Procurement Request and Approval Template
Two documents and four sheets that route on category flags as well as dollar amount, then measure each approver's own days in stage.
Free download · No account needed
Approval Queue
Thackeray Instruments, Q1 2026
Every request checked against the dollar tier and the category flags together, not the tier alone.
| Request | Amount | Tier alone predicts | Category flag | Actual cycle time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| REQ-101 | $480 | Manager, 1 day | Data access | 1 day |
| REQ-112 | $2,100 | Manager, 1 day | Auto-renewal | 4 days |
| REQ-108 | $9,600 | Director, 2 days | Data access + auto-renewal | 2 days |
The same two category flags added zero delay on REQ-108 and four business days on REQ-112, which is why the queue logs each approver's own days rather than trusting the amount.
Every procurement request template does the same two things: a blank requisition form, and an approval matrix keyed to dollar amount alone. None separates that tier from a category flag such as data access or a long auto-renewal term. Even the capitalized-asset flag has an external standard behind it: the IRS's de minimis safe harbor rule sets that line at $2,500 per item, independent of any internal tier. This pack checks every request against the tier and all three flags together, then logs the days each request spends with every approver it reaches.
On the worked example already in the sheets, Thackeray Instruments logged 20 procurement requests over a quarter. REQ-112, a $2,100 software renewal, sits under the $2,500 threshold that would clear it with the manager alone in a day. It still took four business days, because its contract auto-renews for 12 months, which adds a Corporate Counsel review regardless of price. REQ-108, a $9,600 purchase carrying the same two category flags, cleared with no added delay at all, because its specialist reviews finished inside the two days its dollar tier already needed.
Six of the 20 requests reached VP of Operations Diane Kowalczyk, and her stage alone carries a median of 3.5 business days against a 1-day median everywhere else in the chain. The cause is cadence, not caseload: she clears her procurement queue once a week rather than on demand. A purchase cleared here still needs a make-versus-buy call first. Once the PO is cut, the vendor relationship moves to a renewal calendar, or, for a competitively bid purchase, to the RFP evaluation that selected the vendor.
What's in the pack
Procurement Policy
The dollar tiers and the three category flags written out side by side, with the approver each one adds and why that approver exists.
Approval Routing Note
The matrix applied to a real quarter of requests, naming the category flag that changed an outcome and the approver whose stage is the bottleneck.
Request Form Fields
The intake schema with a routing column on every field, so a data-access or auto-renewal question is never left to free text nobody parses.
Approval Queue
Every request logged with its full approver chain, the days spent at each stage, and the gating approver who actually held it up.
Purchase Order Register
The POs cut once every required sign-off is in, dated to the last approval rather than the submission.
Cycle Time
Median, mean, and maximum days in stage by approver, with review cadence named, so a structural bottleneck is visible against the rest of the chain.
How to use it
- 1
Send your policy
Your delegation of authority schedule or approval workflow, plus a sample of recent requests with their approval history if you can export one.
- 2
Build the real matrix
The dollar tiers and category flags get written out from what your policy actually says, not from a generic threshold template.
- 3
Route requests and log stages
Each request runs through the matrix, and the days it spends with every required approver get logged separately as it moves.
- 4
Find the bottleneck
Cycle Time ranks approvers by their own median, which is what turns a vague complaint about slow approvals into a named stage to fix.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes. The zip holds Word documents and CSV sheets with no account and no card required. Edit with AI is the optional half: River builds your matrix from the policy you send and logs each stage as real requests move through it.
What format are the downloaded files?
Two Word documents and four CSV sheets, zipped. Word, Pages, or Google Docs open the policy and routing note directly, and Excel, Numbers, or Sheets open all four sheets with no reformatting. Nothing needs converting, and no proprietary file format is anywhere in the download.
We already have a dollar-threshold approval matrix. What does this add?
The category flags and the per-approver measurement. A threshold table tells you who signs at what amount, but it has no field for a data-access clause or an auto-renewal term, and it never tells you which specific approver is slow. This pack adds both.
What if our policy has no category exceptions at all?
Send it as it stands. River builds the dollar-tier chain from what exists, and you can add a category flag later once you decide which purchase types, if any, should force a specialist review regardless of price.
How does this decide which approver is actually the bottleneck?
By comparing each approver's own median days in stage against everyone else's, not against a single company-wide target. On the worked example that isolates a weekly-batch reviewer at 3.5 days against a 1-day median everywhere else in the same chain.
Does this replace our purchase order system?
No. This pack ends at the Purchase Order Register once every required sign-off is logged. Choosing whether to build or buy in the first place is a separate make-versus-buy analysis, and tracking the vendor relationship afterward belongs on a renewal calendar.
Find out which approver is actually the bottleneck
Send your approval policy and a sample of recent requests. The first thing back is a matrix keyed to category as well as amount.
Edit with AI