Automating Approvals in NetSuite

NetSuite for Administrators

Approval bottlenecks frustrate your employees, drain valuable time, and restrict flexibility. In today’s fast-paced business world, there’s no room for rusty approval processes. Whether you’re waiting on a manager to approve a purchase order or chasing down sign-offs for expense reports, manual approval processes slow things down and increase the risk of errors, all while adding unnecessary stress for your team.

NetSuite’s answer to approval bottlenecks is robust approval automation tools. When you manage your approvals within NetSuite, seeking and granting approval for business-critical financial decisions becomes streamlined and cohesive. Let’s take a look at four ways NetSuite’s automated approval functionality helps businesses like yours improve accuracy, accountability, and overall satisfaction.

1. Automating Purchase Order Approvals

Purchase orders are the lifeblood of daily business operations. But waiting on approvals can stall purchasing cycles, leaving employees stuck without the supplies or materials they need.
With NetSuite, you can build workflows that automatically route purchase orders based on dollar amount, department, or vendor. For instance, if your policy requires manager approval for POs over $1,000, NetSuite can trigger an automatic dashboard notification to the appropriate manager the moment the PO is submitted. If the PO is under $1,000, it can move straight to the next step without manual intervention.
This process eliminates guesswork, ensures compliance with company policies, and gets purchase orders processed faster, without relying on manual reminders or paperwork.

2. Streamlining Expense Report Approvals

Expense reports are another common pain point. Employees often submit them late, and managers sometimes delay approvals because they’re buried under other priorities. The result is frustrated employees waiting for reimbursements and accounting teams struggling with month-end close.
NetSuite solves this by automating expense approval routing. For example, expense reports under $200 might be auto-approved to speed up reimbursements, while anything over $200 could route directly to the employee’s department head for review. NetSuite can also flag exceptions automatically, such as duplicate expenses or out-of-policy charges, so managers only spend time reviewing what truly requires attention. By reducing the need for managers to comb through every single report, the process moves faster and ensures policy compliance.

3. Speeding Up Sales Order Approvals

Sales order approvals can be a sticking point for businesses that want to get products out the door quickly. A delay in approving an order often means a delay in fulfilling it, which directly affects customer satisfaction.
With NetSuite, you can automate approvals for common, low-risk orders while routing higher-value or unusual ones for review. For instance, any sales order under $5,000 might be approved automatically, while those above $5,000 require a sales manager’s sign-off. Similarly, if a customer’s credit limit is exceeded, NetSuite can hold the order until it’s reviewed by the finance team. This ensures that sales teams don’t get bogged down by routine approvals, while still maintaining financial oversight where it matters most.

4. Customizing Multi-Level Approval Workflows

Not every approval is as simple as a yes or no from one person. Sometimes, approvals need to move through multiple levels of management. Manually managing this sequence can be time-consuming and error-prone.

NetSuite’s SuiteFlow tool allows you to customize multi-level approval workflows. For example, a vendor bill over $10,000 might require sign-off from the department manager, the CFO, and then the CEO. A NetSuite workflow can automatically route the bill to each person in turn, sending email reminders if someone delays too long. If one level rejects the request, the workflow can immediately return it to the originator.

This not only speeds up the process but also ensures accountability and visibility at every stage. Everyone involved can see the status of an approval in real time, reducing the need for endless follow-up emails or calls.

Conclusion

Approval bottlenecks are more than just a nuisance; they can directly impact efficiency, cash flow, and customer satisfaction. By using NetSuite’s automation tools, businesses can streamline purchase orders, expense reports, sales orders, and even complex multi-level workflows. The result is a smoother approval process that saves time, reduces stress, and allows employees to focus on what matters most: driving your business forward.

At SuiteRep, we help companies take full advantage of NetSuite’s automation capabilities, tailoring approval workflows to fit your business needs. With the right setup, you can eliminate bottlenecks and keep your operations running at peak efficiency.

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