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Custom Approval

Custom Approval in Zoho Procurement allows admins to create flexible approval workflows based on specific business requirements. Instead of following a fixed approval path, you can define custom rules and conditions that determine who should approve a transaction.

Scenario: Patricia is the Procurement Admin at Zylker. She is usually the final approver for purchase orders. However, for purchase orders exceeding $10,000, Bailey, the Chief Procurement Officer, must approve them after Patricia. To achieve this, Patricia uses the Custom Approval feature in Zoho Procurement and adds Bailey as the final approver for purchase orders that exceed $10,000.

Note: You cannot set Custom Approval for the Payments Made module.

Create Custom Approval

Here’s how you can create custom approval flows for modules:

  • Go to Settings in the top right corner of the page.
  • Click the module for which you want to set custom approval.
  • Go to the Approvals tab.
  • Click Custom Approval.
  • Click + New Custom Approval.

Name Your Custom Approval

  • Enter the Approval Name.
  • Enter the purpose for purpose of creating the custom approval in the Description field. If you choose Auto Reject as the Approval Type, this field is mandatory, as the description you provide will be shown as the reason for auto rejection.

Define the Criteria

Specify the conditions under which a custom approval should apply. Only records that meet these conditions will trigger the associated approval workflow.

  • Specify the criteria by selecting a field, a comparator, and entering the required value.
  • Click + Add Criterion to include additional conditions. You can set up to 10 criteria for each custom approval.
  • Multiple conditions can be set by using AND (or) OR based on which you can specify whether both the conditions or at least one of the conditions should be satisfied. Click the Edit icon next to the Criteria Pattern to change it. For instance, the criteria pattern can be (1 AND 2), ((1 AND 2 ) OR 3), and so on.
  • Click the - or Delete icon to remove a criteria.

Approval Type

Choose who can approve the records when the specified conditions are met.

  • Auto Approve: The system will automatically approve records that meet the specified condition.
  • Auto Reject: The system will automatically reject records that meet the specified condition.
  • Configure Approval Flow: You can set up multi-level approvals. The submitted records will first have to get approved by the Level One Approver, followed by the Level Two Approver, and so on. You can select any of the following options to configure the approval flow:
    • Submits To: The default approver of the user. It follows the reporting hierarchy in your organization.
    • Choose an Approver Manually: Select an approver manually from the existing users.
    • Project Head: Select this option if a particular report is associated with a project and needs the approval of the project head.
    • Project Heads of Purchase Request Items: The Project Heads associated with the line items of the purchase request.
    • Department Head of the Logged-in User: The head of the department to which the owner of the report belongs.
    • Department Head: The approver will be the department head of the department you choose.
    • Choose a Designation-Hierarchy Based: A user with the selected designation who is in the submits to hierarchy of the submitter will be the approver.
    • Choose a Lookup Field: The approver will be the user selected in the lookup custom field you have chosen.
  • Click the (-) or Delete icon next to an option to remove it from the approval flow.
  • Click + Add Note to convey any information or disclaimer that you want this approver to know when they are approving records. The approver can find this in the record’s Details page.

  • Click Save after configuring the approval.

Prioritize Custom Approvals

In some cases, records might fulfil the criteria of multiple custom approvals. In such cases, you can choose which custom approval should be triggered first by prioritizing them.

To prioritize custom approvals:

  • Go to Settings in the top right corner of the page.
  • Click the module for which you want to prioritize custom approvals.
  • Go to the Approvals tab.
  • Click Change Priority, then drag and reorder the custom approvals to set their priority. Custom approvals with a higher priority (Priority 1 being the highest) will be applied before the others.
  • Click Save Priority Changes.

Edit Custom Approvals

You can make changes to custom approvals by editing them. Here’s how:

  • Go to Settings in the top right corner of the page.
  • Click the module for which you want to edit custom approvals.
  • Go to the Approvals tab.
  • Hover over the custom approval you want to edit.
  • Click the More and select Edit.
  • Make the necessary changes and click Save.

Delete Custom Approvals

If you no longer require certain custom approvals, you can delete them. Here’s how:

  • Go to Settings in the top right corner of the page.
  • Click the module for which you want to delete tcustom approvals.
  • Go to the Approvals tab.
  • Hover over the custom approval you want to edit.
  • Click the More and select Delete.
  • Confirm your action by clicking Delete again in the pop-up.
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