Each lab's purchasing workflow is different. Make sure all of your purchases are reviewed by the appropriate people by creating customized, tiered approval flows! Read below for more details.

Table of Contents

• Setting up Approval Steps
• Email notifications for request-level approvals
• Create Customized Approval Workflows
  • Approval Teams
  • Safety or hazardous item-based approval routing
  • Budget-based approval routing
  • Dollar threshold-based approval routing
• Changing Approval Steps

Getting to the Approvals Page

1. On the top left side of the toolbar, click on the Org Name or the Lab Name and then click the gear icon to select the lab where you want to make changes.

2. Select the Lab on the left sidebar and click the Approvals tab. By default, the General Approval Settings section will be selected. 

 

Setting up Approval Steps

No Approval

If your lab does not need an approval step, simply keep the default option selected. In this case, a request goes from New to Ordered.

Approval Threshold

To set a request price threshold, select the Automatically approve requests when the total is below option under When is approval required on requests?

Then, enter the desired dollar amount (make sure to click the Save Changes button!). Once your threshold is set, approval is only required when the price of an individual request is above the threshold. Requests below the threshold will be automatically approved. 

Note that setting a threshold for approvals is optional. If no threshold is desired, select the Always require approval option. 

 

Email notifications for request-level approvals

Admins selected here will receive an email with the subject line New Requests in Quartzy when a request is added that requires approval. The body of the email will contain an "Approval required" note. 

If an Approval Workflow is set up (see section below), the users selected in that workflow will automatically receive an email with the subject line New Approval Requests in Quartzy when a request requires their approval. 

 

Create Customized Approval Workflows

If you'd like to set up additional approval steps for your lab, keep reading below.

Step 1: Assign Budget Owners and Configure Approval Teams

Under General Approval Settings, define your lab's Budgets (formerly spend tracking codes) and which user owns them, in order to route approvals to those users (optional). 

Budget Type 

Select a label for your budgets from the Budget Type dropdown menu. You can select between Grant ID, Project, Fund, and Account. Only one budget label may be selected for each lab.

Budget Name and Owner

Click Add a new budget and assign a Name for your budget. Select an Owner for the budget from the dropdown menu (optional), then click the Save button.

If an owner is selected, an approval step can be added in Setup Part 2, so that all new requests added with that budget selected will route to the Budget Owner for approval. 

Continue to add as many budgets as your lab needs! 

You can choose to make this field mandatory using the Make field required checkbox. If made required, users cannot add new requests without populating the Budget field on the request form.

Note that on the request form, the Budget field will show up as Grant ID, Project, Fund, or Account (whichever label is selected for Budget Type on this page). 

Approval Teams

Using Approval Teams is a great way to ensure that even when someone is out of office or unavailable, requests can still be approved! Here's how to create an Approval Team in your lab: 

Click Create new team under the Approval Teams header

Then, name the Approval Team and select the users that should be included in the team. Anyone in the team will be able to approve requests that are sent to the team for approval (approval from more than one person on the team is not needed).

Don't forget to click the Save button to create your new Approval Team!

 

Step 2: Create Custom Approval Routing Workflows

Under Request Approval Routing, click the Add Workflow button to start creating your lab's approval steps.

Safety or hazardous item-based approval routing

Some labs require safety managers or EHS officers to review and approve all hazardous items before they're ordered. To set up this type of workflow, follow the steps below:

1. First, be sure you have a Hazardous Item Type set up for your lab. Quartzy's Chemical - Hazardous item type is a great place to start!
   • Refer to this guide to add Types if needed: Manage Labs - Inventory Types and Custom Fields
2. In Lab Settings > Approvals, click the Request Approval Routing section, then click Add Workflow.
   
   
   
   
3. Create your approval step:
   • Select "of item type > [your lab's hazardous item type]" for the For requests field
   • Click the Save Workflow button to save your lab's new approval workflow
     
     

Budget-based approval routing

Some labs want to route approvals based on the budget (Grant ID, Fund, Project, or Account) associated with a request.

Example:

• Andy approves requests associated with Project A
• Eddie approves requests associated with Project B
• Jonathan approves requests associated with Project C

To set up a budget-based approval workflow, follow the steps below:

1. In Lab Settings > Approvals > General Approval Settings, add your Budgets and assign Owners as needed. Follow our guide here: Managing Lab Budgets
   
   
   
   
2. Navigate to Lab Settings > Approvals > Request Approval Routing, and click Add Workflow
   
   
3. Create your approval step:
   • Select "with a budget" for the For requests field
   • Click the Save Workflow button to save your lab's new approval workflow

User threshold-based approval routing

If your organization doesn’t use Quartzy’s PO Approvals — or if purchase orders are submitted outside of Quartzy through a separate system — you can use Request Approvals to create tiered approval flows based on item cost.

This is especially useful for:

• Labs integrated with QuickBooks Online or NetSuite (PO Approvals not available yet)
• Organizations where POs are placed through a university procurement system, and Quartzy is primarily used for lab-level communication

Example Workflow:

• Requests under $500 are auto-approved
• Sage approves requests up to $1500
• Rowan approves requests up to $5000
• Fern approves anything >$5000

To set up user threshold-based approval routing on the request level, follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to Lab Settings > Approvals > Request Approval Routing, and click Add Workflow
   
   
   
   
2. Create your approval steps:
   • Select "not already approved" for the For requests field
   • Select the appropriate approver for the send an approval request to field
   • Enter the appropriate dollar amount (limit) in the who can fully approve requests up to field
   • Click +Add Step to add your next step(s)!
   • When you're done, click the Save Workflow button to save your lab's new approval workflow
     
     

 

 

Changing Approval Steps

1. Click the Edit Approval Routing button at the bottom of the Request Approval Routing tab to add, remove, or change approval steps.

2. Once you've made your changes, click the Save Workflow button.

3. On the modal that appears after clicking Save Workflow, select the Apply changes to in-flight requests and restart their workflows checkbox - this ensures that any request(s) not already fully approved will be "reset" and will go through the updated approval workflow.

4. Click the Apply Changes button, and your approval workflow changes will be saved and will take effect immediately. 

Next Up: Setting Up Purchase Order (PO) Approvals

 

More questions? Contact us