Approval rules

Approval rules are where you define the approval chains the rest of the platform enforces. A rule sets out the sequence of sign-offs a record must collect, so approval follows your process rather than being arranged ad hoc each time.

Defining approval chains centrally is what keeps sign-off from varying with whoever happens to route a record. Left to individuals, one person’s design-change approval might collect the right quality and regulatory signatures while another’s quietly skips a step — and the difference wouldn’t surface until an audit found it. Encoding the required steps, signers, and the meaning of each signature as a governed rule means every record of a given class follows the same defensible path to approval, owned by the people responsible for the quality process rather than reinvented per record.

Defining the chain

A rule is built from ordered approval steps. For each step you choose who signs it — a specific user, a group, or the item owner — and how many approvals it needs. You also set the meaning each signature carries, with a custom label where your terminology differs, and mark the step always required or optional. A rule can be enabled or disabled, so you can stage changes without disrupting work in flight.

Where the configuration lives versus how it’s used

This admin area is the definition; the act of signing against these chains — re-authenticating, stating the meaning, approving or rejecting — is covered from the user’s side in Approvals & e-signatures. Configuring the chain here and signing there are two halves of the same control.

Getting it right centrally

Because approval rules are defined centrally and applied wherever they’re needed, the sign-off requirements for a class of records stay consistent and are governed by the people responsible for the quality process — not reinvented by whoever happens to be routing a record. In-flight approvals against these rules are monitored in Pending approvals.