Take control of complex approval processes

As your business continues grows, every purchasing decision and every bill paid becomes more complicated. Compliance requirements, separation of responsibilities, authority limits and growing teams all contribute to this complexity. The risk of fraud or mistakes grows with each extra step in your complex processes. Approvals from multiple team members and at multiple stages is a common strategy to manage risk.

What are approval pathways?

Approval pathways are structured processes through which tasks, projects, or documents must pass before they can be actioned. This ensures that all necessary checks are performed, and the right people review and approve the work.

Examples of tasks that might require approval:

• Paying a bill to a supplier,
• Approving credit notes,
• Employee expense claims,
• Finalising a Purchase Order,
• Discounts for a customer order,
• Design documents for a client project.

Approval types become complex as you need to guarantee compliance and avoid mistakes. They are typically sequential, requiring a single pass before reaching the next stage. Additional approval complexities can include branching approvals that require one pass from a group of similar approvers, or group approvals that require a pass from each person in a group before a task can be actioned.

Why do complex organisations need approval processes?

As more people and processes become involved in your business, you need extra oversight to confirm that everything is progressing correctly.

Common benefits of approval pathways are:

• Compliance – Review all actions to meet compliance, avoiding penalties or harmful mistakes,
• Quality Control – Work should meet the required standards before it reaches the client/distributor,
• Risk Management – Multiple eyes are better at catching errors or fraudulent or unauthorised actions,
• Accountability – everyone has a role in the project, and individuals should be accountable for the work they complete,
• Efficiency – Reduce time to complete projects by improving clarity in your processes.

Managing the challenges of complex approval pathways

Adding in approval steps and building a complex approval process is necessary to ensure compliance and mitigate risks. However, an improperly managed process can easily slow your work down as the approver neglects or misses an approval requirement.

MYOB Exo is a sophisticated ERP system that can fully integrate your financial and business management data. The software has been deployed in over 3000 mid-tier organisations across Australia and New Zealand. These companies have benefitted from the typically lower cost to implement compared to other mid-market ERP packages.

You may be struggling to build meaningful workflows and approval pathways into your processes in MYOB Exo. Workflows and approval pathways can become murky or even be ignored. Having access to a system that properly supports your complex approval requirements can streamline this process without compromising processing speed.

Complex approvals

MYOB Exo does not have an inbuilt structure to manage complex approvals. This can make it difficult to keep track of all the moving parts in your process.

Approval bottlenecks

Approvals can create efficiency bottlenecks if they require approval from a busy individual or department. Overloading or rushing these teams through approvals fails to appropriately manage risk and eliminate errors.

Lack of transparency

Without proper visibility of the approval process, it can be difficult to understand where tasks are stuck and why. This lack of transparency can lead to frustration and delays.

How can I streamline my approval process?

Implement a best-practice approach to approval management:

• Clear definition of roles and responsibilities,
• Use technology to automate and streamline approvals,
• Focus on transparency and communication,
• Look for areas to improve your pathways.

Utilise clever business management software to automate as much of the approval process as possible. Automation can streamline the approval process, reduce human error, and ensure that tasks move quickly from one stage to the next.

Clever business management software to support complex approvals

MYOB Advanced (Acumatica) is a SaaS ERP solution built to add additional security to your system. It allows roles, permissions, authorities, and auditability to suit any organisation. With tightly configured approval maps, and the ability to automate your manual processes, you will move towards verifying completed work. This will remove the risk of fraud and decrease system errors.

Approving a request is simple and straightforward. MYOB Acumatica automatically emails the responsible approver, who receives a link straight through to the item in question, where they can approve with a simple click. Items can also be approved from the MYOB Acumatica app, making it easier than ever to streamline your processes. To further protect your approval pathways, two-factor authentication (2FA) ensures that only the approver with the correct access is making the decisions.

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How can software solutions improve real businesses?

The Arcadia Corporation successfully transitioned into the cloud and achieved a single, efficient platform from which they now manage Accounts, Inventory Management and CRM. Moving from MYOB Exo to MYOB Acumatica improved functionality and provided end-to-end management of its products. Additionally, integrations with their core business management system enhanced visibility and simplified reporting for the finance and sales teams.

Learn more about the real benefits of moving your organisation into the cloud by reading the case study here. 

To begin your journey with MYOB Acumatica (formerly MYOB Advanced) or learn more about how it can streamline your approval process, email us at sales@kilimanjaro-consulting.com or call 1300 857 464 (AU) or 0800 436 774 (NZ).