Order Approval Process

overview the order approval system helps organizations control purchasing by requiring orders to be reviewed before they are processed administrators can configure different approval workflows based on their business requirements, assign approvers, and define when orders should be approved automatically or routed through one or more approvers the approval system supports external approvers, sequential approval levels, and multi stage approvals, making it suitable for organizations with simple as well as complex purchasing hierarchies note the order approval system is available only when pay on account is enabled for the store purpose the order approval system enables organizations to enforce controlled purchasing by routing orders through a predefined approval workflow before they are processed it allows administrators to configure approval hierarchies, assign approval permissions to store customers, and define when orders require manual approval or can be approved automatically using approval rules this helps businesses maintain spending control, comply with internal approval policies, and streamline the order approval process for b2b and private stores types of approval systems onprintshop supports three approval workflows depending on the organization's approval process external approver (user designated approver) store customers can specify an external approver's email address during checkout the approver receives an email containing a secure link to review and approve or reject the order without requiring a storefront account this workflow is useful when approvals are handled by managers or stakeholders outside the system level approvers level approval follows a sequential approval hierarchy orders are routed from the level 1 approver to the level 2 , then level 3 , and continue through the configured approval levels until all required approvals are completed each approver receives the approval request only after the previous level has approved the order two stage approval (main super approver followed by partial approver) the two stage approval workflow combines partial approvers and super approvers partial approvers review the order first after the required partial approvals are completed, the order is forwarded to the super approver for the final decision if the super approver approves the order before all partial approvers have responded, the order is immediately marked as approved note all the approvers are dependent on each other if there are multiple approvers for any order however, the super approver acts as an independent approver, meaning the orders approved by the super approver are directly marked as approved completely configuration approval settings in our system, the order approval hierarchy is totally optional and flexible depending on the store structure, admin can decide upon the approval hierarchy and provide other order approval features there are a few related settings related to the same, such as – order approval this setting determines whether orders placed using pay on account must go through an approval workflow before they are processed no orders are processed immediately after checkout without requiring approval no approval workflow or approvers are involved yes enables the order approval workflow for the store administrators can assign approval permissions (such as super approver, partial approver, or level approver) to store customers through access roles , and orders are routed accordingly for approval partial order enables the approval workflow with additional order modification capabilities users with super approver permission can partially approve an order by modifying product quantities or removing one or more products (provided the order contains multiple items) before giving the final approval external approval this setting controls whether customers can specify an external approver while placing an order no the checkout page does not display an option to enter an external approver's email address orders follow only the internal approval workflow configured for the store optional customers can enter the email address of an external approver during checkout, but providing it is optional if an email address is entered, the external approver receives an approval request along with the internal approvers mandatory customers must enter the email address of an external approver before completing checkout the order cannot be submitted until a valid email address is provided allow user to cancel the order enable this setting to allow store customers to cancel their own orders while they are still pending approval once enabled, a cancel order option is displayed for eligible orders, allowing customers to withdraw the request before it is approved and processed orders that have already been approved or moved to the next stage of processing cannot be cancelled using this option access roles this is the section where admin/ store admin will assign various access roles to their store customers different types of access roles that you can define are – allow access this is basic access required for a store customer to visit the storefront view orders/reports if this access right is enabled, store customer will be able to view the orders and reports allow checkout store customers having ‘allow checkout’ access rights will be able to place an order in case of a default department, the store customer by default gets access to place orders however, based on the change of 'view orders/reports' access, they may or may not be allowed to access the checkout page order approval permission if this access right is enabled, then the store customer can approve/reject the order of their subordinates none restricted approval rights super approval the super approver holds the maximum right in the store approval system an order marked as approved by any super approver will act as final approval, even though other users associated might still be required to approve the order partial approval approval rights are applied partially there are chances that another person also needs to approve those orders to get them approved completely level approval the hierarchy of the level approval process goes in a sequential manner i e level 1 > level 2 > level 3 > level 4 > level 5 and so on, as determined by the admin order modify permission this permission is only available for the supper approver this allows them to modify the order (update ordered product quantity and additional options) and even delete a few products allow inventory this option will be available only if the view reports / orders option is enabled store customers having this access can place or restrict inventory requests for the placed orders thus, allowing them to manage and store finished goods until the time of delivery case 1 – if department is disabled if department is disabled, then a customer will get access into the whole store one can allow the customer to view orders and reports grant them an order approval permission if a customer is a super approver, permit them to modify the ordered products allow them to request inventory case 2 – if the department is enabled and customer doesn’t belong to a department a store customer's access rights and order checkout rights for departments can be restricted completely as shown below (with disabled 'allow access' toggle) site admin and store admin can enable the ‘allow access’ toggle and give the customer access to different departments if a customer is granted access in one or more departments, then, while login they’ll get a dropdown, enlisting all the departments assigned to them here, they can select the department they are looking to log in – case 3 – if department is enabled and customer belongs to a department if the department is enabled, then initially the customer will have access to its own department later, one can choose to allow them access to other departments if a customer gets access to multiple departments, then a dropdown appears at the front end when the store customer intends to login here, the customer can choose to log in to its ‘my account’ or to any other department if a customer is chosen to be the super approver of a department then, any order placed in the department would require their final approval however, the orders placed by other departments’ (printing, packaging, proofing) customers will not be displayed for the approver to this customer also, if the customer belonging to a particular department gets access to other departments and is assigned some approval roles, then they’ll be able to place orders on behalf of those departments and even approve the orders coming from them order approval process the order process works in a very systematic way according to the business model any store can assign different approval roles to various customers refer to this schematic diagram to understand the order approval process scenario 1 (a simple system with super and partial approvers) consider a store with the following settings – pay on account – enabled order approval – partial order external approval – optional there are total 4 store customers, out of which there is one super approver and two partial approvers the order approval process in this scenario goes as follows – when a customer (with no access roles) places an order, he mentions an external approval email id in the field given and completes the order after receiving the order, the system will send the order approval email to the initial level approver (the first approval in the level approver hierarchy), partial level approver(s), and super approver(s) in this case, the email will be sent to the super approver, the partial approvers and the external approver when partial approver logs in – they will get a pop up indicating the orders available for approval clicking on the view button will redirect them to the order details page, where a list of all approvers with the order approval status is displayed the partial approver can now accept/reject the order if the order gets rejected, then it gets rejected and no other approver gets the option to approve/reject the order when external approver views the email – as the external approver does not belong to the system, the mail sent to them contains a link to the order approval page also, in the list of approvers the email id of external approver is mentioned if the order is approved by the super approver, then using the link they’ll just be able to view the order details as shown below – but, if the order is in pending approval state then they’ll get the provision to approve the order other approvers will now be able to check that the external approval has approved the order scenario 2 (a system with level approvers, super, and partial approver) consider a store with following settings – four departments (php, sales, marketing, dot net) pay on account – enabled order approval – partial order external approval – optional there are total 7 store customers, out of which there is one super approver (a customer having access to all departments) two partial approvers two level approvers of level 1 and level 2 resp now, when an order is received from a customer belonging to the php department, then all following approvers will receive an email super approver (paul rudd) they’ll also get the edit order and delete buttons along with each product as shown below – note the delete button will only appear only if there are two or more products in the order partial approval (mathew perry), as the second partial approver doesn’t have the access to php department level 1 approver (harry robin) the customer marta kuffman will receive the order pending for approval email, once the level 1 approver (harry robin) approves the order then, the order approval status will also contain their name