Approval Policies
Approval policies enable you to set the number of approved requests required for a process to be considered approved, based on unanimity, majority, or percentage. This is done by selecting a policy type for an approval rule and associating it with an approval process through a sub-process assignee.
When there are multiple approvers for a sub-process, the system uses the policy, as the approvers complete their requests, to determine when the approval process is finished. Once an approval process reaches its approval or rejection threshold, remaining approval requests are not completed.
For example, if you have five approvers and a majority policy, once the first three approvers approve the approval request, no need remains for the last two approvers to answer the request. Three out of five have approved it to reach a majority and the object's the approval status is set to Approved. If a single approver rejects the request, the object's approval status is set to Rejected.
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Unanimous |
All approvers must approve a request for it to be approved. This is the default Approvals behavior. |
|
Majority |
A majority of approvers must approve a request for it to be approved. It is best for policies to have an odd number of approvers. If an even number of approvers is "tied", with approvals equal to rejections, the request is rejected. |
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Percent |
When the designated percentage is met or exceeded, the request is approved. |
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Quorum |
When the designated number in the Approval Count field is met or exceeded, the request is approved. For example, if you set Approval Count to 2, and you have four approval requests, of which two are approved, the approval status is set to Approved. If any two of your approval requests are rejected, the system waits for the next two approvers to take the decision. If the remaining two approvers approve the request, the approval status is set to Approved. Tip:
The system behaves this way when you select the Continue Policy Approval on a Reject check box. |
You cannot use approval policies and consolidated approvals together. You can only use one or the other in an approval process.
Once an assignee rejects an approval request, you can choose to send approval requests to the rest of the assignees in the policy despite a rejection. (In earlier releases, the policy status was set to Rejected even if a single assignee in the rule rejected a request.)
- When checked, this feature allows the user to approve their assigned approval requests, as long as the policy criteria can still be met, even though one or more approval requests within the sub-process or child process are already rejected.
- When unchecked, all approval requests with a status other than Approved within the sub-process or child process are canceled, whenever any request is rejected. Policy approval for that approval sub-process or child process stops immediately.
The Continue Approval Policy After Rejection check box takes precedence over the Continue Pending Approvals on a Reject check box, which is set at the process level.
The table highlights the behavior for the Continue Approval Policy After Rejection check box.
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Policy Type |
Behavior |
|---|---|
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Unanimous |
All assignees must approve the request for the status to be approved. if a single approver rejects the request, the approval status is Rejected. Note:
The Continue Policy Approval on a Reject setting does not apply when the approval policy is set to Unanimous. |
|
Majority |
Continue Approval Policy after Reject (selected): The approval request is routed to all assignees and the approval request cycle continues even after a rejection. If the majority of the approvers have approved the request, the status is Approved. Continue Approval Policy after Reject (de-selected): The approval request cycle stops after a rejection. The policy status is set to Rejected. |
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Quorum |
Continue Approval Policy after Reject (selected): The approval request is routed to all assignees and the approval request cycle continues even after a rejection. If the specified quorum of approvers has approved the request, the status is set to Approved. Continue Approval Policy after Reject (de-selected): The approval request cycle stops after a rejection. The policy status is set to Rejected. |
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Percent |
Continue Approval Policy after Reject (selected): The approval request is routed to all assignees and the approval request cycle continues even after a rejection. If the specified percentage of the approvers has approved the request, the status is Approved. The approval request cycle stops after a rejection. The policy status is set to Rejected. |
