need a careful review to ensure approvers only see orders within their own scope. For further support, see Sonix’s Odoo implementation service.
It’s also worth running the approval workflow through a few real orders during the User Acceptance Testing (UAT) phase before go-live, to catch edge cases early such as urgent purchases that need to skip an approval level rather than discovering them once the system is already live.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
| Key point | What it means for the business |
|---|---|
| Approval thresholds tied to order value | Small orders move fast; large orders get tighter control. |
| Multiple approval levels by role and department | Matches the company’s actual organizational structure instead of a rigid single process. |
| Approval history stored centrally in the system | Easy to look up and reconcile during disputes or audits. |
| Agree on approval tiers before configuration | A decisive step that avoids reconfiguring after go-live. |
Are your purchase orders still waiting for approval over Zalo?
Book a 30-minute discovery call so Sonix can assess your current purchasing process and propose an automated purchase approval setup that fits your SMB scale.
Hundreds of businesses running Odoo in Vietnam have started their journey this way.
Sonix – Your success is our joy.
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