Approval rules
The purchasing manager at a customer tells you that her technicians may order consumables up to €500 on their own, and anything above that needs her signature. That is an approval rule. This page covers the conversation with the customer and the first rules; the Approval rules design guide covers every condition and effect.
1. Write the policy down
Before you touch a screen, put the customer's answer in a table:
| Person | May place orders? | Up to | Above that, who signs? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Technicians | Yes | €500 | Site manager |
| Apprentices | No, they only request | — | Site manager |
| Site manager | Yes | no limit | — |
Two questions people forget to ask: who signs when the site manager is the buyer? and does anything ever need two signatures? A chain of two approvers is possible; a policy with no top signatory is a request nobody can approve.
2. Set the roles
- Go to CRM › Contacts, open the person and select Edit.
- Set the Role:
requesterfor people who fill carts but never order themselves,buyerfor people who order,approver(oradmin) for everyone who will sign.
- Save.
Only a contact with the role approver or admin can approve. A rule that names
a buyer as approver produces a request that person cannot decide.
3. Set the personal limits
The €500 is a personal limit, not a field on the contact.
- Go to Procurement › Cost centres › Personal limits and select New personal limit.
- Choose the Contact and enter the Monetary limit:
500. - Repeat for each technician. A contact with no personal limit is not limited.
The contact record also has an Order approval limit field. Approval rules do not read it; leave it alone or keep it in step for your own reference.
4. Write the rules
Go to Procurement › Approval rules and select New approval rule. For the policy above, two rules do the work:
| Name | Condition | Condition parameters | Effect | Approver type | Approver |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Over personal limit | Personal limit | — | Pending order (needs approval) | Contact | the site manager |
| Requesters always ask | Contact missing permission | {"permission": "place-order"} | Pending order (needs approval) | Contact | the site manager |
Leave Cost centre empty for both: the rules then apply to every order of this customer. Rules scoped to a cost centre, budget checks and multi-step chains are explained in the design guide.
If a rule should stop a cart outright instead of routing it, its effect is Prevent.
What happens next
A buyer whose cart trips a rule gets a purchase request instead of an order. It appears under Procurement › Purchase requests with the status Pending. The site manager approves or declines their step as a contact, signed in to the shop; the order is created at the final approval. A decline ends the request. In the Cockpit, an administrator cannot decide a single step, but can Super-approve the request, which clears every open approval at once, or Cancel request. See The approver's path.
What to check
- Have a requester submit a small cart. It must arrive as a purchase request, not as an order.
- Have a technician submit €480 and then €520. The first becomes an order, the second a purchase request.
- Sign in to the shop as the site manager, approve the second one, and confirm the order appears under Orders.
Next
- Cost centres and budgets — the allocation half.
- Approvals that get stuck — when nobody decides a request.