Procurement approval times by function

2026 benchmarks: Which departmental requests face the most friction?

While internal approvals across several business functions broadly converge around an 8-day baseline, Vertice’s Q1 2026 data highlights notable variation in approval cycle times between departments.

The most significant friction in internal approvals is seen in Marketing and HR, where requests take an average of 11 days to be approved. This compares to just 4 days in the Data function, which represents the fastest approval pathway and likely reflects more streamlined internal approval processes.

This 7-day gap isn’t necessarily a reflection on the requesting teams, but rather the differences in internal approval workflows, governance layers and decision-making structures across functions.

Although internal approvals represent only one component of the end-to-end procurement cycle – currently averaging 72 days – reducing variability in this stage, particularly in higher-friction approval pathways such as Marketing and HR, would help streamline workflows and support overall cycle time reduction.

Addressing this requires more structured approval workflows that route requests to the right stakeholders early and surface diligence insights upfront. Procurement orchestration software enables faster, more consistent approvals while maintaining rigorous risk and governance controls.

Data source: These insights are derived from over $30bn of global processed spend managed by Vertice in 2026.