Approvals Rule Engine

Overview

Datum Source offers a dynamic rule-engine for spend approvals that enables users to configure approval routings based on system fields including total ($), department, and more (includes custom fields). These routings can be set-up to run parallel approval chains (i.e. all approvers receive a notification immediately when approval is requested), sequential approval chains (i.e. approvers only receive a notification when the approver before them clicks "Approve"), or both.

To start, admin users will need to first configure "Teams" (or in other words, groups of approvers). Once an approval rule is created, admin users can add a set of "Approval Steps" to the rule. An "Approval Step" is a grouping of teams associated with a given approval rule (or in more simple terms, a grouping of users), that follows a sequential order. Approval Step 1 will be the first group of users to receive email notifications when a requester clicks "Request Approval". Once all teams within Approval Step 1 have clicked "Approve", all users within Approval Step 2 will then receive a notification. Once all teams within Approval Step 2 have clicked "Approve", all users within Approval Step 3 will then receive a notification, and so on.

Sequential Approvals

Sequential Approval Chains are set-up by creating multiple "Approval Steps" within a given approval rule. Each "Approval Step" has a priority, meaning that Approval Step 1, will receive notifications first, Approval Step 2 will always notifications second, and so on.

Parallel Approvals

Parallel Approval Chains are set up by adding multiple "Teams" to a given "Approval Rule". For example, if Team 1 has User A and User B, and Team 2 has User C, if we add both Team 1 and Team 2 to Approval Step 1, User A, User B and User C will all receive a notification at the same time, when a user clicks "Request Approval". At least 1 user from Team 1 and 1 user from Team 2 will need to click "Approve" for the order to be marked as "Approved (unless additional approval steps are added).

Mixed Approvals (Parallel & Sequential)

Mixed Approval Chains can be set up by combining parallel & sequential approvals. For example, an admin could configure Approval Step 1 to have two teams: Team 1 and Team 2, and Approval Step 2 to have 1 team: Team 3. With this configuration, all users within Team 1 and Team 2 would receive a notification when the requester first clicks "Request Approval". Team 3 will only receive a notification after both Team 1 and Team 2 click "Approve".

How to create an approval team:

1. Navigate to the "Organization Settings" tab on the top-navigation bar.

2. Navigate to the "Team Management" sub-tab.

   
3. Click "+ Team" to create a new team.

4. Specify a team name.

5. Add users from your organization to the team.

   
6. Once you have created a team, it can be added to any approval rule by following the steps below.

How to create an approval rule:

1. Navigate to the "Organization Settings" tab on the top-navigation bar.

2. Navigate to the "Approvals" sub-tab.

1. Configure your approver steps using the approval rule builder. To create a new rule click the "+" icon next to "Order Rules".

2. Approval rules can be configured with any combination of system or custom fields that exist associated to the Order (includes fields like Total ($), Team, Department, Vehicle, Product, etc.)

How to assign teams to an approval rule:

1. Navigate to the "Organization Settings" tab on the top-navigation bar.

2. Navigate to the "Approvals" sub-tab.

1. Configure your approver steps using the approval rule builder. To create a new rule click the "+" icon. Approval rules can be configured with any combination of custom fields that exist associated to the Order.

2. Click "+" to add a new Approval Step.

1. Add your teams to each desired approval step, and configure your own Sequential, Parallel, or Mixed approval flow:

   Sequential Approvals

   Parallel Approvals

   Mixed Approvals (Sequential + Parallel)