Audience: Budget owners, procurement administrators, approvers, and requesters using an approved AIP
An Approval in Principle (AIP) pre-approves a spending budget, so that purchasing against it later can move faster and stay inside agreed limits.
What an AIP gives you
Once an AIP is approved, a purchase request can be raised From Approved AIP. That draws on the pre-approved allocation with its predefined items, vendors and spend limits, which is why it is the recommended and budget-controlled route.
Creating one
Go to Procurement → Approval In Principle.
Select Create AIP.
Set the allocation, the items and vendors it covers, and the spend limits.
Submit it for approval.
Tracking approvals and consumption
The page shows four figures:
Total Approved Amount — the value approved in principle.
Total Consumed Amount — how much has since been drawn down.
Pending AIPs — awaiting approval.
Approved AIPs — live and available to draw against.
The gap between approved and consumed is your remaining headroom. Use Overview for all records and Action Required for anything waiting on you.
Note: Approval In Principle is the one Procurement page employees can see, because they need it to raise budget-controlled purchase requests.
Before you start
Creating an AIP is a controlled procurement action. In the standard Employee (Requester) profile, the AIP page is visible for reference but the Create AIP button is not available. A user with AIP-creation permission must confirm the planned amount, validity period, financial type, request category, and any line-item or supporting-document requirements.
Complete the live AIP form
Open Procurement → Approval In Principle and select Create AIP . Enter the title, financial type, request category, estimated amount, valid-from date, and valid-until date. Add a description and any supporting PDF, XLSX, or DOCX file up to 20 MB per file. Optionally add line items from inventory or as new lines, including category, project, vendor, quantity, unit price, discount, and tax. Review the summary and completeness indicator, then submit for approval.
After approval, a requester can select From Approved AIP while creating a purchase request. Monitor consumed amount against approved amount so the allocation is not overcommitted.
Need help? If the page, field, or approval action is missing, confirm the active organisation and ask an administrator to check your role and permissions. Quote the record reference when contacting support.