## TL;DR

Stuck approvals delay payments and damage vendor relationships. Set SLAs by tier (e.g. 2 days under $10k, 5 days above), escalate automatically to the next level on breach, and report aging approvals weekly. The goal is visibility: most approvers act once they know something is waiting.

## Steps

1. Set SLA targets by approval tier.
   Expected: Clear expectations.
2. Auto-escalate on SLA breach.
   Expected: No silent stalls.
3. Send daily digests of pending approvals.
   Expected: Awareness.
4. Report aging weekly to finance leadership.
   Expected: Accountability.
5. Tune SLAs from actual data.
   Expected: Realistic targets.

## When to use

- Approval bottlenecks
- Late payment root causes
- Vendor complaints about slow payment

## When not to use

- Routing logic
- Threshold design
- Dispute resolution

## Compatibility

ERP workflows and AP tools.

## Variant phrasings

### invoice approval SLA

### stuck approval escalation

### approval aging report

## Root cause

Approvals are nobody's main job, so they slip without deadlines and visibility. SLAs plus escalation make the invisible visible.

## Edge cases

- Escalation should add oversight, not just nag the same person
- Genuine disputes pause the SLA clock; track separately
- Holiday periods need adjusted SLAs

## Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_rgx4krbSgrzgwYi9i7khpw