A budget answers whether spending remains within a defined amount. An approval answers whether a person accepts a specific purchase. They are related, but they are not interchangeable.
SoftwareSilo provides both as optional add-ons for Sublogin. This keeps them outside the base extension and lets a merchant implement one control or combine both.
What a budget can control
The Budget add-on supports limits per order, day, month, or year. Budgets can be assigned to customers or sublogins, calculated from subtotal or grand total, and limited to selected order statuses. That last setting matters when cancelled or failed orders should not consume purchasing capacity.
A company may use a monthly amount for a department and a lower per-order ceiling for an individual buyer. The policy should state what happens when no budget remains. One option is to prevent the purchase. Another is to route the case into approval when that behavior is configured.
The separate One-Time Budget add-on covers an exceptional purchase limit. While active, it takes precedence over the recurring limits and deactivates after the first applicable order. This is useful for a project purchase, but it should not be described as part of the standard Budget add-on.
What order approval adds
Order Approval creates review states for Magento orders. An authorized person can approve or decline, with comments, notifications, and administrative actions supporting the process. Together with the Roles add-on, responsibility can be assigned more precisely.
Approval is valuable when amount alone is not enough. A low-value order may still require review because it contains a restricted category, unusual quantity, or delivery address. Conversely, a routine replenishment within budget may not need manual intervention.
A practical combined policy
| Situation | Suggested handling |
|---|---|
| Routine order within limit | Allow normal checkout |
| Order exceeds buyer's limit | Send to approval or block, according to policy |
| Exceptional project purchase | Assign a one-time budget and document the reason |
| No suitable approver available | Define delegation before it happens |
| Declined order | Preserve the reason and tell the buyer what to change |
Do not begin with a maze of approval levels. First implement the decisions the organisation already makes. Add complexity only when a real exception cannot be handled clearly.
Questions to settle before configuration
- Is the limit based on subtotal or grand total?
- Which order statuses consume the budget?
- Does a cancelled order restore capacity?
- Who may approve, decline, or edit a pending order?
- What happens during absence or staff turnover?
- Which identifiers and states must reach the ERP?
- Which emails go to the buyer, approver, main account, and store team?
Test a normal order, an exact-limit order, an exceeded limit, a decline, an approval, and a cancellation. Reports and notifications should tell the same story as the storefront.
Related reading
Last reviewed: August 9, 2026.