Approval rules encapsulate logical, causal decision points to develop your approval flows. Rather than the one-step, one-reviewer rule for standard flow steps, approval rules enable you to adopt decision points requiring multi-party decisions, which you can define as Unanimous, Majority, Percent, and Quorum. Rules are also reusable: Once you have configured a rule, you can adopt it in other approval flows.

Access approval rules by clicking the Approvals icon () and then click the Approval Rules tab in the left navigation panel. 

To create a new rule

  1. Click the Create New button at top right. 
  2. Enter a name for the rule in the Rule Name field.
  3. Select a business object type (Opportunity, Contract, Proposal, Product Configuration, Line Item, Contract Clause, or Contract Line Item) from the Business Object pull-down menu.
  4. Select a rule type from the Rule Type pull-down menu. Options are Condition (a logical state) or Dimension (a critical value). 
  5. Select an order for the rule's occurrence by picking an integer from the stepper in the Sequence field.
  6. Pick an approval policy from the Approval Policy drop-down. Available policies are: 
    1. Unanimous: All reviewers must approve. One dissent is a veto. 
    2. Majority: More than half of the reviewers must approve. It is best to establish an odd number of reviewers to prevent tie votes. For an even number of reviewers, tie votes result in rejection. 
    3. Percent: A specific percentage of approvers is necessary to approve. If you select a percent that must approve, use the Approval Percent stepper to select the required approval percentage. 
    4. Quorum: A specific number of approvers is necessary to approve. If you select a quorum that must approve, use the Approval Count stepper to select the required number of approvers.  
  7. Add rule criteria. Select a field name from the Field Name pull-down, assign it a logical operator, and provide an appropriate value to create a testable rule. For example, you can pull down the Total Contract Value field type, assign a "greater than or equal to" logical operator, and a numeric value to compare against to qualify a rule.
  8. Slide the Logic toggle on to add Boolean logic between multiple rules. For example, "Contract value is greater than or equal to 1000000 dollars AND Location = Chicago Office. NOT, NOR, and NAND operations are not supported. Use the rule criteria logic to accomplish these logical operations. 
  9. If you click the Rule Entries tab, you can create a rule consisting of several rules. 
  10. When you're done creating a rule or adding a rule entry, save it by clicking the Save button. 

To edit an existing rule

  1. Find the rule in the Approval Rules table.
  2. Select the adjacent pull-down menu and pick Edit.
  3. Modify approval rule values as described in To create a new rule.

To edit rule conditions

For each rule, you can add rule conditions that determine when and whether the rule is enforced.

  1. Open the Rule Entries tab.
  2. To access rule conditions, click the More icon () next to the rule entry you will edit.
  3. Select one of Add Condition, Auto Reapproval, Reminder Setup, Escalation Setup, or Delete. 
    1. Add Condition: Use this to add conditional logic to apply the rule. You can define the logical relationship of a field to a value. Use additional logical operators to define these conditions in relationship to each other. 
    2. Auto Reapproval: Use this to add conditional logic to reapprove the step that uses this rule. Use additional logical operators to define these reapproval conditions in relationship to each other.
    3. Reminder Setup: Use this to define the frequency with which reminders are issued. Select Days or Hours from Duration and a number from Frequency.
    4. Escalation Setup: Use this to establish the rule for escalation. Select the number of days or hours the rule requires for completion, and toggle Auto Escalation on.
    5. Delete: Click this to delete the rule. You will be prompted to confirm the deletion. 
  4. When you have modified the rule conditions as desired, click Save to preserve your changes. 

To delete a rule

  1. Find the rule in the Approval Rules table.
  2. Select the adjacent pull-down menu and pick Delete.
  3. A confirmation popup appears. Click Delete to confirm.