# Approve a purchase order

Approve or send back purchase orders over your company's limit. Nobody can approve an order they raised.

Orders over the approval limit wait for a second person before they can go to the supplier. By default the limit is £500 excluding VAT.

When an order needs approving, people who can approve get an alert in Sustainable ERP and by email.

1. Open the order from the alert, or from **Stock & purchasing → Purchase orders** filtered to **Awaiting approval**.
2. Check the lines, supplier and total.
3. Select **Approve**, or **Send back** with a note on what needs changing.

![A purchase order waiting for approval, with Approve, Send back and Cancel order](../../../assets/screens/purchase-order.png)

An approved order can be sent to the supplier. One sent back returns to **Draft** with your note at the top, so the person who raised it can change it and submit it again.

## Rules

- You can't approve an order you raised, even if your role can approve. Someone else has to.
- Only roles with purchase approval can approve: by default the operations manager, stock controller and administrator.

## Change the limit

Go to **Settings → Finance** and set **Purchase order approval over (£ ex. VAT)**. Leave it blank and no order needs approval.

## Next

- [Raise a purchase order](/stock/raise-a-purchase-order/)
- [Roles explained](/settings/roles-explained/)