Admin Home > Approvals
The Approvals area in Compleat contains the approval process settings. This is where you can configure the Profiles, Selectors, Chains and Groups which define the route a transaction takes to reach the correct approvers.
In this article, we explain how the approvals process works, and how to easily make amendment if your approval process changes.
The approval hierarchy
The whole Compleat approval process contains 4 levels:
- Approval Profiles
- Approval Selectors
- Approval Chains
- Approval Groups
Each level contains a set of criteria that determines the route a transaction towards approval.
Approval Profiles
Approval Profiles are the first step in the approvals process. In most cases their criteria is based on the transaction type and company to determine what selectors they contact.
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Approval Selectors
Most approval selectors use the header data of a transaction. If the criteria is met, the transaction will be sent down to the linking approval chain.
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Approval Chains
Chains concentrate on the line level detail of a transaction in order to contact the correct approval group.
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Approval Groups
Each approval chain contains a list of approval groups. Approval groups are the final step in the process of getting the transaction approved or denied by the correct user.
Scroll down for more information on each approval level.
Approval Profiles
Admin Home > Approvals > Approval Profiles
A transaction entering your system will firstly meet the approval profile criteria. Its good practice to have an approval profile per company and per transaction type.
Profile 1 - Company-A invoices
Profile 2 – Company-B invoices
Profile 3 - Company-A receipts
Profile 4 - Company-B receipts
The image below shows an approval profile setup where there is a profile for each Approval Profile Type.
A transaction will search for a profile until it finds its matching company and transaction type to move it down the approval hierarchy.
The image below shows the criteria available when you're creating a new approval profile.
Each approval profile contains a list of approval selectors. The order in which approval selectors are presented are the order the transaction will attempt to contact first.
Approval Selectors
Admin Home > Approvals > Approval Selectors
Once a transaction has passed through an approval profile, an approval selector will use the header level information as criteria to find an approval chain to send the transaction to.
This can vary depending on how your Compleat system has been implemented. In most systems, there will be custom code fields added to the header of a transaction that you can use in a selector.
The Approval Selector criteria can be set to send the transaction to a particular chain such as a department.
Selector 1 – IT department chain
Selector 2 – HR department chain
Selector 3 – Finance department chain
To set this up yourself, check out our guide on customising your approval selectors.
Approval Chains
Admin Home > Approvals > Approval Chains
An approval chain tends to contain the department which the transaction is relevant to. A chain will contain the approval groups depending on the transaction’s line data and price of items.
Here's an example an approval chain for a Facilities Department. At the bottom of the screen you can see the approval groups and their order. This ranges from the Facilities Manager approving the minor transactions, to the Financial Director at the bottom who approves the more expensive transactions based on the amount threshold column.
Check out our article on how to customise your approval chains to learn more.
Approval Groups
Admin Home > Approvals > Approval Groups
Approval groups are the last step of the approval process and contain the users who will eventually approve or deny a transaction.
Users can be added and removed from these groups should a user leave or move within your company. Users can belong to multiple groups at once, meaning that they can be part of multiple approval routes in your system.
For more information on customising approval groups, check out:
The Approval Simulator
Admin Home > Approvals > Approval Simulator
If you want to query why a transaction went down a particular route for approval then you can use the approval simulator to view the process it has taken.
- Take the Reference Number from the transaction and copy it into the field in the Approval Simulator.
- Select the Transaction Type from the drop-down, and click Simulate in the bottom-right.
The approval simulator then breaks down each logical step the system has taken in order to choose the workflow.
The results are divided into 2 sections. The top section is the route through the approval profile to find the relevant selector, and the bottom section is the route through the approval chain and any approvers it has decided to contact.
When viewing the bottom section, it's useful to check whether the transaction is in or out of budget, and whether self-approval is active. It's best to use the simulator in conjunction with any approval chain changes in order to fully determine whether it's behaving the way you want it to.
If you have any questions regarding approval workflows, please contact client services at clientservices@compleatsoftware.com.