Invoice approval BPMN diagram example

Invoice approval is a classic BPMN example of threshold-based routing — the path an invoice takes depends on its amount and whether approvers sign off.

The process in plain English

An employee submits an invoice. Finance validates it against the purchase order. Small invoices need one manager's approval; larger ones need finance-director sign-off too. Approved invoices are scheduled for payment; rejected ones go back to the submitter with a reason.

Steps and their BPMN elements

Step	BPMN element	Lane
Invoice submitted	Start event	Employee
Validate against PO	User task	Finance
Amount over threshold?	Exclusive gateway	Finance
Manager approval	User task	Manager
Director approval (large only)	User task	Director
Approved?	Exclusive gateway	—
Schedule payment	Service task	Finance
Return with reason	User task	Finance
Invoice paid	End event	—
Invoice rejected	End event	—

Key modelling points

• The amount-over-threshold gateway is the heart of the model — label the branches with the actual thresholds.
• A second approved? gateway handles the reject loop back to the submitter.
• Keep validation as a distinct user task; don't fold the decision into the gateway (a common mistake).

Generate your own invoice approval diagram

Tell BPMN Studio your approval thresholds and approvers, and get a valid BPMN 2.0 diagram to edit and export. More templates · gateways explained.