Approval Request Form Template
Updated on August 8, 2026
An approval request form is the record of someone asking for authority to commit the organisation to something, and of a named person deciding. It covers purchases and expenses, but also the approvals that never touch a purchase order: releasing a document, granting system access, discounting a deal, taking leave, publishing a statement, or waiving a policy. Its value is not the signature. It is that the decision, the reason, the limit it was made under, and any conditions attached all end up in one place that can be found again a year later.
This template replaces a source page that had no document at all — no description, no example, and a broken link to its own PDF. It is built instead around the things internal controls actually need: a defined request type, an amount tested against a budget line, an approver identified with the authority they hold, a decision that can be approve, approve with conditions, reject or refer upward, and a retention period so the record survives the person who signed it.
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Approval Request Form
- Reference:
- Date submitted:
- Type of request:
- Requester:
- ,
- Department:
- Required by:
1. Request
Business justification: Impact if this is not approved:
2. Financial Detail
- Amount requested:
- Recurring cost or term:
- Budget line or cost centre:
- Budget available:
- Supplier or payee:
Budget is available on the cost centre named above and this request is within the approved budget for the current period.
Alternatives considered:
This is a request to commit to a purchase or to engage a supplier. The supplier, the amount, any recurring cost or contract term and the alternatives considered are recorded above. Approval authorises the commitment described and does not authorise a change of supplier, an increase in value, or an extension of the term without a further approval.
3. Evidence Provided
The following documents were provided to the approver with this request:
4. Decision
- Approver:
- ,
- Authority limit for this category:
- Decision:
- Date of decision:
The request is approved as submitted, within the approver's authority limit shown above. The requester may proceed on the terms described in the request and no other.
The approver confirms that they are not the requester, have no personal interest in the outcome, and are approving within the authority delegated to their role. Where a conflict of interest exists, the request is escalated instead of approved.
5. Record
This approval is retained for and filed at , together with the attachments listed above, so that the decision, its basis and any conditions can be reconstructed later.
Only the personal information needed to make and evidence this decision is collected on this form. Supporting personal, medical or identity documents are not attached to it and are held separately under the organisation's data-protection arrangements.
Requester
Date:
Approver
Date:
Second approver (if required)
Date:
Delegated authority is the point of the form
Most organisations have a delegation of authority — a schedule saying who can commit how much, for what. A team lead may approve up to one threshold, a department head up to another, finance or the board above that. An approval form that does not record the approver's authority limit cannot tell you, later, whether the person who signed was allowed to.
So this template asks for it directly: the approver's role, the limit they hold for this category, and whether the amount requested falls inside it. Where it does not, the form routes to a second approver rather than pretending one signature was enough. The commonest control failure in small organisations is not fraud — it is a well-meaning manager approving something two tiers above their limit because the form never asked.
Separation of duties and the requester's own approval
The person who requests a spend should not be the person who approves it, and neither should be the only person who then processes the payment. The template builds that in by keeping the requester and approver blocks distinct, requiring the approver to be someone other than the requester, and providing an optional finance or compliance review step before the decision is recorded.
That optional step is worth using for anything with a downstream obligation: a subscription that auto-renews, a contract with a termination penalty, a payment to a new supplier, or a commitment that crosses a budget year. Those are the requests where the approver's real question is not "is this a good idea" but "what are we still paying for in eighteen months".
A decision is more than yes or no
Binary approval forms lose information. A great deal of real-world approval is conditional — yes, but only up to this amount; yes, if legal reviews the contract first; yes, but pay monthly rather than annually; yes, for a three-month trial. If the form has no place for conditions, those conditions live in an email thread and are forgotten at renewal.
This template offers four outcomes: approved, approved with conditions, rejected, and referred to a higher authority. Each writes different closing wording. Conditions and reasons are recorded as part of the document, so the reason for a rejection is available the next time someone asks for the same thing, and the conditions on an approval are attached to the thing that was approved.
Signatures, records and keeping the form lean
Electronic approval is normal, and in the United States a signature or record cannot be denied legal effect solely because it is in electronic form in transactions affecting interstate or foreign commerce. What matters for a control record is less the signature technology than the trail around it: who submitted, when, who approved, when, what version of the request they saw, and whether the stored record can be accurately reproduced later.
The template therefore records submission and decision dates separately, keeps an attachment list so the approver's evidence is identified rather than implied, and sets a retention period on the face of the document. Keep the form itself short. An approval form that asks for personal information it does not need — home addresses, dates of birth, health details in a leave request — creates a privacy problem in exchange for nothing. Ask for what the decision requires and no more.
Field-by-field guide
- Request reference and date
- A unique reference makes the approval findable from an invoice, a ticket or a contract file later. Submission date is kept separate from decision date.
- Request type
- Purchase, expense reimbursement, document or content sign-off, leave, system access, discount or exception, or other. The type drives what the approver needs to see.
- Description and business justification
- What is being asked for and why, including what happens if it is not approved. The justification is what a later reviewer reads, not the description.
- Amount, budget line and availability
- The value, the budget it comes from, and whether budget is available. An amount without a budget line is a decision made without the one fact that matters.
- Supplier and alternatives considered
- Who would be paid and what else was looked at. Turns a rubber-stamp into a decision, and is the first thing an auditor asks for.
- Attachments
- Lists the quote, contract, specification or policy the approver actually saw, so the evidence base for the decision is identified.
- Approver, role and authority limit
- Names the decision-maker, their role, and the limit they hold for this category — and routes upward when the request exceeds it.
- Finance or compliance review
- Optional pre-decision check for commitments with downstream cost, new suppliers, data-processing implications or contractual lock-in.
- Decision, conditions and reasons
- Approved, approved with conditions, rejected or referred — with the conditions or reasons captured on the form rather than in an email.
- Retention and record
- How long the approval is kept and where, so the record outlives the people and the mailbox it was created in.
Getting the control right
This is an internal document rather than a regulated one, but a few points have legal or audit consequences.
Match the form to your delegation of authority
Record the approver's authority limit for the category and require a second approver where the amount exceeds it. An approval given above the signer's limit is a control failure even if the decision was sensible.
Keep requester and approver separate
The person requesting should not approve their own request, and ideally should not also process the resulting payment. Build the separation into the form rather than relying on people to remember it.
Electronic signatures are effective, but the record has to survive
In transactions in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, a signature or record may not be denied legal effect solely because it is electronic. Where a record must be retained, an electronic record generally has to remain accessible and capable of accurate reproduction.
15 U.S.C. 7001 - general rule of validity for electronic records and signaturesCollect the minimum personal information
Leave, expense and access requests attract personal data quickly. Do not ask for medical details, home addresses or identity documents unless the decision genuinely needs them, and store what you do collect accordingly.
Set a retention period on the document
Tie retention to the underlying commitment: an approval supporting a contract or a tax-relevant expense is usually kept as long as the record it supports, not as long as the approver stays in the job.
Record conditions where the approval is conditional
Conditions attached in conversation are unenforceable in practice. Capture them on the form so they travel with the approval to renewal, audit or handover.
Check whether a sector rule applies to the specific approval
Public-sector procurement, grant-funded spend, regulated financial services and public-company financial reporting each impose their own approval and documentation requirements on top of an internal form. Confirm those before relying on this template alone.
How to use this approval request form
- Choose the request type. Select purchase, expense, document sign-off, leave, system access, discount or exception, and the document adjusts its wording.
- Describe the request and justify it. Say what is being asked for, why it is needed, and what happens if it is not approved.
- Add the amount, budget line and attachments. Enter the value, the budget it comes from, whether budget is available, and list the quote, contract or specification attached.
- Route it to the right approver. Name the approver, their role and their authority limit, and add a second approver or a finance review where the amount or risk requires it.
- Record the decision and file it. Select approved, approved with conditions, rejected or referred, add conditions or reasons, set the retention period, then download and store the signed record.
Frequently asked questions
What should an approval form contain as a minimum?
A unique reference, the requester and date, what is being requested and why, the amount and budget line, the attachments the approver saw, the approver and their authority limit, the decision with any conditions, and the decision date. Anything less and you cannot reconstruct the decision later.
Can the same person request and approve?
They should not. Separation between requesting, approving and paying is the basic control that stops errors and misuse. Where a very small team makes that impossible, escalate the approval to an owner, director or trustee rather than dropping the control quietly.
Is an electronic signature enough on an internal approval?
For internal purposes, generally yes — federal law provides that a signature or record is not denied legal effect solely because it is electronic in transactions affecting commerce. The practical requirement is a retained record that can be accurately reproduced, showing who approved what and when.
What is an authority limit and why record it on the form?
It is the maximum value or type of commitment a role may approve under your delegation of authority. Recording it turns the form into a check rather than a formality: if the request exceeds the limit, the form routes to a second approver instead of being signed by someone who was not entitled to sign it.
How do I handle a conditional approval?
Use the approve-with-conditions option and write the conditions on the form. Typical ones are a spending ceiling, monthly rather than annual payment, legal review of the contract before signature, or a trial period with a review date. Conditions left in an email do not survive the renewal cycle.
Can I use this form for leave and access requests too?
Yes, and that is the reason the request type is a selector rather than a heading. Keep the personal information minimal on those types — a leave request needs dates and cover arrangements, not medical detail, and an access request needs the system, role and business reason, not a justification of the person.
How long should approvals be kept?
Tie it to what the approval supports. An approval behind a tax-relevant expense or a multi-year contract is usually kept for as long as that underlying record, while a routine internal sign-off can go sooner. The template asks for the retention period so the answer is on the document instead of in someone's head.
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Disclaimer
This template and guide are for general information only and are not legal, audit, accounting or tax advice. Procurement, grant, financial-services and public-company rules can impose approval and documentation requirements beyond an internal form — check the ones that apply to you.
