Order Approvals

User Experience

Ordering User Experience 

1. When Order Approvals is enabled for a Customer account, during Checkout, a popup message alerts the ordering user that approval is required as the order is over their order limit:

2. Depending on the Approval Type mode used and the number of eligible approvers, either an approver is automatically assigned or the user selects one from a dropdown list during Checkout. The order cannot continue without the completion of this step. Note - the User is alerted with a message if no Approver is available.

3. Once the order has been submitted, the confirmation page reaffirms that the order has been flagged as requiring approval:

4. The user can view their 'pending approval' orders as well as any that have been rejected in Order History (Dashboard → Order History). Note - approved orders will move to the next stage of the usual order processing procedure.    

Approver Experience

An approver is another user on the Customer account who has been assigned to the user who submitted the order (mode 0), has a set approval limit high enough for the order total (mode 1) or has been added in an Approver Group (in the Advanced Approval by User and Account mode). When an approver has been assigned an order to approve, they will receive a notification email. See Order Approver Functions.

Order Approval Modes

There are three Order Approval modes that can be set:

1. Approval By User - a very simple 1-to-1 relationship set at the User level. User A's orders are approved by User B if they exceed User A's order limit.
   
   
2. Approval By User and Account - the most widely-used mode. User A's orders can be approved by any user on the same account who has the required Approval Limit. 
   
   

3. Advanced Approval By User and Account - for organisations with complex approval hierarchies and approval groups. This mode offers advanced options, e.g., multi-person approvals and the option to allow the order submitter to cancel 'pending approval' orders and re-assign approvers. 

Set up Order Approvals

1. Approval By User

This is the simplest order approval process. A dollar limit is set for the user, and a specific Approver (using their email address) is entered during set up. Any order over the user's limit will require this Approver's Approve or Reject decision. You can set the option of sending an email notification  to the Approver, and allow them to quickly approve or reject the order via links in the email. 

1. Configure system settings:

1. In the CMS, navigate to Settings → Settings.
2. Select the Orders tab.
3. Select the Restrictions and Charges sub-tab.

4. Find the checkbox labelled Use Advanced Order Approval and ensure it's unticked.
   
   
   If you see a dropdown list instead, set it to Approval By User. 
   
   
   

5. To save this setting, click the Update button.

2. Update the user order limits: 

1. (optional) If you're in the CMS, log into your website in the Administrator role.
2. Navigate to Users → User Maintenance.
3. Search for and select the ordering user.
4. On the User tab, click Modify.
5. Update the Order Limit field to the dollar value at which approval will be triggered.
6. In the Orders Approved By field, enter the email address/user ID of the approving user.
   
   
7. Click OK to save.
   
   

TIP - If you have many users to update, you can do it in bulk. See the help page on Data Import for more information. 

2. Approval By User and Account

With this mode, users are given order limits for each order function. For example, User A may have a Requisition Limit of $999,999.00, and an Order Limit of $200.00. This means User A can submit an order up to $200 without approval, but any orders $200.01 - $999,999.00 will require approval. If Users B, C, and D on the same account each have an Approval Limit greater than the order value, any of them will be able to approve the order. 

(If there isn't a user with an appropriate approval limit for the order, a message will be displayed to User A before they submit the order.) 

1. Configure system settings:

1. In the CMS, navigate to Settings → Settings.
2. Select the Orders tab.
3. Select the Restrictions and Charges sub-tab.

4. In Approval Type, select 'Approval By User and Account').
   

5. To save this setting, click Update.

2. Update the user order limits:

1. In the CMS, navigate to Users → Website Users (or /zUsers.aspx on your website). 
2. Search for and Edit the required user.
3. In the Customer Details section, update the dollar amounts for the user's Order Limit, Requisition Limit, and Approval Limit. 
   
   
4. If the user has access to multiple accounts, you may wish to update the limits for those as well. 
5. Click Save & Exit. 
6. Repeat Steps 2-5 for other users on the account, including users who will have approval authority.

TIP - If you have many users to update, you can do it in bulk. See our help page on Data Import for more information. 

3. Advanced Approval by User and Account

Advanced options can be implemented by Commerce Vision.

Add/Edit Select Appprover Widget

The Select Approver Widget must be added and active for the Select Approver panel to appear during checkout.

If this panel does not display, check the widget is in the Checkout template. Text and labels for prompts displayed in the panel can be edited in the widget.

Configure Email Notifications 

The Order Approvals feature rely on email notifications to alert the ordering user and any approver(s) at various stages of the process. The content for each email is set in widgets in email templates used by this feature. Which templates are used will depend on the Order Approval settings for the Customer and User. You do not have to add any additional widgets but email text can be customised to suit your business needs.  See Related widgets below. 

Optional Settings

Approval by Email

In Mode 1, against the ordering user, you can set 'Approve' or 'Reject' links in the email the approver receives ('Order Approval Email') after the order has been submitted. Clicking the link allows the approver to quickly approve or reject the order. 

To add the 'Approve'/'Reject' links in the notification email for an ordering user,

1. In the Advanced User menu, find the user. 
2. Click the User tab.
3. Find the field Enable Email Approver and tick the checkbox.
   
4. To save the setting, click OK.

   
   

In Modes 2 and 3, this option is set against the Customer account.  

Related help

• Page:
  Standing Orders Settings
• Page:
  Standing Orders Overview
• Page:
  Advanced Order Approval by User and Account
• Page:
  Change User Order Limits
• Page:
  Order Approver Functions
• Page:
  Approval Groups