Building budget approval rules

To define rules and require approval for items that meet them, you write if-then-else statements.

About this task

You write rules to identify situations that require an approver to review line item changes.

  • If you do not write any rules, no approvals are required.
  • If you do write rules, only line items that meet the conditions that you specify require approval.

Procedure

  1. Edit the template then click its Budget Approval Rules tab.
  2. Click Add Approval Rule.
    The Rule Builder dialog opens. See Rule Builder dialog.
  3. You create the rule conditions (the "if" part of the statement) at the bottom of the dialog. Select a form attribute, an operator, and a resource for each condition.
  4. Click Add to include the condition.
  5. Use the AND and OR operators to build compound conditions. Click Add to include each one.
  6. From the Assign Approver list, select an approver to receive the request when the condition is met ("then").
    To assign the approval to the owner of the object instance or the account, select one of the Object Owners. The system assigns the approval to the user who is the actual owner when you select one of these options.
  7. When the condition is complete, click Save Compound Condition to move it up into the Compound Conditions section of the dialog.
    If the condition is met, the approval process is triggered. If the condition is not met ("else"), no approval is required.

  8. To see your rule as a complete if-then-else statement, and to verify that the logic is correct, click Preview. You can also print the rule.
  9. Click Save and Finish.
    The Rule Builder closes.
  10. When you are finished building rules, click Save Changes on the Budget Approval Rules tab.

    You can build multiple rules that result in multiple, parallel approval processes.

Results

For each rule, if the condition is met, the line item approval request is sent to the assigned approver. If the line item does not meet the conditions for any rules, it is automatically approved.