Multi-User Order Approval gives you granular control to configure approvals on orders placed through Craftable. Orders can be routed to different users based on GL codes, GL prefixes (for departments), or if over budget, and approvers can be set by name, role, or simply All Directors.
Multi-User Order Approvals are only available for accounts with Director, and must be configured on a per-platform basis.
This article covers:
- Enabling Multi-User Order Approval
- Approval GL Groups
- Approval Groups
- Approval Rules
- Using Multi-User Order Approvals
Enabling Multi-User Order Approval
To enable Multi-User Order Approval, first log in to Director. Click your name at the top right and select Director Settings, then select Director Configuration.
On the Director Configuration page, scroll down until you see the "Order by GL" slider and turn it on. Then select "Save Configuration" at the bottom of the page.
Once that is done, go back to the Director Settings page. You will now see two additional boxes - "Multi-User Order Approval Rules", and "Out of Office".
Order Approval Rules
Click the Order Approval Rules button - here is where you will configure 3 things:
- Approval GL Groups
- Approval Groups
- Approval Rules
Approval GL Groups
Give the group a name in the "Group" field. Be descriptive, as this will be used to help you identify which grouping of GL codes you selected. Toggle on "All GLs" if you don't want to create GL-specific rules, this means the approval will apply to all purchases. In the GL Accounts table you can select specific GL Codes to apply the rule to, or select Prefix if you would like to enter a GL Prefix.
When GL Prefix is toggled on you can free type in any numbers. These numbers should be the start of some of your GL codes, and typically correlate to a class or department within your organization.
Be sure to click Save at the bottom when you're done.
If you enter a prefix that doesn't correspond to your GL codes you'll see this flagged with a red exclamation point on the main Approval GL Groups tab. Click the chevron to open up the list of GLs for clarification.
Approval Groups
Configuring your Approval Groups is setting which stores the rule will apply to, and then which user/s from those stores will be the Approvers. Click the Approval Groups tab and then click "+New Order Approval Group".
On the Group tab, enter a descriptive name for the Group, and then select which stores this set of approvers relates to.
Next select the Approvers tab - here you can set which users will be the ones doing the approving. You can configure approvals by:
- Team Account - Select specific users to approve orders. You must include at least one user who has access to each store that was selected on the Group tab.
- Role - Select a Role or multiple Roles (configured on your Team Accounts page) - any user within any selected roles who also has access to the selected stores will be able to approve for this rule.
- All Directors - Any user who has access to Director will be able to approve for this rule.
Be sure to click Save when you're done.
Approval Rules
Approval Rules is where all of these pieces come together. Here you combine what you've configured in terms of the GLs and the Approval Groups, and you apply these to logic rules around monetary amounts and/or budget rules.
Start by giving the rule a Name - this will be visible on the Order under the Approvals section. In the GL Group Name section select the GL Grouping to apply this rule to. Below, you must select between either
- Activate Order Approval on GL Amount - which means that this approval will happen on all orders who meet the GL and Amount requirements for the selected stores. OR
- Activate Order Approvals on GL Budget Overrun - this means that the order will only be sent for approval when at least one of the lines on the order runs over budget. To use this function you do need to configure your budget.
The Amount From and Amount To fields defaults to include essentially all orders. Make changes to these numbers as needed if your approval rule is based around certain dollar amounts. Keep in mind that these dollar amounts will apply to the sum of all the lines on the order whose GL codes are included in the select GL Group for the rule. Below, select which Approval Groups can approve this rule.
Using Multi-User Order Approval
Once Multi-User Order Approval is set, then orders created by anyone who is not the Master Approver will be sent up to the Director Account for approval. Below is what the store account will see when sending an order that requires approval.
Here's what the first director account on the approval list will see.
If approved, the order will still be listed in Pending Orders until the Master Approver has approved the order.
If the order is rejected at any point, the order will be sent back to the store under the new orders section.
At this point, the store user can either edit the order and resubmit for approval or delete the order.
Once approved, the order will be sent and the status updated to Placed at the store.