Cascading approvals
Approvals vary depending on the case type. An auto insurance case type may need one approval from the company underwriter. Some case types, such as a purchase request or an expense report, may require a series of approvals — a cascading approval process configures a series of approvals.
When configuring a cascading approval, consider the following questions:
- Who needs to perform the approval?
- How many approvals are required?
- Is approval by the entire reporting structure required, or only a subset of the hierarchy?
- Are approvals outside the reporting structure required?
The two cascading approval models are reporting structure and authority matrix.
Cascading approvals with a reporting structure
Cascading approvals based on reporting structure require the approval of a user's direct manager and higher. You can also configure business logic to set thresholds to determine the number of required approvals.
For example, an expense report requires manager approval before the accounting department can process the payment. Depending on the total of the expenses submitted, the expense request may also need approval by a senior manager, a director, and a vice president.
Cascading approvals with a reporting structure options
You configure cascading approvals in Dev Studio.
In the following image, click the + icons to learn more about the reporting structure cascading approval options.
Reporting structure custom approval level
An expense report reimbursement request requires approvals based on the reporting structure and approvals shown in the following image. The number of approvals depends on the amount of the request.
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Cascading approvals with an authority matrix
A cascading approval based on an authority matrix is more flexible than a reporting structure. You use the authority matrix model when configuring a process that requires approvals from multiple entities, with at least one entity outside of the reporting structure. A set of rules directs the approval chain to entities outside of the reporting structure, within and external to the user's organization.
An expense report that requires approvals outside of the reporting hierarchy (for example, to accounts payable) uses an authority matrix model.
Authority matrix data structure population
A cascading approval with an authority matrix requires the configuration of a data structure that identifies the approvers. The application queries the structure for each approval until the listed approvals are exhausted.
Pega Platform™ provides several ways to populate the data structure. One common approach is to configure a decision table to identify the approval levels and corresponding parties. Pega Platform parses the list to populate the data structure.
Note: A data page, activity, or data transform can also be used to populate the reporting structure.
Following the previous example, an application uses an authority matrix to manage expense report approvals. The decision table identifies each party in the approval process as well as the conditions that determine when each party must provide approval. The matrix contains three conditions based on the expense amount. The fourth condition states that Accounts Payable must approve any billable expense.
The application evaluates the decision table. Each satisfied row or condition adds the results to a list of approvers. Approval assignments are routed to approvers in the order of list appearance.
Tip: When using a decision table with an authority matrix, set the decision table to Evaluate all rows to return a list of results. Otherwise, the decision table returns only one result.
If a consultant submits an expense report for USD700 that includes billable time, the application creates an authority matrix with three approvals: Accounts Payable, the manager of the consultant, and the director who oversees the consulting department.
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