Approval User Groups

• 03/12/2021
• 11 minutes to read

You can easily set up approval user groups with specific account and dimension permissions that will apply to all members of the group. This is useful if you have a fairly large group of approvers who must all have the same set of assigning and approval permissions, as you then avoid having to reconfigure the approvers' permissions individually.

To set up approval user groups

You can create a group of approvers and add members to it by following these steps:

1. Choose the icon, enter Approval User Groups, and then choose the related link.
2. In the action bar, select New to create a new approval user group.
3. In the Code column, enter the code by which you want to identify the new group.
4. In the Name column, enter the name of the new group.
5. To add members to the group, select the group in the list, and then select Members in the action bar to open the group's members page.
6. In the action bar, select New, and then select a member from the list. Repeat this step for all members you want to add, and return to the Approval User Groups page when you're done.

   Note

   In order for you to be able to add members to a group, the members must be configured as approvers first. Otherwise they won't be available in the list.

To configure account and dimension permissions for a group

Once you've set up an approval user group as described above, you can assign account and dimension permissions to it. You can configure the following two kinds of permissions:

• Assigning permissions – what accounts and dimensions the group members can choose between when assigning accounts/dimensions to invoice lines during approval using the Continia Web Approval Portal
• Approval permissions – what invoice lines the group members can approve (only lines that have been assigned accounts/dimensions for which the members have permissions)

For more information on these two overall types of permissions, see Additional details on assigning and approval permissions below.

To assign account and dimension permissions to an approval user group, follow these steps:

1. Choose the icon, enter Approval User Groups, and then choose the related link.
2. Select the group in the list, and then select Permissions in the action bar to open the group's permissions page.
3. In the Type column, select the type of permission. G/L Account, Item, Fixed Asset, Charge (Item), and Job are all types of account permissions, whereas Dimension represents dimension permissions.
4. If you selected Dimension in step 3 above: In the Dimension Code column, add a dimension code. If you selected anything other than Dimension in step 3, leave the field empty.
5. In the Assigning Permission column, specify how you want to set up the assigning permissions you want the group members to have.

   Tip

   Explanatory notes on the options:

   • All: The group members can assign all accounts/dimensions to invoice lines during approval, and no further setup is required.
   • Include Selected: The members can assign the accounts/dimensions that you select in the No. of Assigning Selections column (which is then mandatory to fill in).
   • Exclude Selected: The members can assign all accounts/dimensions except the ones you select in the No. of Assigning Selections column (which is then mandatory to fill in).
   • Filter: The members can assign the accounts/dimensions that you select in the Assigning Filter column (which is then mandatory to fill in).
6. In the Approval Permission column, specify how you want to set up the approval permissions you want the group members to have.

   Tip

   Explanatory notes on the options:

   • All: The group members can approve invoice lines with any accounts/dimensions, and no further setup is required.
   • Include Selected: The members can approve invoice lines with the accounts/dimensions that you select in the No. of Approval Selections column (which is then mandatory to fill in).
   • Exclude Selected: The members can approve invoice lines with any accounts/dimensions except the ones you select in the No. of Approval Selections column (which is then mandatory to fill in).
   • Filter: The members can approve invoice lines with the accounts/dimensions that you select in the Approval Filter column (which is then mandatory to fill in).
   • Same as Assigning: The settings configured for assigning permissions in step 5 are copied and used as the members' approval permissions as well.
7. If you selected Filter in step 5 above: In the Assigning Filter column, select the accounts/dimensions that you want the group members to be able to assign to invoice lines during approval.
8. If you selected Filter in step 6 above: In the Approval Filter column, select the accounts/dimensions that you want the group members to be able to approve invoice lines for.

   Note

   For both filter options (steps 7 and 8), you can enter ranges or multiple accounts/dimensions using standard filter notation – for example, 10100..10500 and 10100|10500.

9. If you selected Include Selected or Exclude Selected in step 5 above: In the No. of Assigning Selections column, select the accounts/dimensions that you want the group members to be (un)able to assign to invoice lines during approval.
10. If you selected Include Selected or Exclude Selected in step 6 above: In the No. of Approval Selections column, select the accounts/dimensions that you want the group members to be (un)able to approve invoice lines for.

Additional details on assigning and approval permissions

Specifically for assigning permissions, note that whenever an approver uses a lookup field in the Web Approval Portal, the list of available options in the lookup field is limited by the assigning permissions of that approver – that is, whatever restrictions you've applied using the Filter, Include Selected, and/or Exclude Selected options mentioned above and here.

For example, only 5-10 % of the total number of G/L accounts are typically relevant to the approver, so when you set up assigning permissions for the approver, you can limit the list of available G/L accounts to only include the ones that are relevant to that particular approver. In the Web Approval Portal, any applicable lookup field will then only display your selection of G/L accounts. The same principle applies to items, fixed assets, item charges, jobs, and dimensions.

For both assigning and approval permissions, the following applies: If an approver is a member of multiple approval user groups with different permissions or has been assigned permissions both individually and as a member of one or more approval user groups, the approver is granted the sum of all permissions. In case there's a conflict between assigned permissions – for example, if permissions for the same record have been included in one group but excluded in another – the excluded permissions take precedence.

For example, an approver may have access to ten G/L accounts as a member of an approval user group, but if one of these accounts is then excluded in the approver's individually assigned permissions, the approver will only have access to the remaining nine accounts assigned via the approval user group. Again, the same principle applies to items, fixed assets, item charges, jobs, and dimensions.

Specifically for approval permissions, it's worth noting that approvers are identified using the standard procedures (either through approval flows or via Purchaser Code for the first approver and amount limits for any additional approvers) – they're not identified based on account/dimension types. However, when a document is approved and ready to be released, Document Capture checks that all lines have been approved by approvers that have the required permissions for the types of accounts/dimensions used.

See also

Enabling Purchase Approval
Continia User Setup for Approvals