Approval chains

An approval chain says: when a person with this role wants to do this action, these roles must agree first, in this order. Only the main account sets chains, under Settings > Approval chains.

How it works

1. A user starts a sensitive action, for example Pay on a claim.
2. The system looks for an active chain for that action that fits the user's role and the amount.
3. If a chain fits, the action waits. The record is locked, and the people in the first approving role are notified.
4. Each step approves, rejects or sends the request back.
5. After the last approval, the action is carried out by itself and the person who asked is told.

If no chain fits, the action runs straight away, provided the user's role has the Approve permission for that module. Without it, the user is told to ask the main account.

Create a chain

1. Choose New approval chain and give it a name people will recognise, such as "Claim payments over 10,000".
2. Choose the module and action.
3. Started by: choose a role to apply the chain only to requests from that role. Leave it empty to apply it to every role.
4. Only from this amount: enter an amount to let smaller cases pass without the chain. Leave it empty to apply it to every amount. The label tells you what the amount means for that action, for example the payment amount or the discount percent.
5. Under Who approves, in order, add one row per step and choose the approving role. A chain can have up to five steps, and you can drag them into a different order.
6. Save. The chain is active at once. Switch Active off to pause it without deleting it.

Actions that can have a chain

Module	Actions
Quotes	Give a discount
Underwriting	Accept a referred risk
Policies	Issue, endorse, cancel, reinstate
Claims	Set or change a reserve, approve a settlement, pay, reopen
Billing	Refund a customer, issue a credit note, write off an invoice
Providers and intermediaries	Pay a commission
Products	Publish a product, which also covers changing the rates or rules of a published product

For policies, the amount of an Issue chain is the sum insured. Use it to give people an authority limit: for example, a policy above 250,000 needs the approval of a more senior role.

Approve, reject or send back

Requests waiting for you are counted on the dashboard and next to Approvals in the menu. Open Approvals and use the Waiting for me tab.

• Approve passes the request to the next step, or carries out the action if yours is the last step. A comment is optional.
• Send back returns the request to the person who asked, with your reason, so they can correct it and ask again.
• Reject ends the request, with your reason.
• Open record shows the claim, policy or invoice the request is about.

The My requests tab shows what you asked for and where each request stands.

Rules that always apply

• Nobody can approve their own request.
• A record with a request waiting cannot be changed until the request is decided.
• The main account acts without chains, and can approve any request at any step, which completes the chain.
• If nobody holds the role of a step, the main account is notified instead, so a request never gets stuck.
• Every request and every decision is kept, with the name, the time and the comment. You see them on the record under Approvals and in the audit trail.

When several chains fit

Keep it simple: one chain per action and role is easiest to explain to your team. If more than one active chain fits a request, the system uses the most specific one: a chain for the user's own role comes before a chain for every role, and a higher starting amount comes before a lower one.