Purchasing approval policies

This list supports the enhanced lists interface. Learn more about using enhanced lists.

Approval policies set the criteria to decide which purchasing transactions need approval, and can include approver sequence.

To learn more about approval policies, see about purchasing approvals.
Subscription Purchasing
User type Business user with admin privileges
Permission

Purchasing:

  • Manage

Add an approval policy

  1. Go to Purchasing > Setup > More, and select Add (circle) next to Approval policies.
  2. Select a Transaction definition.

    The approval policy will apply to the purchasing transactions that are based on the transaction definition you choose.

  3. For each approval that you want to route the purchasing transaction through, select the Rule type.

    See field descriptions for details.

    • If you select Value Approval - Department or Value Approval - Transaction department as the rule type, select a rule set. Use the dropdown list on the line to add, edit, or view the rule set to be used. Learn more about value approval rule sets.
    • If you select Value Approval or Value Approval - Progressive as the rule type, select Add or Edit on the line to add or edit the value approval rule to be used.
    • If you select User Level or User Group Level, only the users or user groups with permission to list purchasing transactions that need approval, are available to select. Learn more about assigning permissions.

Edit an approval policy

  1. Go to Purchasing > Setup > More > Approval policies.
  2. Find the approval policy you want to edit.
  3. Select More actions > Edit at the end of the row.

  4. Make your changes.

  5. Select Save. For details, go to field descriptions.
  1. Go to Purchasing > Setup > More > Approval policies.
  2. Find the approval policy you want to edit, and select Edit.
  3. Add, change, or delete information as needed.

    For details, go to field descriptions.

Any changes you make do not affect any purchasing transactions that are currently in the approval cycle. The changes take effect whenever a purchasing transaction gets submitted, which includes these transactions:

  • A newly submitted transaction
  • A declined transaction that's resubmitted
  • An approved transaction that's changed when the Purchasing configuration is set to require a new approval cycle if an approved transaction is changed.

View details about an approval policy

  1. Go to Purchasing > Setup > More > Approval policies. The list of approval policies appears.
  2. Find the approval policy to view, and select View.

Delete an approval policy

  1. Go to Purchasing > Setup > More > Approval policies.
  2. Find the approval policy to delete.
  3. Select the checkbox next to the approval policy, then select Delete.
  1. Go to Purchasing > Setup > More > Approval policies.
  2. Find the approval policy that you want to delete.

  3. Select More actions > Delete at the end of the row.

  4. Select Delete to confirm.

Any changes you make do not affect any purchasing transactions that are currently in the approval cycle. The changes take effect whenever a purchasing transaction gets submitted—which includes these transactions:

  • A newly submitted transaction
  • A declined transaction that's resubmitted
  • An approved transaction that's changed when the Purchasing configuration is set to require a new approval cycle if an approved transaction is changed.

Validation messages

When you save an approval policy, Sage Intacct checks the completeness of the configuration that's required for the policy. This check helps to prevent issues down the line when users submit purchasing transactions.

Sage Intacct displays a notification if the policy includes any of the following rule types, and any employees, departments, or locations do not have an assigned manager:

  • Employee Manager Approval
  • Department Approval or Transaction Department Approval
  • Transaction Location Approval
  • Value Approval - Department or Value Approval -Transaction Department (if the rule set includes Employee Manager or Department Manager)

You can use the Assign link in the notification to investigate which employees, departments, or locations are missing a manager and assign one.

The employees who are validated are employees who are users and have permission to add purchasing transactions.

Field descriptions

The following table describes each item on the Approval policy page.

Approval policy page field descriptions
Field Description

Transaction definition

The transactions that require approval. You can set up approvals for transactions with the following template types:

  • Quote (purchase quotes or purchase requisitions)
  • Order (purchase orders)
  • Invoice (vendor invoices)
    The vendor invoice is posted to the GL after it's been fully approved, using the transaction date as the posting date. In addition, if the transaction definition for the invoice affects inventory quantity and value, the quantity and value is not affected until the invoice is fully approved.

Rule type

Use the rule type to create a sequence of approvals that can include approval by a named user or user group, the user's manager, the manager of the user's department, the amount of the purchase, and more.

For example, you might want a purchasing transaction to be approved first by the submitting employee's manager. If the manager approves, you might want to proceed to value approval based both on the department for the transaction and the purchase amount.

The rule types are:

  • Value Approval: Approval requests are sent based on the purchase amount. The value approval rule for Value Approval and Value Approval: Progressive determines the levels of approval and approval amounts at each level. Approval requests are sent directly to the level in which the purchase amount falls. Users that are restricted to specific entities or departments may not receive notifications for this type of value approval regardless of their email preferences.
  • Value Approval: Progressive: Approval requests are sent based on the purchase amount. The value approval rule for Value Approval and Value Approval: Progressive determines the levels of approval and approval amounts at each level. Approval routing starts at Level 1 and progresses through each level until the purchase amount falls below the next level. Users that are restricted to specific entities or departments may not receive notifications for this type of value approval regardless of their email preferences.
  • Value Approval: Department: Approval requests are sent based on the department of the employee submitting the transaction and the purchase amount. The value approval rule for the department or the default value approval rule if the department does not have its own specific value approval rule, which are defined by the selected rule set, determine the number of approvers and their approval amount limits. Approval routing starts with the first approver and progresses to each successive approver until the purchase amount falls below the next approver's limits.
  • Value Approval: Transaction Department: Approval requests are sent based on the department selected in the transaction and the purchase amount. The value approval rule for the department or the default value approval rule if the department does not have its own specific value approval rule, which are defined by the selected rule set, determine the number of approvers and their approval amount limits. Approval routing starts with the first approver and progresses to each successive approver until the purchase amount falls below the next approver's limits. (Only one department can be selected per transaction.)
  • Department Approval: Approval requests are sent to the manager of the department to which the employee submitting the transaction is assigned.
  • Employee Manager Approval: Approval requests are sent to the manager of the employee submitting the transaction.
  • Transaction Department Approval: Approval requests are sent to the manager of the department selected in the transaction. (Only one department can be selected per transaction.)
  • Transaction Location Approval: Approval requests are sent to the manager of the location selected in the transaction. (Only one location can be selected per transaction.)
  • Transaction Project Manager Approval: Approval requests are sent to the manager of the project selected in the transaction. (Only one project can be selected per transaction.).
  • User Level: Approval requests are sent to a selected user.
  • User Group Level: Approval requests are sent to a selected user group.

User or user group

Select a user or user group. For a named user or user group to appear in the list, the user or user group must have any user type other than CRM, and have permission to list purchasing transactions that need approval. In addition, the user or user group must not be restricted to any entities, departments, or territories.

Rule set

This field is applicable when Value Approval: Department or Value Approval: Transaction Department is selected as the rule type. The rule set identifies the value approval rules used to route the approval requests. Remember, a value approval rule defines the approvers you want and their approval amounts.

A rule set includes the default value approval rule that applies to any department without its own specific value approval rule and, optionally, one or more value approval rules for specific departments. While one value approval rule might work for most of your departments, other departments might need their own rules with different approvers, approval amounts, or both.

Learn more about value approval rule sets and value approval rules.

Manage

This field is applicable when Value Approval or Value Approval: Progressive is selected as the rule type. You can select the Edit link in the Manage column to add or edit the value approval rule used to route the approval requests. The approval rule for both these rule types defines the number of levels of approval needed and the approval amounts for each level. The approvers for a specific level are those users who have permission for purchasing approval at that level.

Learn more about the value approval rule for permission-based approvals.