How to set up cost approval workflows

Planyard supports layered approval workflows for cost documents, enabling both project-level and company-wide approvals. This ensures that all costs go through the right checks—first at the project level (if set), then centrally at the company level.

Approval workflow structure

There are two types of cost approval workflows:

1. Company (central) approval workflow: Invoices across all projects follow this workflow once submitted.
2. Project-specific approval workflow: Invoices are reviewed at the project level before continuing to the central approval.

If both are enabled, the invoice first moves through the project approval workflow and then through the company approval workflow.

You can also choose to use only the project-level workflow without enabling company-wide approvals.

How cost approval rounds work

• Approvals are round-based: the invoice is approved by one person at a time in a predefined order.
• You can define approval thresholds:
  • Add a trigger amount to have an approver only review invoices above a certain value.
  • Leave the amount blank to require approval on all invoices.
• You can have multiple rounds with the same trigger amount, for example, if two people need to approve all invoices over €10,000.
• Approval rounds must follow a non-decreasing order. You cannot add a round with a lower trigger amount than the previous one.

Workflow overlap logic

• If a person is added to both the project and central approval workflows, they will only need to approve the invoice once. If the person approves it on the project level, Planyard automatically assumes their central approval is already covered.
• The same logic applies if the invoice processor is also listed as an approver in either workflow. In that case, their approval is automatically assumed and skipped, since submitting the invoice is treated as implicit approval.

How to set up a company-wide cost approval workflow

1. Click Company in the top menu.
2. Go to Settings.
3. Go to the Approval workflows tab.
4. Start with enabling Approval workflow; this will allow you to create and track approval workflows.
5. Scroll down to Cost approval workflows.
6. Enable the workflow using the toggle.
7. If the list is empty, click Select approvers.
8. Under the Approvers dropdown, choose a person from your account.
9. (Optional) Add a trigger amount to only route invoices above a certain value to this person. Leave blank to always include this approver.
10. Click Add approval step to save the round.

After adding a round, you’ll see additional options in the workflow overview:

• Update approval step – Edit the approver or trigger amount.
• Add next round – Create another round in the sequence.
• Remove – Delete the approval step.

Tip: Use Add next round to build multi-step approval chains. You can repeat the same trigger amount for multiple people, but you cannot set a lower amount than the round before.

How to set up project-level cost approval workflows

Project-level approval workflows let you add project-specific approvers on top of the company-wide approval flow. This ensures that costs are reviewed by relevant team members before moving to central oversight.

How project approvals work with central workflows

• If a central approval workflow is active, it will already appear in the project’s approval overview.
• Central approvers are visible but not editable from the project settings.
• Any project-specific approvers you add will be placed before the central approvals in the workflow.
• This means that invoices are always approved at the project level first, then passed on to the company level.

How to set up a project-level cost approval workflow

1. Click Projects in the top menu.
2. Select the relevant project.
3. In the project menu bar, click Settings
4. Navigate to the Approval workflows tab.
5. Scroll down to Cost approval workflow.
6. Click Select approvers to start configuring.
7. Choose an approver from the dropdown.
8. (Optional) Add a trigger amount to apply approval only above a certain value. Leave blank to include the approver for all invoices.
9. Click Add approval step to save the round.

After adding a round, you’ll see three options in the workflow overview:

• Update approval step – Edit the approver or trigger amount.
• Add next round – Add another round to the sequence.
• Remove – Delete the approval step.

Additional notes

• Each round must include only one approver.
• You can have multiple rounds with the same trigger amount.
• Approval rounds must follow a non-decreasing value order — you cannot add a lower trigger amount in a later round.

4. Notifications

Approvers receive notifications both via email and inside Planyard when action is required.

To disable email notifications for your user:

• Click your name in the top right corner
• Select Settings
• Turn off Approval workflow notification