Approva

Self-hosted purchase approvals for finance teams and cost-center owners: a request needs one, two or three sign-offs by amount, you can name who signs each one, and the rule that applied is frozen on the record at submission.

The problem it solves

A self-hosted purchase order approval system is a strangely hard thing to buy: procurement SaaS starts at per-user monthly pricing built for enterprises, and the free alternative is email-the-manager-and-hope. Approva is $99 once — amount-based approval chains, numbered POs, plain PHP on shared hosting, and an audit trail finance can actually open.

Someone in your team wants to buy something. Right now that "approval" is a Slack message and a forwarded email, and the first time finance hears about it is when the invoice arrives. Small and mid-sized organizations that have outgrown "email the manager" still lack a repeatable requisition-to-approval-to-purchase-order flow with an audit trail, without buying and configuring a full ERP.

• No threshold-based rule for who must approve a purchase
• No append-only trail of who approved what, when, and why
• Nothing to turn an approved request into a numbered purchase order

Every feature

• Per-cost-center approval rules. Marketing can need two signatures at €250 while the company rule starts at €1,000 — same engine, same audit trail, just a different threshold list per center. Blank means inherit, never "one signature is enough".
• The rule is frozen on the record. Required approvals are locked at submission and named on the request. Tighten a threshold tomorrow and every request already raised keeps the rule it was raised under — an auditor sees the rule that was in force, not today's.
• The requester hears the decision. On final approval or rejection, the person who raised the request gets one email — reference, total, the rule that applied, who decided and their note. Off by default, sent through your own SMTP, and a mail failure never undoes a recorded decision.
• Amount-based approval routing. A request needs one, two or three sign-offs based on thresholds you set — and, if you switch it on, each person who can sign is emailed — and nothing becomes a PO until fully approved.
• Full approval audit trail. Every request carries an append-only activity log and approval trail, exportable to CSV or JSON at any time.
• Numbered PO generation. One click on a fully approved request generates a sequential, unique PO number and a printable purchase order.
• Integer-cent money math. Totals are kept in integer cents throughout, with fractional quantities supported and correctly rounded.
• Two-minute self-hosted install. Installs through a web form on PHP 8.1+ and MySQL or SQLite, with no Composer and no Node; only the optional scheduled backup uses a cron line.
• REST API + signed webhooks. Bearer-key API with the same role guards as the UI, HMAC-signed webhooks on submit/approve/reject/PO, and an OpenAPI spec that imports straight into Power Automate as a custom connector.
• Installable mobile app (PWA). Add it to a phone or tablet home screen straight from the browser — a full-screen app served from your own server, with no app store involved. Business data is not stored offline on the device; what you see is read live.
• Name who signs each step. Per cost center, name the person or people for each level, in order: the Marketing lead, then Finance, then a director. Only they, or their delegate while they are away, can sign that level; a level with nobody named is open to every approver. Each request keeps the steps it was submitted under.
• Budgets, receiving and sending the PO. A budget per cost center (month, quarter or year) with an over-budget flag the approvers see; goods received recorded against each PO line, part deliveries included; and the PO emailed to the vendor from its page, off until you switch it on.
• Approvers are asked, step by step. Each level's people are emailed in turn as the level before is signed, in their own Slack, Google Chat, Teams or Discord channel too if they add one, and an optional morning digest lists everything waiting on each approver.
• Updates from inside the app. The Updates page installs a new release with your license key: Ownware's signature is checked, a backup is taken first, and the app puts the previous version back by itself if the update is interrupted or the database step or start-up check of the new version fails. It never checks by itself.
• Backups by themselves. Automatic backups, an optional copy to S3-compatible storage you own, and a weekly check that the latest backup reads back. The Health page names anything that needs attention.
• Own It 4.0.1 — fixes and an up-to-date manual. For Approva, 4.0.1 fixes an installer that had lost its styling, a rollback that a page opened during an update could stop and a command-line update that ended in an error after putting the previous version back. Its manual, FAQ and QUICKSTART now cover everything 4.0 added, including two Nginx rules that keep the data folder private. Your license covers it: press Check for updates on the Updates page, or download it from your order page.
• Own It 4.0.2 — the installer opens on every host. For Approva, 4.0.2 fixes a fresh install on an Apache host: the one-page setup at /install/ looped back to itself and never opened, and now it opens. Approva's Docker image also gives the web server the whole app folder, so a Docker install can finish and update itself. Your license covers it: press Check for updates on the Updates page, or download it from your order page.

Release notes in full

• Own It 4.1: client installations and your other tools. For Approva, 4.1 makes two changes that every app gets. An Extended license bought from October 4, 2026 covers up to ten client installations, one per client project: hand each one over to the client or host it for them, with the client's logo and colors from the app's branding settings. The API reference now shows how to connect Approva to Zapier, Make or n8n, using its own webhooks and API key. Your license covers the update: press Check for updates on the Updates page, or download it from your order page.
• Own It 4.0: it updates and backs itself up. For Approva, 4.0 means updates from inside the app: the Updates page checks for a new release with your license key, verifies Ownware's signature, takes a backup and puts the previous version back by itself if the update is interrupted or the database step or start-up check of the new version fails. A new install can start with a sample business and remove it in one click; backups run by themselves, with an optional offsite copy and a weekly check that the latest one reads back; and the Health page says whether the install is looking after itself.
• Own It 3.2: the right people sign, in order. This release made the approval chain yours: for each cost center you name who signs each level, in order, and each level's people are asked in turn by email, and in their own Slack, Google Chat, Teams or Discord channel too if they add one. A budget per cost center flags a request that goes over, and goods received are recorded against each PO line. The PO can be emailed to the vendor from its page, off until you switch it on.
• Own It 3.1: it writes to the people you serve. The 3.1 wave gave the catalog a way to reach the other side of the transaction: counterparty email through your own SMTP server, calendar feeds your own calendar subscribes to, attachments filed where the paperwork belongs, and export presets other people's software imports. Each outbound feature ships switched off and runs on your own credentials; a failed send is recorded, and the action that triggered it stands. What this app gained is listed at the top of this section.
• Own It 3.0: works for your AI, not just for you. Approva 3.0 adds an MCP endpoint, so Claude, ChatGPT agents or n8n can list requests, raise them and record approvals through the same guards a person faces — and deliberately cannot cut a purchase order.
• Own It 2.0: API, 2FA, backups, dark mode. Approva 2.0 adds the 2.0 owner layer. Upgrade by replacing the files — the database migrates itself, and it is still the same one-time purchase.