New buying policies and approvals hub

We consolidated all buying policies and approval workflows so customers can now view, manage, and set up all policies and approval requirements in one place.
Release Date: 27 April 2020
Last Updated: 27 April 2020

There are several types of policies account administrators can set up to encourage their employees to order items in accordance with the organization’s policies. Previously, to set up and manage these policies the administrators would have to visit 3 different locations on Amazon Business: Guided Buying*, Tax & Debarment policies, and Approvals. We have now consolidated all policy types in one place, making policy management more efficient. 

 

What’s included in buying policies and approvals

 

Seller policies:

  • Restrict or block sellers not participating in Amazon’s Tax Exemption Program
  • Restrict or block debarred sellers
  • Prefer select sellers including small and diverse businesses*

 

Product policies:

  • Restrict or block product categories employees should avoid*
  • Create a preferred list of products for employees to buy* 

 

Order policies:

  • Restrict all orders or orders over a set spending limit  

 

Approvals: 

  • Add an approval workflow onto any restricted policy listed above

 

*Available to Business Prime Small, Medium, and Enterprise customers only

 

 

More approval customization
Administrators were only able to apply an approval based on 3 triggers in the past: all orders, orders over a certain spending limit, or all restricted orders. Now, we’re offering more flexibility with restricted orders. An organization can a) choose to require a specific approval workflow for each individual restricted item policy instead of having the same approval workflow for all restricted item; b) use approval workflows for other restricted buying policies such as debarred sellers and tax exemptions.

Apply approvals and policies across groups
Previously, an approval workflow could be set up for a group but this workflow did not carry over to the subgroups. Administrators had to set up approval workflows separately for each subgroup. Now administrators have an option to apply an approval workflow to a group and all of its subgroups at once making it easier and quicker to define policies across the organization.

Learn more about buying policies and approvals.

Create buying policies and approvals.