Approval settings

Approval settings is where you decide whether requests from your employees need a decision before they can be ordered, and who makes it.

The setting applies to your whole company. There is no list of individual rules to build and no separate configuration per location or department. You choose one mode, and it governs every new marketplace and self service request from that point on.

You will find it under Settings → Approval settings.

Choosing a mode

Three modes are available, and they differ in how much control you want before a request becomes an order.

Automatic approval means no decision step at all. Requests go straight into the approved order requests, ready to be ordered. This is the lightest setup, and it is the one to choose when requests do not need checking.

Simple approval adds one decision step, carried out by whoever holds a particular responsibility in your organisation. See below.

Custom approval replaces that single step with a workflow you design yourself. It requires an active licence for the equipme Automation module. Without that licence the mode cannot be configured.

Changing the mode takes effect when you save, and it applies to new requests. Requests already in progress keep the process they started under.

Choosing who approves, with Simple approval

Selecting Simple approval reveals four approval types. Each one routes the decision to a different responsibility that already exists in your organisation:

Supervisor approval goes to the requester's supervisor.

Department manager approval goes to the manager of the requester's department.

Location manager approval goes to whoever is responsible for the location the request belongs to.

Cost centre manager approval goes to whoever is responsible for the relevant cost centre.

This is why the mode is called simple: you do not define who approves what. equipme reads it from the structure you have already built under My Company.

Switching an approval type on takes effect immediately. Unlike the three modes above, it is not held until you save, so treat it as a live change rather than a preview.

When the requester is also the approver

By default, somebody who would end up approving their own request does not get an approval step at all. The request is approved without one, because self approval adds no real control.

Approval at the same level is required changes that. With it switched on, the request is sent to the other people who share that responsibility. In a department with three managers, one manager's own request is still reviewed, just by a colleague rather than by themselves.

Leave it off in small organisations, where it usually means nobody is available to approve. Switch it on where several people genuinely share a level.

Asking for a reason

Four settings on this page decide when somebody has to explain themselves. Each offers No, Optional or Required.

Two of them apply to the person ordering: a reason for self service marketplace orders, and a reason for new marketplace orders.

The other two apply to the person deciding: a reason for approving a request, and a reason for rejecting one.

Requiring a reason on rejection is the one most organisations want. A rejected request without an explanation usually comes straight back as the same request, or as a question to your team.

Where to go next

Once the mode is set, requests appear under Approvals for whoever has to decide, and approved requests continue in Order requests.

The three modes are described in more detail on their own pages: Automatic Approval, Simple Approval and Custom Approval.