Approval rules encapsulate logical, causal decision points to develop
your approval flows. Approval rules support multi-party decision points. You can define these as Unanimous, Majority, Percent, or Quorum. Rules are also reusable: Once
you have configured a rule, you can adopt it in other approval flows.
Rules apply a logical condition to a business object, then drive an
action when that condition is satisfied. These correspond to rules (the base conditional
criteria for applying the rule), and "rule entries" (the actions that occur when the rule
is triggered).
Access approval rules by clicking the Approvals icon () and then clicking the Approval Rules tab in the left navigation
panel.
Reapproval Logic
Use reapproval logic to streamline reapprovals. For example, a contract for more than $100,000 but less than $1 million may require the CEO for initial approval but may only require a director to reapprove. Likewise, a contract may require an attorney to approve on submission, but not for a renewal under its own terms. In such circumstances, the CEO or the attorney can be assumed to have approved without requiring their explicit reapproval. The Approvals administrative user can configure reapproval flows to eliminate such unnecessary reapprovals.
Reapproval behaves comparably to auto-approval but must meet special criteria, which can affect the whole entry rather than a specific assignee. For example:
Entry 1
Assignee 1
Assignee 2
Entry 2
Assignee 3
Assignee 4
If the reapproval criteria are not met, the system sets all assignee approval flags to false, and each assignee and entry depends on the approval before it.
When you submit, the system presents a simple linear flow. Assignee 1 handles the first approval, followed by Assignee 2, and so on:
Entry 1
Assignee 1 (assigned)
Assignee 2 (not submitted)
Entry 2
Assignee 3 (not submitted)
Assignee 4 (not submitted)
If Entry 1 meets reapproval conditions, the submission looks like:
Entry 1
Assignee 1 (approved)
Assignee 2 (approved)
Entry 2
Assignee 3 (assigned)
Assignee 4 (not submitted)
Creating a New Rule
Rules apply a logical condition to a business object (test), then drive approval actions when that condition is satisfied. These correspond to two sections in the rule setup titled "WHEN to Apply" and "Rule Entries" or "Then the following users will approve" in the rule entry itself.
Click the New Rule button at top right to raise the New Approval Rule window.
Enter a name for the rule in the Name field.
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.
Select a rule type from the Rule Type pull-down menu. Options are Condition (a logical state) or Dimension (a business object or formula defining a business object).
Select an approval policy from the Approval Policy drop-down menu. Available policies are:
Unanimous: All reviewers must approve. One dissent is a veto.
Majority: More than half of the reviewers must approve. It is best to establish an odd number of reviewers to prevent tie votes. If you have an even number of reviewers, a tie vote results in rejection.
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.
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.
Note: The system treats approval requests with a Waiting for Input status the same as those with an Assigned status. It includes these requests during policy evaluation and can auto-approve them if the configured approval policy, such as Unanimous, Majority, Percent, or Quorum, is met.
If you picked Dimension in step 4, you can select a match rule type from the Match Rule pull-down menu. Options are Match All (requires all conditions met) or Match Any (requires any condition met).
For dimension rule type, you can add up to six
dimensions to define the desired rule criterion. You must also select whether the
dimension type is discrete (i.e., an exact match) or a range (i.e., any value between
two values). If the desired dimension is not available, you can create custom
dimensions.
Enter a description of the rule (optional).
In the Rule Criteria section, define the conditions that determine when the rule applies. Select a field name from the Select a field pull-down, assign it a logical operator from the Operator pull-down, and provide an appropriate value to create a testable rule. You can select a field directly on the context object or a field that resolves through a multi-level lookup relationship (for example, Account.Owner.CreatedDate). If the selected field is a lookup field, the fx (formula) button becomes active. Click fx to expand the lookup field and select a specific field from the related object. This allows you to traverse up to four levels of lookup relationships and use a value from a related object as part of your condition.
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 qualify a rule.
Click + Add Criteria to add more conditions. You can combine multiple rules using the following Boolean operators:
AND: All conditions must be true. For example, "Contract value is greater than or equal to 1,000,000 dollars AND Location is Chicago."
OR: At least one condition must be true. For example, "Contract value is greater than or equal to 1,000,000 dollars OR Location is Chicago."
Each condition supports the following operators:
Operator
Description
Example
Equals
Value matches exactly
Contract value equals 1,000,000
dollars
Not
Equal To
Value does not match
Location not equal to Chicago
Less
Than
Value is below the threshold
Contract value is less than
1,000,000 dollars
Less-Than
or Equal-To
Value is at or below the
threshold
Contract value is less than or
equal to 1,000,000 dollars
Greater
Than
Value is above the threshold
Contract value is greater than
1,000,000 dollars
Greater-Than
or Equal-To
Value is at or above the
threshold
Contract value is greater than
or equal to 1,000,000 dollars
Is Null
Field has no value
Location is null
Is Not
Null
Field has a value
Location is not null
To combine operators with Boolean logic, use the Rule Criteria Logic field. For example, to return results where the contract value is less than 1,000,000 dollars and the location is not Chicago: "Contract value is less than 1,000,000 dollars AND Location is not equal to Chicago."
Note: Approvals adds the AND operator by default when you add multiple conditions.
Click Save. The system returns you to the Approval Rules screen. You must create rule entries before you can activate the new rule.
Editing an Existing Rule
Find the rule name in the Approval Rules table.
Click the rule name or select the adjacent More icon () and then select Edit from the resulting pull-down menu.
Click the Details tab if necessary and modify the approval rule values as described in Creating a New Rule.
Modifying Rule Entries
For each rule, you must add rule entries defining the conditions under which the rule shall be enforced.
From the Approval Rules window, click the rule name link in the Rule Name column to access the rule details.
Open the Rule entries tab. This raises an active diagram interface showing the order of steps.
For each rule entry, you can edit the entry itself (by clicking in the main box),
add a sub-step (that is, an added test) within the rule entry by clicking the upper
plus-sign icon, or add a new rule entry by clicking the lower plus-sign icon. Each
choice provides the same Rule Entry panel options.
Clicking in the Rule Entry box opens the Rule Entry panel at right:
Label and describe the rule entry in the fields provided. For a first rule entry, sequence and dependency information will not be available, but as you add entries, you will have to choose the order in which rules are run (Sequence) and, if necessary, the rules that must have been run to implement the current rule (Dependencies).
Select an assignee for the rule. As with the entry
itself, the "Sequence" and "Depends on" fields are blank for the first rule entry.
Select an approver type (User, Custom User, Related User, Queue, Custom Queue, or User Role that
must approve), and the appropriate approver or object (this could be a particular
user, a custom or related user, or a queue. See Standard-Step Options for details on
these approver types.) The available options for this sequence field are constrained
to actions within the same step.
Set Approval Settings toggles (Auto-Complete, Notify Only, Send Email, Skip Assignee) as required.
Select the More (three‑dots) icon on the right side of the rule entry to expand options such as Add Condition, Auto Reapproval, Reminder Setup, Escalation Setup, or Delete.
Add Condition: Use this to add conditional logic that determines when the rule entry applies. When you click Add Condition, the Add Condition dialog opens. To define a condition:
Select a field from the LHS field selector. You can select a field directly on the context object or a field that resolves through a multi-level lookup relationship (for example, Account.ModifiedBy.ModifiedDate). If the selected field is a lookup field, the fx (formula) button becomes active. Click fx to expand the lookup field and select a specific field from the related object.
Select a comparison operator from the Operator dropdown (for example, Equals) and enter or select a value in the RHS field. The RHS accepts static values such as a date, number, text string, or a picklist option (for example, Yes).
Click + Add Criteria to add more conditions. When you define multiple conditions, use the Custom Logic field to control how they are evaluated together. Approvals adds ( 1 AND 2 ) by default. You can modify this expression using AND, OR, or a combination of both.
To remove all conditions at once, click Remove All.
Click Save to apply or Cancel to discard.
Auto Reapproval: Use this to define the conditions under which a previously approved rule entry does not require reapproval when the record changes. When you click Auto-Reapproval, the Auto-Reapproval dialog opens. Each condition row has its own Use search filter toggle. When enabled, select a search filter from the dropdown to limit the available field options for that row. To define a condition:
Select a field from the LHS field selector (for example, Quantity, Account Location, Auto Renew). If the selected field is a lookup field, the fx (formula) button becomes active. Click fx to expand the lookup field and select a specific field from the related object.
In the next dropdown, select whether to evaluate the Current Value or Prior Value of the selected field. This determines whether the condition evaluates the field's current state or what it was before the record changed.
Select a comparison operator from the Operator dropdown (for example, Equals, Not Equal To) and configure the RHS by selecting one of the following:
Static Value: Compares the LHS field to a fixed value (for example, Quantity Current Value Equals Static Value 5 or Auto Renew Prior Value Not Equal To No).
Prior Value: Compares the current value of the LHS field to its previous value (for example, Account Location Current Value Equals Prior Value).
Reminder Setup: Use this to define the frequency with which reminders are issued. Select Days or Hours from Duration and a number from Frequency.
Escalation Setup: Use this to establish the rule for escalation. Select the number of days or hours the rule requires for completion, the assignee type, and the assignee if possible, and then toggle Auto Escalation on.
Delete: Click this to delete the rule. You will be prompted to confirm the deletion.
When you have modified the rule conditions as desired, click Save to preserve your changes.
Adding a Related User to a Rule Entry
Adding related users enables you to configure flows to send items for approval to users with dynamically identified characteristics, rather than to specific preconfigured users.
Click a rule entry or one of the plus-sign icons to edit a step, add to an existing step, or add a new step.
Label, sequence, and describe the rule entry step as needed.
Select Related User in the Approver Type field. This raises the Add Approver hyperlink below the Approver field.
Click the Add Approver hypertext to raise an attribute selector. This selector reflects the business object type (Opportunity, Contract, Proposal, Product Configuration, Line Item, Contract Clause, Contract Line Item) chosen in the Approval Rules window for this approval rule.
Select the parameters that result in the related-user identity you want the rule to identify. For example, to select an account owner by ID to approve a contract type, select Account, Owner, and Id:
This selection is reflected in the bottom legend: "You have selected
Account.Owner.Id".
Click Insert. The string entry is added as a related user.
This string is added to requests to the CLM backend to identify documents' account
owners dynamically and to route them for approval without laborious fixed
definitions.
) and then select Edit from the resulting pull-down menu.