How to Use the Approval List

This article explains how to use the Approval List in DPO. You’ll learn how to find pending approvals and review, approve, or decline Purchase Orders (P.O.s), Invoices, and Topsheets that are waiting for your approval.

Overview

The Approval List provides a centralized view of all items requiring your approval.

On the left side, you will find three tabs:

• P.O.s
• Invoices
• Expenses (Topsheets)

Once all approvals are completed, the list will be empty.

You can also:

• Use the search bar to find specific items
• Apply filters (e.g. by date)
• Use batch printing for efficient processing

Approval Notifications

When an item reaches your approval level, DPO notifies you that an approval is waiting for you. Depending on your notification settings, you can receive notifications about P.O.s, Invoices, and Expenses that require your approval.

Learn more about how to manage your notification settings here.

Pending Approvals on the Dashboard

The Dashboard gives you a quick overview of approvals that are currently waiting for you. The approval list on the Dashboard shows which P.O. Book has pending items and how many items require your attention.

Click the relevant entry to open the corresponding Approval List and review the pending items.

Quick Approval

If Quick Approval is enabled, you can approve or reject items directly from the Approval List without opening them individually.

Use:

• Approve – Approve the item directly from the list.
• Reject – Reject the item directly from the list.

Quick Approval can be enabled for P.O.s, Invoices, and Expenses in Admin Settings.

How to Approve a Purchase Order

1. Open the P.O. Approvals tab
2. Select a purchase order from the list

Review Details

• Left side → Approval chain (who approved / who is next)
• Center → Requester (click name to send an email)
• Top right → Supplier information

If required:

• Enter account codes for each line item
• Add attachments (if permissions allow)

Available Actions

• Approve the purchase order
• Decline the purchase order
• Send Back to a previous approver (if enabled)

Add a comment explaining your decision

How to Approve an Invoice

1. Open the Invoice Approvals tab

Filter and Search

Use filters to find specific invoices:

• Matched P.O. → Linked invoices
• Over / Under P.O. → Compare against P.O. amount
• Contains "No P.O." Items → Find invoices containing items that are not linked to a P.O
• Date filters → Narrow by invoice date
• Search bar → Find by supplier or keywords

Review Details

Before approving the invoice, review the relevant information:

• Top → Approval chain showing who has already approved and who is next
• Right side → Requester information (click the name to send an email)
• Top right → Supplier information

2. Use Item Focus in the top-right corner to quickly review all invoice positions and their account coding in one overview.
3. Once you have completed your review, choose:

• Approve
• Decline

How to Approve a Topsheet

1. Open the Expenses Approvals tab
2. Select a Topsheet from the list

Review and Approve

• Use Reviewer Mode to review and validate all included positions, if required.
• Open Edit Mode to review individual positions or add attachments.
• Add a comment if needed.

Choose to:

• Approve
• Decline

After completing one Topsheet, the next Topsheet will automatically load.

Once all Topsheets are processed, the list will be empty.

Questions or need help?
Our customer support is always available to help with any questions or setup assistance

Contact us
Email: support@digitalpurchaseorder.com
Support: +1 888 DPO 7254
Support Int'l: +44 20 331 88 338
Berlin Office: +49 (0)30 55 572 5956

Or book a personalized support call
We look forward to hearing from you.

Updated on: 01/09/2026