Approval rules

Approval rules are used to automatically route transactions for approval based on complex rules/exceptions. They display as light purple boxes in the workflow tree diagram.

Approver selection

Approvers are chosen based on the following flow:

• If an approver has been selected based on the approval role/rule combination this approver will be chosen.
• If no approver has been selected and there is only one approver available, this approver will be chosen.
• If there is more than one approver available and the user's manager is in the approver pool, the manager is selected.
• If there is more than one approver available and the user's manager is not in the approver pool, then one of two options will take place depending on the option selected for your company:
  • a random selection of the approver from the pool; or
  • the selection of the approver with the least approvals pending. If there is more than one approver who matches this criterion, then an approver will be selected randomly.

Rerouting transactions

If approvers do not action their items in the timeframe specified for the rule in use, the transactions are rerouted to the next approver based on the flow described above. If the approval rule or role for a particular transaction changes and the transaction is resaved, the following checks will be made before the transaction is sent to a new approver:

• If the new approver is the same as the original approver based on the old rule or role, the transaction will remain with the rerouted approver.
• If the new approver differs from the original approver from the old rule or role, the reroute will be cancelled and the transaction sent to the new approver.

Blanket Travel Authority (BTA)

Transactions that are covered by the Blanket Travel Authority (BTA) are not subject to approval rules unless they fall outside of the parameters set up for the BTA. If this happens, the user has the option of sending it into the normal approval workflow, or amending the transaction details so that it remains covered by the BTA.