Problem guide
Purchase approvals leave crews waiting
Purchase approvals leave crews waiting because the request goes to someone who is not looking for it, carries too little detail to decide on, and has no clock or backup approver behind it. The fix is a request that reaches the approver where they are, holds everything needed to say yes or no, and escalates on its own when it sits too long.
What it usually looks like
A crew opens up a unit on a service call and finds a failed part that costs more than the lead is allowed to approve. The lead texts the operations manager, who is walking a job site across town with his phone in his pocket. Forty minutes pass. The lead calls the office, and the office tries the manager too. By the time he answers, the supply house counter is about to close for the day. The crew packs up and schedules a return trip. Nobody said no. The request just sat where nobody was looking.
Signs you have this problem
- Crews call or text a manager and then wait on site for an answer
- Jobs get pushed to the next day because a part could not be approved in time
- Leads buy what they need on a personal card and sort it out later
- Approvers say they never saw the request until someone called
- Nobody can tell you how long a typical purchase approval takes
What usually causes it
- The approver is in the field or in meetings, and the request waits in a text thread or inbox with no reminderApproval drag
- The request arrives without the job, the price or the reason, so the approver has to call back before decidingThe handoff gap
- Pending requests live in individual phones, so nobody can see which ones are stuckThe invisible queue
What to try this week
- Log every purchase request for two weeksWrite down when each request was made, who it went to, and when the answer came back. The gap between request and answer is the number to watch.
- Write down the approval limits people actually useAsk leads and managers what they think they can approve without asking. Where the answers differ, settle one written limit per role and share it.
- Use one request formatAgree that every request states the job, the item, the price, the vendor and why it is needed. An approver who has all five can usually decide without a call back.
- Name a backup approverFor each approver, name who decides when they cannot answer within a set time. Tell the crews who that person is.
- Keep one shared list of open requestsPut every open request in one place the office can see, oldest first, and check it several times a day until you have something better.
Put a number on it
- Approval wait calculator: Calculate the paid crew hours and dollars lost each year while crews wait for purchase, change order and schedule approvals.
Where do-it-yourself stops
These steps make the wait visible and shorter. They do not put the request in front of the approver automatically, remind them, hand it to a backup on a clock, or record the decision against the job and the purchase order. That takes a tool built around your own approval limits, your purchasing process and your accounting system. That is what a Workflow Spec designs.
Questions people ask
Why do purchase approvals take so long?
Usually the decision itself is quick. The time goes to the request sitting unseen, missing details that force a call back, and having no backup when the approver is busy.
Should we just raise approval limits?
Raising limits removes the control along with the wait. Try making the request complete and visible first, then decide whether a limit really is too low.
What should a purchase request include?
At minimum the job it is for, what is being bought, the price, the vendor and the reason. Anything the approver would otherwise call to ask belongs on the request.
How do we measure what the waiting costs?
Track how long crews wait and how many jobs slip to another day because of a pending approval. Put your own labor and trip costs against those counts.
Is it a problem if leads buy on their own cards?
It usually means the approval process is slower than the job allows. It also means purchases reach the books late and without a clear approval record.