FAQ

Why is my PO stuck in pending_approval?

An approval policy matched — total over threshold or doc/department triggered a sign-off rule. Check Settings → Approval policies.

1 min readLast updated 26 May 2026

An approval policy matched the PO. Most often the total exceeds a threshold (e.g. POs over £5,000 need director sign-off), but the document type, department, or raiser can also trigger a sign-off rule.

Open Settings → Approval policies to see which policy fired and who it routes to. The matched approver has the request in their Inbox — they can approve, reject, or delegate it if they're out of office. Until they act, the PO stays in pending_approval and can't be sent.

If the approver is unavailable and there's no delegate, an admin can reassign the request from the policy detail page.

See: finance-approvals-policies