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Expense Approvals and Purchase Orders

Expense Approvals and Purchase Orders

Oct 10, 2025

Approval Methods

EMU requires written approval for any expense to be paid with university funds. Acceptable approval methods include original handwritten signatures, electronic signatures through an approved signature software (AdobeSign or PandaDoc), or an email message from the approver. Unacceptable approval methods include verbal approval, copied and pasted signatures, and signatures typed into a document without the use of approved signature software. These requirements exist so that the business office can verify and prove to auditors that the proper reviewers have approved the expenses.

Approvers must also disclose any potential conflict of interest with the vendor or transaction and abstain from approving in such cases.

Approval Limits and Purchase Orders

Effective February 1, 2024, program directors may approve individual expenses up to $5,000. Directors may delegate approval authority to others within their programs by emailing accounts.payable@emu.edu to provide the name of the person who may approve expenses and the limit on individual expenses that the delegate may approve.

Delegations must (a) be documented in a central log maintained by the Business Office, (b) specify an expiration date not to exceed one fiscal year, and (c) be re-approved annually. Delegated authority may be revoked at any time by the director or the Business Office.

If a Program Director initiates an expense request, a secondary approval from an independent reviewer (such as the Division Head or Controller) is required when either of the following conditions is met:

  • The cumulative expenses initiated by that Director with a single vendor reach $10,000 or more in a fiscal year, or
  • The amount of a single purchase is $10,000 or more.

Purchase Orders

Purchase orders are required for any order over $5,000, to obtain pre-approval from the program director and any other necessary approvers. Purchase orders are routed electronically through PandaDoc, and should be requested by emailing accounts.payable@emu.edu. If other people should be able to view the progress of the PO, but do not need to sign the PO, please provide their names and email addresses. Please include as an attachment any supporting documentation (quotes, estimates, etc.) that should accompany the purchase order.

All purchase orders must include a “Business Purpose” statement explaining how the expenditure supports EMU’s mission, program goals, or budget justification.

Note that reviewers may decline to approve the purchase order if sufficient justification for the purchase is not included.

Purchase Order Creation and Routing

The business office will create a purchase order through PandaDoc (EMU’s electronic document routing/approval software). The requester will receive an email message from PandaDoc with a link to edit the document. When the document is opened, the software will direct the requester to fill out several sections of the document including:

  • Vendor Name and Address
  • Ship To: name and contact information for the vendor’s EMU contact
  • Description: a short description of the goods or services needed
  • Account Number: the internal EMU account to be charged for the goods or services
  • Project Code: an optional field, mainly used for capital expenses
  • Unit Price and Quantity (optional)
  • Total Price
  • Purchase Order Total

Once routing begins in PandaDoc, key fields (vendor name, account number, and total amount) will be locked. Any changes to these fields must restart the approval process to preserve audit integrity.

When the requester is finished entering information in the purchase order and clicks the “Finish” button, the document will automatically be forwarded by email to the necessary reviewers for electronic signatures, using the following approval levels:

  • $0 - $5,000 – Program Director
  • $5,001 - $25,000 – Division Head (Dean or VP) and Controller
  • $25,001 and over – VP for Finance, President or Provost, and Controller

All capital expenditures over $5,000 must be approved by the respective division head and the VP for Finance. For this purpose, capital expenditure is defined as a purchase of furniture, fixtures, vehicles or equipment with an estimated useful life of one year or more and costing more than $5,000.

When all approvals for the purchase order have been granted, the business office assigns a purchase order number, and the document is complete. All requesters, signers, and other viewers will receive an emailed PDF copy of the completed purchase order.

Invoice Matching and Payment

When an invoice for the goods or services approved with the PO is received, please forward the invoice to the business office when delivery of goods or completion of services is confirmed. If the business office receives the invoice first, the requester will be contacted for confirmation that the invoice may be paid using approval from the PO.

For invoices greater than $5,000, a formal three-way match (PO, invoice, and receiving confirmation) is required before payment is released.

If an invoiced amount is higher than the amount approved with the purchase order, the invoice will not be processed until the difference has been resolved. The requester may need to reach out to the vendor to determine why the invoiced amount differs from the estimate that was approved. If the vendor shows that the goods or services provided were beyond the scope of the purchase order, a new PO must be completed to gain approval for the expense.

Revised 10/25