Choosing who approves what

One founder told us about a week in Cornwall that was meant to be a rest. Instead, her phone buzzed on the beach every hour, each time with a request for her to approve. Printer ink. A train ticket. Milk for the office. She approved them all from a damp towel and came home more tired than she left.

That story is why approval rules matter. They decide who carries the weight of everyday spending, and whether one person ends up as the bottleneck for the whole team.

Setting approval roles that fit your team

Start with what the spending is, not who the people are. Small, routine purchases rarely need anyone to sign them off once a sensible card limit is in place. Larger or unusual items deserve a second pair of eyes. In Business Online Banking you can set a level you are comfortable with, above which a request goes to an approver, and you can name more than one person for that role.

• List the common types of spending and decide which ones need approval at all.
• Choose a main approver for each area, such as operations or marketing.
• Add a backup approver so holidays and sick days do not stall anything.
• Look again at the rules every few months as the team changes.

Think about fairness too. If the same manager approves their own team's spending and their own, that can feel awkward for everyone. Routing their requests to someone else keeps things clear and avoids the uncomfortable conversation later.

Not sure where to begin? Begin small. Give one trusted person approval rights for one area, watch how it goes for a month, and widen it from there. The founder from the Cornwall story now has two approvers covering her, and her next trip was quieter. She still checks the app now and then, out of habit, but she reads the notifications rather than acting on them, and she says that difference is the whole point.