Automate purchase requisitions: from informal requests to a traceable approval process

A colleague needs new hardware; a team needs a software licence. Requests arrive by email, Teams message or hallway conversation, sometimes with a cost centre and sometimes without. A manager receives the approval request in their inbox, while someone checks the budget on the phone in passing.

Purchasing then places orders with incomplete information. Later, it is difficult to establish who approved what and when. An internal audit or year-end closing triggers a search through old email threads.

The underlying issue is usually a missing workflow: nobody has defined the information a request must contain or who is authorised to decide above each amount threshold.

With swoox.io, every purchase requisition starts with a structured form. Need, cost centre and amount are mandatory fields, so all essential information is available from the start. The process validates the entries and routes the request according to fixed rules: below the threshold, one approval is enough; above it, a second person must also approve. Every decision is logged. Finally, Purchasing receives a complete purchase order with its approval history.

Technically, the workflow is a BPMN 2.0 process that business teams can read and adapt themselves. Amount thresholds, approval levels and form fields are configured without development. ERP or controlling systems are connected via interfaces during implementation.

If AI agents are added later—for example, to pre-qualify requests—they work within the same control framework. The process defines what an agent may do and where a person must decide.