SharePoint · Manufacturing and engineering

SharePoint capex and opex approval workflow with parallel and sequential approvals

A SharePoint procurement approval system for an industrial group with several plants. One request moves through user and team approvals, some in sequence and some in parallel, with routes and limits that differ by plant.

Client: An industrial group with several plants, a central purchase cell and an executive team
Industry: Manufacturing and engineering
Platform: SharePoint
Started from: Approval Workflow product

01The challenge

Purchase requests for goods and services were approved by email and paper across plant, finance, procurement and head office levels. Each plant had its own limits and its own number of approvers, so people were unsure who had to approve next. Capex and opex needed different treatment, unbudgeted spend was easy to miss, and a rejection left nobody sure who should fix it.

02The solution

We built an indent to approval system on SharePoint. The indenter raises a request that carries the procurement type, the budget flag, the material and the date required. The request then moves through eight levels. Some levels are single approvers, some are teams where a set number of members must approve, and two pairs of levels run in parallel. Procurement adds vendors and commercial quotes, the central cell can change them, and every level can approve, reject, raise a query or close the request. A query chat sits on every request.

How a request moves from indent to approval

Raise the indentThe indenter chooses capex or opex, says whether the spend is in budget, and enters plant, unit, department, requisition number, purpose, material with code, quantity and date required.
Department and storesThe department head endorses. The stores in-charge records available stock, orders already placed and stock held for another department, then recommends purchase.
Plant review in parallelThe plant head checks the technical need and the plant finance team checks budget, headroom and pending advances. Both look at the request at the same time and both must agree.
Procurement builds the quoteProcurement adds vendors, rates, discount, duties, freight, delivery period, payment terms and guarantee, with quotes and estimates attached. A draft can be saved.
Plant VP and central cell in parallelThe plant VP endorses while the central purchase cell reviews. The central cell can add a vendor or change quantity and terms, and the plant VP then approves again.
Executive and management teamsTeam levels need a set number of approvals, for example two of four members, and the others can still add comments. A final management level closes the approval.
Reject, query or closeA rejection goes to the level before. A query goes back to the earlier approvers to edit and then returns. Any authorised level can close the request.

Screens from the system

Sample data only. These screens show the layout and flow, not real records.

Screen 1 of 7Built for this client

Request dashboard

Counts and a request list with type, budget flag and current level.

What we built

Indent formCapex or opex, budget flag, material, quantity and technical needs in one form.
Parallel and sequential levelsSome levels act together, others one after the other.
User and team approvalsA level can be one person or a team with a set number of approvals.
Plant specific rulesLimits, routes and approval counts differ by plant and are kept as data.
Commercial quotesVendors, rates, duties, freight and terms with attachments.
Query chatAny level can ask a question and get an answer on the request.
Vendor historyPurchase history by vendor to check a new quote.
Printable recordA completed request prints as one page with its decisions.