The paperwork decides how fast British marketing spend gets approved, not the people

British companies rarely reject a marketing proposal. They stall it, and the stall is almost always caused by one of three documents rather than by anybody's opinion. The delegated authority schedule decides how many signatures the amount needs. The purchase order policy decides whether an invoice can be paid at all. And the payment terms decide when money actually leaves, which is governed in part by statute rather than by preference. A supplier or a budget holder who finds those three documents in week one usually gets a decision in days. One who presents a persuasive case to the wrong person waits a month and never learns why.

Document one, the delegated authority schedule

Every British company of any size has a document saying who can commit the company to what value, even where nobody calls it that. It decides whether your purchase is a conversation or a paper exercise, and it is the single highest leverage thing you can read. It lives in one of four places.

• The delegated authority or financial limits policy, usually held by finance.
• The purchase order policy. Whether an order is required at all, above what value, and who raises it.
• The bank mandate and payment approval rules. Who can authorise a payment, and whether two signatures are needed above a figure.
• The board minutes or the shareholders agreement, for anything that counts as a material commitment.

The thresholds are company specific, so ask finance for the schedule rather than guessing. A commitment sized just under a threshold moves in days and the same commitment a few hundred pounds above it can take a month, which affects timing more than anything in your business case. This is also the reason a first engagement structured as a pilot inside one budget holder's authority gets a decision while the full programme is still circulating.

Document two, the purchase order, which is where most delay actually happens

In many British mid market companies an invoice arriving without a purchase order number cannot be paid, and nobody tells the supplier. The invoice sits in a queue, the supplier chases finance, and the delay gets blamed on a payments problem that was created at order stage.

So the order of operations matters. Confirm whether a purchase order is required, get it raised before the first invoice, and put the number on every invoice afterwards. For a retainer, ask whether the order covers the full term or has to be reissued, because an order that expires mid engagement stops payment without anybody intending to.

Two more lines on the order itself save a quarter of arguments. Separate the agency fee from any media passed through, and show the VAT treatment. A single blended figure makes it impossible for finance to see what is being paid for management, and it is the most common reason a renewal gets questioned.

Document three, the payment clock, part of which is statutory

Payment terms in Britain are not purely a matter of preference. Government guidance, read on 22 October 2026 at gov.uk on late commercial payments, states that where a payment date is agreed "it must usually be within 30 days for public authorities or 60 days for business transactions", and that a longer period than 60 days may be agreed for business transactions "but it must be fair to both businesses". Where no date is agreed, the same page states the payment is late 30 days after a trigger it sets out.

The same guidance states that statutory interest for business to business transactions is "8% plus the Bank of England base rate", and that "You cannot claim statutory interest if there's a different rate of interest in a contract". That last clause is the one worth reading twice. A supplier signing a contract with its own interest rate in it has replaced the statutory entitlement, and a buyer issuing such a contract has done the same deliberately. Both sides should know which position they are in before signing rather than after a late invoice.

What each reader is checking, in one table

The documents above determine the route. These are the questions asked along it, and a proposal that answers all of them in its own paragraphs passes through in one pass rather than three.

The four numbers that get a British marketing purchase funded

None of them is a growth projection, and a proposal missing any of them goes back round the loop.

• The monthly commitment and the total over the term, with fee and pass through media on separate lines.
• The notice period and what cancellation costs. A three month notice on a twelve month term is a nine month commitment, and finance reads it that way.
• The date you will know, with the criteria written down. A named review date is what makes a commitment feel reversible, and reversibility is what gets a yes.
• What you will stop doing. A proposal funded from an existing line is a different conversation from one asking for new money.

How to get through it in a fortnight

1. Ask the three document questions in week one. What is the authority limit, is a purchase order required, and what are the standard payment terms. Most people will simply tell you.
2. Pre read finance for fifteen minutes before the paper goes in, which removes the round trip that costs three weeks.
3. Bring procurement in early. Late procurement involvement turns a decision that has been made into another month of comparables.
4. Send the data processing agreement with the proposal, so legal review runs beside the commercial decision rather than after it.
5. Size the first commitment inside one approver's authority, and agree what result would justify the larger one.

How a supplier should read the room

If you are selling into a British company, the person who likes your work is rarely the person who can buy it. Two signals tell you where you are. A buyer talking about the plan and the fit is the requester. A buyer asking about notice periods, cancellation and what happens in month four is relaying somebody else's questions, which means the finance conversation has started without you.

Answer the second kind in writing. A one page note covering the cash profile, the term, the notice period, the purchase order position and the review criteria does the requester's job for them, and it is usually what decides who wins.

Questions about British marketing approval and payment

Does marketing spend always need finance approval?

Below the delegated authority limit the budget holder commits it alone. Above it, finance approves, and above a second limit the managing director or the board does. Since the limits are company specific, the schedule is the thing to ask for first.

Can a marketing agency be paid without a purchase order?

In many companies, no, and the invoice simply waits in a queue. Confirm the policy before the first invoice rather than after it.

Are 60 day payment terms allowed in the United Kingdom?

The government guidance quoted above says a longer period than 60 days may be agreed for business transactions provided it is fair to both businesses, and that an agreed date must usually fall within 60 days for business transactions. Read the page and take a specific position to a solicitor.

Should our contract set its own interest rate for late payment?

Know what it does before you decide. The guidance states that statutory interest cannot be claimed where the contract sets a different rate, so a contractual rate replaces the statutory one for both parties.

Who approves in a company with no marketing director?

The managing director, usually with finance beside them, and the decision is made on commercial grounds rather than marketing ones. Write the proposal accordingly.

What is the fastest way to lose a month?

Submitting an invoice with no purchase order number, or sizing a first commitment just above an authority threshold nobody mentioned. Both are avoidable with two questions in week one.

The question the committee has started asking

Among those five readers, the newest question belongs to the managing director rather than to marketing, and it is what a buyer finds when they ask an assistant about us. We measured the British version of this on 22 October 2026 across 64 blind readings on ChatGPT and Gemini, with the market fixed inside each question, and 22 of them named at least one British agency with no firm named anywhere in the prompt. The question is no longer hypothetical for a supplier of anything. AI Knows Us answers it with a count across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews, which is one line in a board pack that no existing platform report covers. The method behind readings of that kind is published in the 597 reading benchmark.