New purchases and renewals route through the right approver before money moves.

No more surprise charges from a tool nobody signed off on. Every request for a new subscription or a renewal decision goes through staged approval, with cost and justification visible at every step.

How staged approvals work

A request moves through each stage in order. Nothing gets purchased until every required approver has signed off.

1
HOD review

The requester’s department head sees the tool, the cost, and the stated business reason, and approves or rejects it for their team.

2
Finance review

Finance checks the cost against budget and existing spend, flags duplicates, and confirms the cost center before it moves forward.

3
IT / Procurement purchase

IT or Procurement runs any required security or vendor checks and completes the purchase or renewal.

4
Done

The tool lands in the subscription registry with an owner, cost, and renewal date already attached — no separate step to add it later.

Who approves what

Each approver reviews the part of the decision they’re responsible for — not the whole request.

HOD / Manager

Approves requests from their own team. Sees who’s asking, for what, and why it’s needed.

Finance & Ops

Approves against budget and existing spend. Sees cost, cost center, and how it compares to similar tools already in use.

IT & Procurement

Approves the purchase itself. Sees vendor, access requirements, and whether the tool overlaps with something already owned.

Every approver sees the full picture

No approval happens blind. Justification and cost travel with the request through every stage.

Business justification

The reason the requester gave for needing the tool, attached to the request from the start.

Cost and billing cycle

Exactly what it costs, monthly or annual, before anyone signs off.

Requester and department

Who is asking and which team the spend rolls up to.

Similar existing tools

Whether a tool doing the same job already exists elsewhere in the company.

Stop shadow IT before the charge, not after it

Most spend controls catch a rogue subscription months later, in a bank statement or an invoice. Approval routing catches it before the purchase happens — the request needs sign-off from HOD, Finance, and IT/Procurement before a card is charged, so unauthorized spend never gets the chance to start.

Put every purchase through the right approval.