New hire equipment ordering with standard kits
Save what every new starter gets as a standard kit and give it a ceiling. A buyer requests the kit, and at or under the ceiling Atta orders it without waiting for a sign-off. Over the ceiling it goes to your approvers. A kit never skips the team's budget or the buyer's role.
A kit and its ceiling
An admin builds the kit once: the lines, quantities and a ceiling in dollars. Say the engineering starter kit is a laptop, a monitor, a keyboard, a mouse and a headset, and the admin sets the ceiling at $2,400.
Priya (buyer): New starter on Monday, Ana. Engineering kit, please.
Atta: The engineering kit comes to $2,270 at today's prices, under its $2,400 ceiling. Shipping to the Austin office, arriving Friday. Ordering.
Atta: Ordered. $2,270 is committed against the Engineering budget.
Nobody signed off, because the kit's ceiling stands in for the approval. The kit shows its total against the ceiling and how often it gets requested.
What the ceiling does and doesn't skip
The ceiling is one input to the approval policy, and it's checked last. In order:
- The hard caps run first.
- Then the team's budget: is there $2,270 left?
- Then the role: may Priya check out at all?
- Only after those, a kit at or under its ceiling is pre-approved.
So a kit never gets around a team's budget or what someone's role allows. A viewer can't order a kit. A buyer with $1,500 left in the Engineering budget gets asked, or refused, the same as with any other purchase.
When prices move
The ceiling is compared with the total at the time of the request, not the total when the kit was saved. If the laptop went up and the kit now comes to $2,520, it's over the $2,400 ceiling and the request goes to the approvers like any other purchase over what a buyer can approve alone. The approver sees both figures.
An approval binds to the amount and the lines. If the cart changes after approval, the order fails and says what changed.
Building kits
- One kit per role or department: engineering, sales, support.
- Each kit holds ordinary lines, so a monitor can be swapped for another model by editing the kit.
- The ceiling is the admin's to set. A buyer can't raise it.
Delivery
Once ordered, the order is tracked from the store and carrier like any other.
Reading the numbers
Each kit page shows its total against the ceiling and a count of how often it has been requested. If a kit sits near its ceiling, a small price rise tips it into approval, so leave headroom when you set one. An admin can edit the lines or the ceiling at any time, and the next request uses the new values.
Where it fits
It suits a team that hires a few people a month and orders the same bundle each time. For hardware that varies by person, see IT equipment, where larger amounts go through approval chains.
Atta is in invite-only beta and free during the beta.
Questions
Does a kit skip approvals?
A kit at or under its ceiling skips the sign-off, after the caps, the team's budget and the buyer's role have all passed. Over the ceiling it goes to your approvers as usual.
Who sets the ceiling?
An admin. A buyer can request the kit but can't change its ceiling.
What happens if prices go up after the kit is saved?
The ceiling is checked against the total at request time. If the kit now costs more than the ceiling, the request goes to the approvers with both figures.
Can a viewer order a kit?
No. The kit only pre-approves for a role that may check out. A role without checkout can still ask, and it becomes a request someone else answers.
Related
- Purchase approval softwareSet approval limits per role and build approval chains by amount. Approvers answer from Slack, WhatsApp or the app, and nothing is paid until the last step clears.
- IT equipment purchasing for a teamOrder laptops, monitors and peripherals by asking in chat. Small orders go through on a buyer's yes, and bigger amounts walk an approval chain first.
- Spend management softwareA budget reserves money at checkout and settles it on payment. Released if the order is cancelled or abandoned. One currency per budget, no double counting.