PO Approvals are in beta — click here to request access!

Quartzy offers two levels of approval to help manage purchasing:

• Request Approvals – Approve individual requests based on item type, budget code, and total cost
• Purchase Order (PO) Approvals (Beta) – Approve entire purchase orders / multiple requests at once

Our Recommendation

We suggest using either request-level or PO-level approvals based on your organization’s or lab’s needs. However, both approval types can be used together if required—such as when approvals for restricted items must still happen at the request level while overall spend approvals occur at the PO level. Refer to the "How Request Approvals and PO Approvals Work Together" section below for more tips on how to use both approval types together.

When to Use PO Approvals

• When your organization requires a final approval on all purchases before order placement
• When you want to simplify approvals by approving multiple requests with a single click
• When approvers want to review total spend for a PO, rather than reviewing each item individually
• When your finance team approves spend at the PO stage rather than at the request stage

When to Use Request Approvals

• When you need custom approval rules based on spending thresholds or budgets
• When your organization requires item-level approvals for restricted products

PO-Level Approvals are in beta, and we are actively gathering feedback. Please submit any comments or feature requests here—your feedback helps us improve!

Getting Started with PO Approvals 

PO Statuses

1. Draft - PO is created, but not yet submitted for approval
2. Pending - PO is awaiting approval
3. Open - PO has been approved
   1. If PO has not yet been ordered, related requests will remain in a Pending or Approved state
   2. If PO has been ordered, related requests should reflect an Ordered, Backordered, Received, or Cancelled state
4. Closed - PO has been fully received or cancelled

Enabling PO Approvals

1. Navigate to Lab Settings → Approvals
2. Under Purchase Order Approvals, select Always Require Approval

Enabling PO Email Notifications

To speed up the request-to-order process, we now offer email notifications when POs are ready to be approved or ordered. 

When PO Approvals are enabled, you’ll see two questions:

1. Who should be notified when a PO needs approval?
2. Who should be notified when a PO has been approved and is ready to be ordered?

By default, all Lab Admins are opted in to receive these notifications. Admins may uncheck their name if they’d like to opt out of notification receipt.

Creating a New PO

1. Submit requests via the Add Request page or Quartzy Shop
2. Select the requests you’d like to group into a Purchase Order using the checkboxes on the left side of each request
3. Click Group Actions → Create PO
   
   
4. Add additional relevant information to the PO, such as:
   1. PO #
      1. If your organization has Auto-generated PO Numbers enabled, the PO number will be pre-populated
   2. Shipping & Billing Address
   3. Payment Terms
   4. Quote # (if applicable)
   5. Save the PO as a Draft or Submit for Approval
      
      

Approving a Pending PO

1. Once a PO is ready for approval, selected admins will receive an email notification
   • Click Review PO in Quartzy to open it in the Quartzy web application
     
     
     
     
2. Once on the PO Details Page in Quartzy, click Approve if no changes are required
   • If any changes need to be made, click Edit to remove or update items, or leave a comment on any relevant requests to notify the requester

Checking Out on a Quartzy PO

If Quartzy is the vendor on your PO, you’ll see a Checkout button at the top of the PO Details Page when the PO is in the Open state.

If any items are already in your cart, they will be moved to the Save for Later section if they don’t belong to the PO you are placing an order for.

1. On the Cart Summary page, select your desired shipping methods and apply promo codes (if any), then click Checkout
   
   
   
   
2. Verify PO Number, Shipping Address, and Billing Address
   • If you arrived in the cart after clicking Checkout on the PO Details page, the PO Number will be auto-populated on the Payment page:
     
     
     
     
3. On the Review Page, verify your order details and update your notification email preferences for the order, then click Place Order
   
   

Marking a Pending PO as Ordered

If Quartzy is not the vendor on your PO, you’ll see a Mark Ordered button at the top of the PO Details Page when the PO is in the Open state.

1. Once a PO has been approved, selected admins will receive an email notification
   
   
   
   
2. Click See PO in Quartzy to view the PO in the Quartzy web application
3. Place the order with the vendor via your usual method (e.g., vendor website or email)
   • If placing the order via email, click Export PDF to download a copy of the PO
4. Once an order confirmation is received, click Mark Ordered and enter:
   1. Confirmation Number
   2. Shipping fees, Handling fees, or Taxes
      
      
      
      

Editing a PO

When a PO has a Draft or Pending status, you can edit the following details directly by clicking Edit on the PO Details page:

• Shipping Address
• Bill To Address
• PO #
• Payment Terms
• Quote #
• Tax, Shipping, and Handling
• Notes
• File Attachments
  
  

POs can also be edited indirectly through any of the following actions:

• Adding or removing an item via the Requests Module
• Updating the quantity or unit price on a related request

Once a PO has been approved and is in the Open state, any action that causes the PO Subtotal to increase will cause the PO status to revert from Open to Pending. These actions may include:

• Adding a new item to the PO
• Increasing the unit price on a related request
• Increasing the quantity on a related request

Closing a PO

POs are automatically closed once all related requests have a received or cancelled status.

 

PO Event History

Each PO includes a detailed history of events that track key actions, including:

• PO Submitted (who created it and when)
• Approval Actions (who approved it and when)
• Ordering Status (when it was marked as ordered and by whom)
• Closed Status
• Any changes to the PO Total that occur via the following methods:
  
  • Unit Price Update
  • Quantity Update
  • Shipping, Handling, or Tax update
  • Item Additions or Removals

How Request Approvals and PO Approvals Work Together

When both Request Approvals and PO Approvals are enabled, the approvals behave independently of each other. POs can be approved even if related requests are unapproved, however, unapproved requests cannot be marked as ordered until they've been approved.

If a Draft or Pending PO contains unapproved requests, each will display a Approval Required warning. Click the View Request link to navigate to an individual request for item-level approval.