The people who know what hydraulic part a machine needs are rarely the people who are allowed to buy it. The tech on the floor knows the hose is a #12 four-spiral with a 45-degree end. The maintenance manager or the buyer has the authority to spend money. That gap is why so many orders go through a slow chain of emails, or skip the chain and land on a company credit card.
The app lets the techs order and the managers stay in control.
Managers approve, budgets hold
Each user on an account can be set up with the right level of control. Here is how it works:
- A user can be marked as a manager for the account.
- An account can have a monthly budget. Leave it blank for no limit.
- With approval required turned on, every order goes to the manager first.
- With it turned off, only orders that push the calendar month past the budget are held.
- Either way, the held order goes to the account's manager by email and text, with approve and decline buttons.
That means a second-shift tech can scan the bin label for a pressure filter element and place the order. If it fits the month's budget, it goes through. If not, the manager gets a text and approves it from his phone. Nobody needs to find a PO number at 11 p.m.
You can also set what each user can do. Some accounts should be able to order; others should only request quotes. Quotes-only mode suits a plant where engineering can ask for prices on a new valve but purchasing does the buying.
Master accounts for multi-plant customers
A company with three plants, or a contractor with yards in two states, does not want three separate setups. A master account holds the price file, the customer's part numbers and the terms for all its locations. No orders are placed on the master. Each location inherits its price file, discount and part-number cross references, and anything set on the location itself overrides the master.
That matters in hydraulics because big customers standardize. If the corporate maintenance team says every plant uses one hose line and one brand of quick disconnect, you set it on the master and it applies everywhere. You can also block an item on the master and name what they should order instead. The buyer is told at checkout. Every location underneath follows the rule.
Bins work the same way. Load every bin on the master and tag each with the location's account number. Each location sees only its own bins, while the corporate team sees the full picture.
Why it matters to you
Approval chains are often why big accounts stay on the phone. Once the customer trusts that budgets and approvals hold, they let more people order directly, which means more orders through the app and fewer through your counter. And a master account setup is a lot harder for a competitor to undo than a single price sheet.
Set this up with the customer, not for them. Sit down with the maintenance manager and the buyer, agree who approves what and at what budget, and make sure both have the app on their phones. Once they see a held order arrive as a text with an approve button, the setup sells itself to the rest of their team.
For an account big enough, you can even give them the app under their own name and logo through private label, while they keep ordering from you.
Want to walk through it with your own accounts? Book a demo.