Who Should Approve What? Setting the Right Workflow for Your Org Size

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According to a 2024 survey by Gartner, a significant 58% of finance functions are now using artificial intelligence to streamline routine processes like expense approvals. AI eliminates delays by automatically routing requests, flagging policy violations, and notifying the right approvers in real time. 

So if your team is still waiting days, or even weeks, for payment approvals, you’re not just behind; you're missing out on the speed, accuracy, and control that AI-powered workflows deliver.

Inefficient approval workflows can quietly drain productivity and delay critical decisions. The real question isn't if you need a better process, it’s who should be approving what, and when. The answer depends entirely on your organization’s size, and getting it right can transform the way your business operates.

In this blog, you’ll learn:

• How to design approval workflows tailored to your organization’s size and structure
  
  
• Common pitfalls in expense approvals and how to avoid them
  
  
• Workflow templates and real-world examples for small, medium, and large businesses

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Why Approval Workflows Matter

An effective approval workflow ensures that every expense, purchase, or decision is reviewed by the right people at the right time. This not only prevents unauthorized spending but also promotes accountability, transparency, and compliance within your organization. A well-structured workflow aligns with your company’s size and goals, providing a clear path from request to resolution. 

Whether you're managing expense accounts, processing bulk payments, issuing physical or virtual expense cards, a defined approval chain helps avoid bottlenecks, reduces errors, and improves team efficiency.

Search engines and auditors alike favor businesses with documented, logical processes. This makes approval workflows not just good governance, but also smart business.

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The Cost of Inefficiency in Approval Processes

Inefficient approval workflows can lead to serious business issues: delayed purchases, missed opportunities, low employee morale, and even financial loss. Without a clear approval workflow, teams may overspend, duplicate purchases, or route approvals through the wrong people. Over time, these mistakes compound and lead to bloated budgets and compliance risks.

Companies with poor workflow structures spend more time processing each expense report. For growing organizations, that’s time and money lost on avoidable delays. Worse still, slow approval cycles can discourage teams from following policy altogether, undermining the integrity of your expense management system.

Investing in a right-sized, optimized workflow helps your organisation reduce approval times, eliminate confusion, and drive financial accountability from the ground up.

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Common Pitfalls in Poorly Designed Workflows

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Poorly designed approval workflows can quietly sabotage productivity, create friction across teams, and expose your business to financial and compliance risks. Here are some of the most common pitfalls companies face:

1. Too Many Approval Layers

Having too many layers in your approval workflow can make decisions take longer. While it's good to have oversight, making the approval process too complex can cause unnecessary delays, especially for requests which need to move fast.

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2. Lack of Clear Approval Ownership

When it’s unclear who is responsible for approving a request, tasks get passed around or ignored. This often leads to backlogs, lost documentation, and frustrated employees.

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3. Inconsistent Approval Rules

Without defined thresholds or policies, approvals can become subjective and unfair. One department might approve a higher spend instantly, while another gets stuck in red tape for a lower amount. This causes confusion and resentment. [not clear]

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4. Manual and Email-Based Processes

Relying on emails or spreadsheets makes tracking approvals difficult. There’s no visibility, no audit trail, and a high risk of missed steps, especially when key staff are unavailable.

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5. No Escalation Path

If an approver is on leave or unresponsive, what happens next? Without automatic escalation rules, requests can get stuck indefinitely, delaying operations and payments.

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6. Lack of Integration With Finance Tools

When workflows don’t integrate with accounting or expense management platforms, reconciliation becomes manual and error-prone. This also increases the risk of non-compliant or unapproved expenses slipping through.

To avoid these pitfalls, organizations should design workflows that are scalable, transparent, and role-based, while leveraging automation wherever possible.

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How Organization Size Affects Workflow Design

The Role of Headcount, Hierarchy, and Budget Size

As your organization grows, so do the complexity of approvals, the number of stakeholders, and the size of financial commitments. Smaller teams with flat hierarchies often benefit from quick, informal approvals. But as headcount increases, so does the need for structured workflows that reflect organizational hierarchy and budget accountability.

• Headcount: More employees mean more transactions, necessitating systems that prevent bottlenecks and scale with team size.
  
  
• Hierarchy: In flatter organizations, approvals may go directly to the CEO. In layered structures, approvals need to follow a chain of command to ensure relevance and oversight.
  
  
• Budget Size: As spending increases, so does the risk. Higher-value transactions typically require more stringent approval processes involving finance or leadership.
  
  

Workflow design should reflect these variables. A 15-person marketing agency doesn’t need the same approval process as a 500-person manufacturing firm. One size does not fit all.

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Centralized vs. Decentralized Approvals

The structure of your approval process, whether centralized or decentralized, can make or break your operational efficiency.

• Centralized Approvals mean decisions are made by a small group (usually finance or executive leadership). This can enhance control and ensure consistency, but may create bottlenecks, especially if all spend decisions pass through a few people.
  
  
• Decentralized Approvals distribute decision-making authority across departments or teams. This speeds up processing and empowers managers but can lead to inconsistent policies if not governed well.

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It is worth noting that many organizations struggle to strike the right balance between control and agility. That’s where Flex Finance comes in. As a modern expense management platform, Flex is purpose-built to help businesses of all sizes design, automate, and enforce approval workflows, whether centralized, decentralized, or hybrid.

With Flex, you can easily configure who approves what, at what amount, and under what conditions, without needing IT support. It adapts to your current structure and scales as you grow, giving both finance teams and department leads the clarity and control they need.

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Case Study:
In a centralized workflow, all software procurement, regardless of which team requests it, might be routed to the IT Director for approval. This ensures consistency in vendor selection, security standards, and system compatibility, which is critical for tech governance in larger organizations. While it tightens control, it can also create bottlenecks, especially when IT is overloaded or disconnected from the department’s operational needs.

With Flex Finance, these centralized flows are fully customizable. Admins can define conditional logic, such as routing all software spend to IT once it exceeds a set amount or includes specific vendors, while applying different rules for other spend categories. 

Approvers are instantly notified with built-in context (e.g., cost, requester, project code), allowing for faster, better-informed decisions.

By contrast, a decentralized model empowers department heads to approve software purchases up to a defined threshold (e.g., ₦500,000). IT only steps in for security assessments, integration reviews, or when spend exceeds strategic thresholds. This speeds up decision-making and aligns closer to the department’s urgency and budget, but it requires strong policy enforcement to avoid redundancies and shadow IT.

Flex Finance also supports this exact model and makes it easy to configure threshold-based routing so that routine purchases are automatically handled within departments, while exceptions trigger escalation to IT or finance. You can also tag spend by category (e.g., “Software,” “Subscriptions”) to apply specific workflow logic based on risk level or integration complexity. Flex provides granular controls that prevent decentralization from becoming a disorder. 

Choosing between these models hinges on factors like:

• Risk appetite (e.g., tolerance for decentralized purchasing decisions)
  
  
• Internal expertise (e.g., can department heads evaluate software on their own?)
  
  
• Need for visibility and control (e.g., central tracking vs. local autonomy)
  
  

With Flex Finance, you get real-time visibility across departments and audit-ready trails, regardless of which model you choose. This ensures accountability, even when approvals happen independently. This means you get the speed of decentralized decision-making, without sacrificing control or oversight.

The right approach balances speed and accountability, ensuring purchases are both timely and compliant, without burdening a single team with every decision.

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When to Rely on Department Heads vs. Finance/C-Suite

Knowing who should approve a request is just as important as how it's approved. Assigning the wrong approver leads to delays, poor accountability, or unnecessary escalations.

• Department Heads are ideal for operational or team-level expenses. They understand context, urgency, and budget alignment better than a centralized authority.
  
  
• Finance Teams are essential for high-value or cross-departmental spend. They ensure compliance with company policy, budget limits, and regulatory requirements.
  
  
• C-Suite Executives should only be involved in strategic, high-impact decisions like capital expenditures, mergers, or vendor contracts above a certain threshold.
  
  

Case Study:
At a 100-person e-commerce company, all marketing spend under a certain amount is approved by the Marketing Director. Anything over that is reviewed by the CFO to ensure alignment with quarterly budgets and cash flow planning.

Clearly defining who approves what, and when, you reduce friction, improve accountability, and create a workflow that evolves as your organization grows.

How Flex Finance supports this:

• Threshold-Based Approvals: Flex lets you define exact approval rules based on your company policies
  
  
• Category-Specific Workflows: Tag expenses by department or spend type
  
  
• Real-Time Budget Visibility: Approvers can view budget impact at the moment of decision, no need to check another tool. This helps the CFO make informed calls instantly.
  
  
• Automated Escalation & Notifications: If an approver doesn’t act within a set time, Flex triggers automatic reminders or escalates to all approvers to avoid delays.
  
  
• Scalable Policy Management: As the company grows, the team can adjust thresholds, add new approvers, or apply workflows by region or business unit, all without disrupting operations.
  
  

Flex Finance approval workflow solution is powerful and clearly defines who approves what, and when. Businesses of all sizes use Flex to reduce approval friction, strengthen accountability, and ensure their workflows scale with them.

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Approval Workflow Templates by Org Size

Small Businesses (1–20 Employees)

Small businesses typically operate with a flat hierarchy, where communication is fast, informal, and highly collaborative. With limited staff and lean operations, there are fewer decision-making layers, often with the founder or CEO acting as the main approver for financial or budget-related requests.

Key traits of small business structure:

• Minimal departmental separation
  
  
• High-touch leadership involvement
  
  
• Flexible decision-making with quick turnarounds
  
  

Suggested Workflow

For small teams, the most effective approval workflows are simple, direct, and low-friction. A single-approver system where requests are reviewed by a direct manager or the CEO ensures oversight without introducing unnecessary complexity. There’s typically no need for multi-tiered approvals, but some guardrails still help maintain control.

How Flex Finance supports small business workflows:

• Lightweight Request Submission: Employees can submit expense requests via Flex’s user-friendly web interface or mobile app perfect for teams without formal procurement systems.
  
  
• Simple Threshold Rules: Configure a basic spending rule with instant notifications sent to keep things moving.
  
  
• Real-Time Approval Tracking: Flex shows live request statuses and sends reminders to approvers, helping small teams stay organized without micromanagement.
  
  
• Expense Visibility at a Glance: The intuitive dashboard gives founders and managers clear oversight of spending across the business, no spreadsheets required.
  
  
• Room to Scale: As the team grows, Flex allows you to easily add new approvers, budget controls, or categories without overhauling the workflow.
  
  

Flex Finance gives small businesses the ability to stay nimble while still maintaining financial discipline, making it easy to grow without losing control of expenses.

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Medium-Sized Companies (21–200 Employees)

Medium-sized companies operate with well-defined departmental structures and a growing focus on financial governance. Department heads manage budgets, while a dedicated finance team ensures compliance, reporting, and internal policy enforcement. Decision-making remains fairly agile, but the volume and complexity of spend require structured approval workflows.

Key traits:

• Clear departmental ownership of budgets
  
  
• Finance involved in approvals and audit processes
  
  
• Higher transaction volume and financial accountability
  
  

Suggested Workflow

The ideal workflow here introduces tiered approvals that balance speed and accountability, ensuring every expense gets the right level of scrutiny without unnecessary delays.

Typical 4-step approval structure:

1. Employee submits request
   
   
2. Manager reviews for context and team relevance
   
   
3. Department head checks for budget alignment
   
   
4. Finance signs off if amount exceeds a threshold
   
   

Threshold-Based Example Setup:

• Under ₦400,000: Manager-only approval
  
  
• ₦400,000–₦800,000: Department head approval
  
  
• Above ₦800,000: Finance approval required
  
  

How Flex Finance Supports Medium-Sized Workflows

• Multi-Level Approval Chains: Easily build tiered approval flows using Flex’s intuitive rules engine. You can assign different approvers at each threshold and automate routing based on spend category or department.
  
  
• Dynamic Threshold Logic: Set conditional rules to enable smart, context-aware routing that evolves with your policies.
  
  
• Automated Tracking and Reminders: Flex tracks every approval in real-time and sends automated alerts if an approver delays, helping you avoid bottlenecks and maintain momentum.
  
  
• Audit-Ready Records: Each approval action is time-stamped and logged, making audits simple and policy enforcement airtight.
  
  
• Integrated Budget Controls: Department heads can monitor budget impact mid-approval, reducing overspending and improving alignment with financial goals.
  
  

This structure, powered by Flex Finance, ensures growing companies maintain financial discipline, support cross-team collaboration, and scale their approval processes without friction.

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Large Enterprises (200+ Employees)

Large enterprises operate across multiple business units, geographies, and cost centers, with intricate reporting structures and strict regulatory obligations. These organizations rely on fully staffed finance and procurement departments with dedicated roles for compliance, risk management, and process optimization. At this scale, standardized, auditable, and automated workflows are not optional, they’re critical.

Key traits:

• Complex, multi-layered org charts with specialized teams
  
  
• Mix of centralized and decentralized approvals depending on spend type
  
  
• High transaction volume demanding automation and oversight
  
  

Suggested Workflow

For enterprises, role-based and policy-driven workflows are essential. Flex Finance enables workflows tailored by employee role, business unit, spend category, and corporate policy, all while maintaining visibility and control.

Typical approval path:

1. Requester submits an expense or procurement request via Flex or connected enterprise system
   
   
2. Routed to Project Lead or Department Manager for operational validation
   
   
3. Escalated to a Finance Analyst for budget check and GL code validation
   
   
4. Passed to Procurement for vendor verification and contract compliance
   
   
5. Final sign-off by a Controller or Senior Finance Officer for high-value or strategic spend
   
   

How Flex Finance Supports Large Enterprise Workflows

• Role-Based Routing: Configure complex flows that route based on role, department, project code, or even vendor category, perfect for matrixed orgs with varying responsibilities.
  
  
• Policy Automation: Automate approvals using conditions like GL codes, vendor types, spend thresholds, and budget allocations, Flex applies your internal controls automatically.
  
  
• ERP & Tool Integrations: Flex integrates with enterprise tools like Sage, Xero, Quickbooks to sync vendor data, budget info, and accounting records seamlessly.
  
  
• Compliance & Audit Trail: Every action in the workflow is logged with a full digital trail, ideal for internal audits, compliance reporting, and regulatory readiness.
  
  
• Delegation & Backup Rules: Flex lets you set backup approvers, delegation rules for out-of-office execs, and region-specific workflows, all while keeping global standards intact.
  
  

Flex Finance helps large organizations streamline approval complexity, enforce policies at scale, and remain agile in a high-compliance environment. It's purpose-built for businesses where governance, automation, and accountability must co-exist.

Best Practices for Designing Workflows

Aligning with Business Goals

Every approval workflow should be designed with your organization’s strategic objectives in mind. Whether the goal is to reduce costs, improve agility, or strengthen compliance, the structure of your workflow should reflect those priorities.

Examples:

• For a fast-growing startup, speed may take precedence, favoring lean, automated approvals.
  
  
• For a regulated enterprise, risk mitigation might be key, necessitating multi-layered reviews and strict documentation.
  
  

Use Flex Finance to periodically review workflows to ensure they still align with shifting business goals, especially during growth or restructuring phases.

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Keeping it Simple Yet Scalable

A good approval workflow is easy to follow today and adaptable tomorrow. Overly complex systems can frustrate users and slow down decisions, while underdeveloped ones may break under pressure as your team grows.

Best practices:

• Use clear threshold-based rules (e.g., under N100,000 = manager approval only)
  
  
• Define roles and escalation paths up front
  
  
• Start with minimal viable controls, then scale based on transaction volume or headcount
  
  
• Avoid one-size-fits-all workflows across departments with vastly different needs
  
  

The scalability of Flex Finance ensures that workflows evolve with your business without requiring total redesign.

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Ensuring Transparency and Auditability

A workflow must provide visibility at every stage, not just for approvers, but for requesters, finance teams, and auditors. This transparency reduces friction, helps avoid duplication, and supports compliance.

Key elements:

• Real-time status tracking for each approval request
  
  
• Automatically logged actions (who approved what and when)
  
  
• Exportable audit trails for financial or compliance reviews
  
  
• Role-based access to approval histories and spend reports
  
  

Flex Finance’s transparent workflows build trust across teams and make financial reporting more reliable.

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Leveraging Technology

Modern tools can dramatically improve the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of approval workflows. Here’s how to make technology work for you:

Approval Automation Tools

A solution like Flex Finance allows you to set up logic-based workflows that route requests to the right approver based on department, spend category, or budget owner.

Mobile-First Approvals

Give decision-makers the ability to review and approve requests from their mobile devices. This ensures faster turnarounds, especially for remote or traveling executives.

Real-Time Notifications

Use push notifications or email alerts to keep all stakeholders informed the moment action is required to reduce delays and bottlenecks.

Integration with Accounting Systems

Connect approval workflows to tools like QuickBooks, Xero, or Sage so that approved expenses automatically sync with your financial records. This reduces manual entry, prevents errors, and speeds up month-end close.

Flex Finance embraces these best practices and has integrated it into its approval workflow solution for efficiency and scalability.

Getting Started with Flex Finance

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If you're looking to streamline your approval workflows in 2025, Flex Finance is the best tool built to give you full visibility and control. Designed for modern businesses, especially remote and distributed teams. Flex makes it easy to create automated, policy-driven approval processes that reduce delays and prevent overspending.

Once you sign up with Flex Finance, here’s how to get started:

• Set Up Your Business Account: Begin by registering your company profile to unlock workflow customization features.
  
  
• Define Approval Chains: Create approval hierarchies based on your org size—e.g., team lead → department head → finance—for smarter routing of requests.
  
  
• Assign Roles and Permissions: Customize approver roles per department, project, or budget owner to ensure accountability without micromanagement.
  
  
• Automate Thresholds and Rules: Configure approval workflows based on spend amount, general ledger (GL) category, or vendor type, so small purchases move fast and large ones get proper scrutiny.
  
  
• Enable Real-Time Alerts: Flex sends instant notifications to approvers, reducing delays and making sure no request falls through the cracks.
  
  
• Integrate with Your Accounting Stack: Connect Flex Finance to tools like QuickBooks, Xero, or Sage for seamless reconciliation and audit-ready records.
  
  

With Flex Finance, your approval process becomes automated, scalable, and transparent, saving your team time while maintaining complete control over business spend.

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Final Thoughts

In 2025, having a streamlined approval workflow is essential for maintaining financial control and operational efficiency. Whether you're managing spend across multiple teams, locations, or projects, a well-structured workflow eliminates delays, improves accountability, and reduces the risk of unauthorized expenses.

With Flex Finance, you can:

• Monitor approvals in real time with automated routing and status tracking
  
  
• Enforce policy compliance with customizable rules and audit logs
  
  
• Scale confidently by adapting workflows as your team or budget grows
  
  

If you're ready to bring speed, structure, and clarity to your business spending, Start building smarter approval workflows with Flex Finance today.

Sign Up Now!

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