Internal Approval & Ringi Kit

When this helps

You want to route ringi approvals, but unclear approval limits stall them

What it does

For small companies that route approvals (ringi) on paper or by email. Through an interview, it builds an approval-authority table showing who can decide up to what amount, then drafts a ringi document (purpose, content, amount, alternatives compared, risks, approval route) from the details of a request. Before it is routed, it checks for blank fields, hard-to-read amounts, the same request split across multiple submissions, and self-approval. Once routed, approvals, returns and proxy approvals are appended to an approval ledger, and any record edited outside the tool is flagged rather than counted. Whether to approve is always decided by a person.

The fixes baked into this kit

1. A monthly contract's total cost was missed, routing to a lighter approvalA ¥30,000/month, 2-year contract (¥720,000 total) was compared against thresholds using only the ¥30,000 monthly figure, so it got a lighter manager-level approval than it should have. The approver is now chosen using monthly amount × number of months.
2. Splitting a request to the same vendor avoided a higher approvalBuying software from the same vendor in two separate requests both stayed at department-head level, even though combining them would require CEO approval. Requests to the same vendor, same kind, within 30 days are now combined and flagged.
3. A requester could self-approve or skip approval by editing a status fieldIn the manual ordering process this kit replaced, the person who submitted a request could approve it themselves, or skip approval by editing a status field directly. The requester is now excluded from the list of approvers, and the approval stage is decided only from the append-only history.
4. Manually adding an approval entry to the record made it look approvedHand-adding an approval entry to the record file made a request show as approved. Each entry is now chained to the previous one with a seal; entries whose seal doesn't match are not counted.
5. A proxy approval signed with just a surname passed as the requester's ownWhen the requester themselves signed a "proxy approval" using only their surname, it was counted as a valid approval. Approvals by the requester are no longer counted even by surname alone, and proxy approvals by people outside the rules, or two ranks below, are flagged.
6. Amounts like 「52万8千円」 weren't read correctly, skipping the CEOAmounts written in Japanese units such as 「52万8千円」 or 「528千円」 weren't understood, so a tax-excluded ¥480,000 request skipped the CEO approval it needed. The kit now reads these units and adds tax only when comparing against tax-included thresholds.
7. A copy sent to a vendor exposed competing quotes from other companiesSending the ringi document itself to a vendor let them see the alternatives compared, including other companies' quoted amounts. An external copy now keeps only the subject, content, amount and vendor.

What's inside

• An interview that builds an approval-authority table (who can decide up to what amount)
• A ringi draft from the request details (Word, print-ready, and an email-routing text)
• A pre-routing check (blank fields, how amounts are read, split requests, self-approval)
• An approval ledger (Excel) that appends approvals, returns and proxy approvals rather than overwriting
• Pointers to check under the Companies Act, e-book-keeping law, subcontracting law, freelance law and stamp duty
• A safeguard that flags AI-instruction-like text pasted into a request
• When returned, it becomes version 2; the prior draft and its approvals stay on record
• A sample fictional company (buying a PC, outsourcing a logo, a printing contract, a split software purchase)

The first three decisions

1. The approver's name and title
2. Whether there is a board of directors
3. The amount thresholds already in place, if any

What you need

• No extra costClaude Code or CodexBoth CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md are included
• No extra costNode.js 18 or laterUsed only to run the tools. Nothing extra needs installing
• No extra costSoftware that can open Word/Excel filesUsed to view the ringi drafts, approval ledger and result pages. A free equivalent that opens the same formats works too

How to use

Just paste this into your AI.

I want to use the nice to have kit "Internal Approval & Ringi Kit". Follow https://nicetohave.app/en/g/3B462X8B-•••••••••• and set it up.

Works the same in Claude Code or Codex.
Read what this tells your AI to do, before you paste it

FAQ

What happens if there's no one in that role in the requester's department?

It reports that no matching approver was found, rather than routing it to someone in a different department. The company then needs to either add a person or adjust the rules.

Is a reason required when recording a return or rejection?

Yes. Without a reason, it's flagged as something to check. The reason is kept in the ledger and also used to tell the requester why.

After a proxy approval, what does the original approver need to do?

When the original approver reviews it afterward, that is recorded as a "later review." A proxy approval with no later-review record is flagged as something to check.

What if an amount is written in a foreign currency like dollars?

The kit doesn't convert it to yen itself. Since approvers are chosen by the yen amount, you're asked for the converted amount plus the date and rate used.

Can this be used at a company that has no approval rules yet?

Yes. It shows common thresholds as a draft, and each one is only finalized once the company confirms it by category. The company decides the thresholds; the kit never does.

Supporters

Once support opens, the people who backed this kit will be listed here.