With the Extended approval module, you can define rules for the maximum amount up to which certain receipts in Xentral can be approved by employees and to whom the approval must be passed on if the specified maximum amount is exceeded. This allows the module to accelerate and simplify the process of an approval that needs to be forwarded to a higher authority.
The Extended approval module is particularly relevant for you if you have a large team of employees or sell high-priced products. In this case, you can use extended approval rules to specify that the approval of receipts with a high total amount is confirmed by a specific employee or a specific group of employees before the approval is actually granted. This allows you to ensure that the approval of receipts with a high total amount is confirmed by an employee with the appropriate permissions to avoid errors and maintain control over approvals.
Important
The Extended approval module is only available if you use Xentral in the Business plan or Pro plan.
You can find further information on the Xentral plans on our website.
In the Receipts tab of the Extended approval module, all receipts for which an advanced (multi-stage) approval was requested are displayed.
In detail, this means: All receipts listed here have been approved by a Xentral user, but still require confirmation from another user for the actual approval so that the receipt actually receives the approval. The user who clicks on the approval is then displayed the message "multi-stage approval required". In the next step, the final approving user can request it with a click.
By clicking on the gray arrow icon on the right, other users with the appropriate permissions can confirm a requested approval.
Note
For better clarity, only the receipts that are currently still waiting for an approval confirmation are displayed in the Receipts tab of the Extended approval module. Once the receipts have been approved by an authorized user, an entry is created in the Protocol tab of the Extended approval module and the entry for the respective receipt is removed from the Receipts tab.
To be able to use the Extended approval module, you must first define in the Responsibilities tab of the module for which users a financial limit should apply when approving certain receipts. The following receipts are available: Offer, sales order, purchase order, credit note, invoice, and liability.
The limitation of the approval right is based on an upper limit of the total amount of the receipt up to which the user is allowed to approve. For example, employee Erika Muster may only approve offers up to a maximum total amount of €400. If an offer exceeds this value, the approval of the offer must be confirmed by Max Muster.
Proceed as follows to create a new approval rule.
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Use the Smart Search to open the Extended approval module.
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Open the Responsibilities tab.
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Click on + New entry.
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Carry out the desired settings. The following table describes the available fields in more detail.
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Click on Save.
Field label |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Receipt type |
Select the receipt type for which the rule should apply from the drop-down menu. The options Offer, Sales order, Purchase order, Credit note, Invoice, and Liability are available. |
|
Requester type |
Specify whether the rule should apply to an individual user or a group consisting of several users. |
|
Requester |
Select the individual user or group for which the rule should apply. If the rule applies to a group, all users in this group can approve receipts as long as the total amount of the receipt is below the specified limit. |
|
Limit |
Set the threshold for the total amount of the receipt from which the approval should take place in multiple stages, i.e., must be additionally confirmed by the Releaser in a second step. |
|
Releaser type |
Specify whether in this rule only an individual user or a group consisting of several users is allowed to confirm the requested approvals. |
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Approver |
Select the individual user or group that is allowed to confirm the requested approvals. If the rule applies to a group, all users in this group can confirm the requested approvals. |
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If this option is activated, the approver automatically receives an email notification as soon as the Requester requests an approval that requires confirmation. This ensures that the approver learns about the requested approval and can confirm it promptly so that the receipt receives the approval. |
If several users are to be stored as requesters or approvers in a rule, you can add these users to a group created for this purpose and select the group as the Requester or Approver in the approval rule. This allows you to manage the rule more easily, as you do not have to add each user individually to the rule, but only the group.
In the previous chapter Creating a new approval rule, you can find detailed instructions on how to create a new approval rule. Also note the descriptions of the fields Requester type, Requester, Releaser type, and Releaser in the table to select the groups as requesters or approverss in the rule.
If a requested approval has been confirmed by the set Releaser or by another authorized employee, an entry is created in the Protocol tab of the Extended approval module. This allows you to check at any time which approvals were requested by which users and who granted the approval.
In the Protocol tab, in addition to the requester, the approver, the receipt type, and the receipt numbers, the limits that applied to the requesters are also displayed.