Trusted supplier (Auto-approval) is a per-contact setting that skips the approval workflow completely. When you flag a supplier or customer contact as trusted for auto-approval, every document from that contact is approved instantly by the system - no stages, no approvers, no manual action.
How Trusted Supplier (auto-approval) works
Documents from a flagged contact bypass the workflow entirely, regardless of which workflow the folder uses. The system approves the document the moment it is submitted, without evaluating conditions, routing, or stages.
👉 What does a document approved this way look like?
It shows clear signals that no workflow ran:
Status: Approved
Decision recorded by: Approved by system - Trusted supplier
No approver checkmarks
Footer: "Approved by system · Trusted Supplier"
Turning on auto-approval for a Trusted Supplier
👉 Where do I turn on auto-approval (Trusted Supplier)?
Trusted Supplier (Auto-approval) is a per-supplier setting, not a folder or workflow setting. Turn it on or off for a contact from the document view, under Automation, without opening folder-level approval settings. Once enabled, every new document from that contact - in any folder with approval - is approved automatically by the system.
Note: Only folder admins can edit the Trusted Supplier setting.
Seeing which documents were auto-approved
There is no badge on the submit card and no separate "pill" for auto-approval, so it is not shown on the workflow match card when you submit manually.
👉 How can I tell a document was auto-approved?
You can identify it in three places:
On the document - the Approved by system decision and the footer "Approved automatically by the system - Trusted supplier"
In the audit trail - the automatic approval is recorded there.
In Approval settings - admins can see the full list of trusted suppliers with auto-approve on, the quickest way to audit which suppliers bypass the workflow.
The limit: it overrides everything
👉 Does auto-approval for a trusted supplier follow my approval workflow?
No. Auto-approval overrides routing entirely. It does not matter which workflow the folder uses, which conditions are set, or how many stages a path has - if the contact is flagged, the document is approved by the system and no workflow runs. Use it for contacts where approval adds no value, such as a recurring utility provider with fixed amounts and a consistent supplier match.
Frequently Asked Questions
👉 Can I still export a document that was auto-approved?
Yes. It has status Approved, so it exports normally. If you have auto-export enabled for your trusted suppliers, it also exports automatically after auto-approval. See Auto-export after approval.
👉 What if the document still needs review sometimes?
Disable the Trusted supplier toggle from the contact, and the document will route through the folder's normal workflow again. See How documents are routed.
👉 How does an approver know a document was auto-approved?
In the Approvals module it appears under Approved with Approved by system as the decision, the footer visible when opened, and no approver checkmarks. See Approving and rejecting documents for how a normal approved document looks in comparison.