What Are Approval Thresholds and How to Configure Them
Approval thresholds are rules that decide who has authority to approve a request based on criteria like value, cost center, or department. Instead of every payment landing on the same manager's desk, the request is routed automatically to whoever holds authority over that specific spend.
Why companies need approval thresholds
Most growing companies start with an informal process: someone sends a message, a manager says yes, and the payment gets posted. It works until volume grows and nobody can tell who approved what.
- Approval bottlenecks — one person becomes the single point of failure for every request
- No audit trail of who approved a given expense and when
- Requests posted directly to the ERP with no review step
- Spend by cost center invisible until month-end closing
- Approvers with no context, approving blind
How approval routing actually works
| Routing criteria | What it decides | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| By value | Which hierarchy level must sign off | Up to $1k: coordinator. Above that: director |
| By cost center | Which manager owns that budget | IT requests route to the IT lead |
| By company | Which legal entity the request belongs to | Groups running multiple registered companies |
| By category | Which specialist reviews it | Legal reviews contracts, finance reviews payments |
How to configure approval thresholds in Jestor
In Jestor, the threshold is defined by the field you choose to drive the routing — most often the cost center, since each cost center already has a responsible owner attached to it.
- Create the request form with the fields the approver needs: title, description, value, cost center, company, category, supplier, and due date.
- Register each cost center with its responsible person, so the platform knows who receives the request.
- Send new requests into an approval queue instead of straight to the financial system.
- Use a Kanban board where each card carries everything needed to approve or reject.
- Add a dashboard tracking pending, approved, and rejected requests.
Why choose Jestor for approval workflows?
Jestor treats approvals as an operational process rather than a checkbox: every request becomes a record with history, chat, attachments, and phase tracking. Approvers see full context inside the card, and finance sees approved value per cost center without waiting for a spreadsheet consolidation.
For teams already running an ERP, Jestor works as a complement — the ERP keeps the accounting and fiscal layer, and Jestor covers the approval step that sits before it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between an approval threshold and an approval workflow?
The threshold defines who has authority; the workflow defines the path a request travels. Learn more at jestor.com.
Can a request have more than one approver?
Yes — requests can pass through multiple phases, each with its own responsible approver.
Do I need a developer to set this up?
No. The form, routing, and board are configured visually, without code.
Video Tutorial: Step by Step
Check out other practical tutorials on the Jestor YouTube channel.
Get to know Jestor
With Jestor, you can automate workflows, connect teams, and build internal systems your way — all without code and powered by AI. Discover Jestor at jestor.com and see how to take your company's operations to a new level of efficiency and control.