Order Approval Process
OnPrintShop solution has an Order Approval System that can be applied to the B2B stores. With this system, the order will be channeled to a Company Approver. Orders can be approved or rejected by the approver and the approver has some functionality to alter the order, if necessary.
Note: The Order Approval System will only work when Pay On Balance is enabled for the Store.
There are three types of approval systems at OnPrintShop:
(User Designated Approver)
This relatively simple approval process enables the store customers ordering to provide the email address of the person who should approve their order. The email address field appears at the Shopping Cart Page.
In multi-level approval process order will pass through multiple approvers and finally get approved. Here, the order will be approved by Level 1 authority first then it will be carried forward to next level – Level 2 after it gets approved from here it will be sent to next level, the cycle will follow until the order is approved by all the levels set by store (defined via Site Variable).
(Main Super Approver followed by Partial Approver)
The two-stage approval process is used when partial approvers need to approve the order and then it flows to super approver office for the final approval. This provides great functionality for large store and public sector clients who need advanced expenditure control. However, if super approver approves the order while other partial approvers are remaining, the order gets automatically 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.
In our system this 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 –
- No – The order will not undergo the approval process. There will be no approver in the system.
- Yes – There will be an approval process in the system, where the Admin and Store Admin will get the opportunity to define access roles for various store customers.
- Partial Order – There will be an approval process, where the Super Admin will have the rights to approve order partially and delete product(s) from the order.
- No – There will be no provision for the Store Customer to enter the email id of any external approver.
- Optional – There will be a textbox given at the Shopping Cart page where the Store Customer can enter the email ID of their external approvers. However, filling the textbox will be optional.
- Mandatory – This will make the email textbox field mandatory for the Store Customers to fill.
If you will enable this setting, then system will display cancel order button which allows the Store Customers to cancel their order which are pending for approval.
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 default department, 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 be remaining to approve the order.
- Partial Approval: Approval rights are applied partially. There are chances that another person also needs to approve for those orders to get approved completely.
- Level Approval: The hierarchy of 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.
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 then an Order Approval Permission.
- If a customer is super approver, give them the permission to modify the ordered products.
- Allow them to request inventory.
- 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 –
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.
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.
Consider a Store with 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.
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.
