This article is dedicated to the different scenarios you may come across when using Approval flows and thresholds:
Automatic approval for apps with no budget or payment method
Bypassing first approval for Team Managers and Admins
Bypassing both approvals for second-level approvers
First approval triggered for second-level approvers
Automatic approval for apps with no budget or payment method
- Scenario
A team member creates an application that doesn't have any associated budget or payment method requirements.
- Approval Flows
Since the application has no financial impact, it is set up to be created automatically, bypassing all approval steps.
Turn on 'Require approval for all application requests' to ensure free tools and applications without a payment method also require approval.
If you enable 'Require approval for all application requests', free tools and applications that don't have a payment method will no longer be automatically approved.
Instead, they will enter the configured approval flow and require one or two approvals, depending on your Single or Dual approval setup.
If this option is not enabled, applications without a budget or payment method will continue to be automatically approved, as described in this scenario.
Bypassing first approval for Team Managers and Admins
- Scenario
An application is created by a Team Manager or Admin.
- Approval Flow
The application will bypass the first approval.
- If Dual Approval is turned on
The application goes directly to the second-level approver for approval.
Bypassing both approvals for second-level approvers
- Scenario
An application is created by the second-level approver, and the request triggers both approval flows.
- Approval Flows
Because the application creator is already at the second approval level, both the first and second approval stages are bypassed.
First approval triggered for second-level approvers
- Scenario
Approval threshold is set for both Approval flow and Dual Approval flows, and the second-level approver creates an application with a budget that falls between the first and second approval threshold, and in turn, triggers only the first approval.
- Approval Flow
If the approval threshold dictates that only a first-level approval is needed, the application will be sent to Team managers and Admins for approval, adhering to the defined threshold requirements.
The user being the second-level approver is irrelevant in this case, since second approval is not triggered.
- Example
If Jo, the second-level approver, creates an application with a budget of £150, based on the Approval threshold setup, only the first approval is triggered.
The request will be sent to Admins and Team managers for approval, even though Jo is the second-level approver.