Approval Process feature overview

The Approval Process feature lets B2B customers have multiple people contributing to the ordering process but requires the manager’s approval to proceed with the checkout.

Permissions related to the approval process are configured based on the restrictions applied to a company role. Generally, the approval process is initiated when the cart total exceeds a certain amount set in the Buy up to grand total permissions. For example, an employee in a company may have to send their order to the manager for approval if the total order cost is above a certain amount. Only after the manager has received the request and approved the order, the employee can proceed to the checkout.

When a company user requests approval for their cart, the cart gets locked, and the users can’t edit it.

Approval Process concept

Generally speaking, approval is usually given when someone has a positive opinion about something.

In the B2B industry, approvals are referred to shopping carts and items in the carts that the authorized people have to review and respond to, either approving or declining the order. Approval Process is used to submit a cart for approval after passing the necessary steps of the checkout, allowing the responsible manager to review the order.

For the approval process, you can set specific permissions for the Approver and Buyer roles:

• The Buy up to grand total permission that restricts the cart checkout when the cart grand total amount reaches the limit specified in this permission.

To configure this permission, use this step-by-step instruction.

• The Send cart for approval permission, which lets a buyer send a cart for approval to their manager. Without this permission, a buyer cannot see the Request for Approval widget.

• The Approve up to grand total permission, which lets an approver approve the carts that do not hit the cart grand total limit specified there. To learn how to set up the permission in the Storefront, see Configuring the Approve up to grand total permission.

Every approval request can have three statuses:

• Waiting—the approver has been assigned, but the approval hasn’t been confirmed.
• Approved—the cart has been approved.
• Declined—the cart has been rejected.

Approval Process workflow

Approval Process as such introduces steps that company employees must follow to order, request for approval, and pay for products.

Here’s how approvals fit into the buying process:

1. Submitting the request for approval

The Approval Process workflow is flexible and starts when a buyer submits the request for approval through the company user account in the shop application. The approval request can be submitted after any step of the checkout, depending on the project configuration. The buyer requests approval from the appropriate approver through the Approver widget. For details about how to submit a request for approval, see Approval Process on the Storefront. After the buyer has requested the approval, the request gets the Waiting status and cannot be edited.

2. Approval or rejection

After the request for approval has been sent, the approver can check it in the Shopping Cart widget:

At this point, the approver cannot alter the quote in any way (like editing it, or adding vouchers). Based on the contents of the quote, the approver may reject or approve the buyer’s request. If approved, the request is returned to the buyer for further processing, and the Approval Request status changes to Approved. A buyer cannot do any updates/changes with the quote after it has been approved. If the approver rejects the cart, the approval workflow is terminated. The quote gets the status Declined and quote editing is restored again. The buyer may perform some changes with the quote (remove items, decrease the number of products) and start the approval process again or send the cart to another approver.

Schematically, the Approval Process workflow can be defined in the following way:

Approval Process scenarios

Approval process workflow can be most clearly described in several common scenarios:

Case 1: Approval Process is optional

Prerequisites:

The company has the following company users:

The approval process is optional if the buyer submits a quote with cart total that does not exceed the amount set in the Buy up to grand total permission. Thus, the buyer can either finish the checkout or send the request for approval to let the approver know about the upcoming expenses, for example. If the buyer decides to send the approval request, they can’t complete the checkout until the request is approved.

Case 2: Approval Process is initiated (multiple approvers)

Prerequisites:

The company has the following company users:

Submitting quote B triggers an approval process because the quote total exceeds the amount set in the Buy up to grand total permission. To approve that request, an employee asks for approval from either the manager or the head of the department using the Approval widget and waits until the quote gets the Approved status. Once the request is approved, the employee can complete the checkout.

Case 3: Approval Process is initiated (senior approver)

Prerequisites:

The company has the following company users:

Quote C needs approval that has to be provided by the head of the department because the manager’s approval limit is lower than the quote grand total. After the request has been approved by the head of the department, the buyer can complete the checkout.

Case 4: Approval Process is not initiated

Prerequisites:

The company has the following company users:

Quote D can’t be processed because the quote total is higher than any Approver permissions set for that company. In such case, the only workaround is to edit the quote (decrease the quantity of the items or remove some items from the cart), split the cart into several carts, or create a new Approver role with a greater Approve up to permission.

Quote lock functionality

After the quote is submitted for approval, it gets locked for both the buyer and the approver. This functionality prevents any changes to the quote’s content while it’s in the pending approval state.

Quote lock is fulfilled with the help of the isLocked bool parameter that has been added to the Cart module. The IsLocked parameter is added to /Spryker/Zed/Quote/QuoteConfig::getQuoteFieldsAllowedForSaving().

When the isLocked parameter is set to true, then:

• Items cannot be added or removed from the quote.
• Quote validation is not allowed.
• Currency change is not available.
• Discount change is not available.
• The quote cannot be shared.

Approval Process on the Storefront

Company users can perform the following actions using the Approval Process feature on the Storefront:

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