Specific stages of a project can require one or more approvals. Aidi lets you define multi-stage approval chains for different elements of a project.
At the project level, approval chains are defined for:
- Budgets
- Purchase orders
- Project modification requests
At the purchase order level, approval chains are defined for:
- All contractual changes
- Payment requests
- Invoices
At the scheduler level, approval chains are defined by tasks and are only available to customers subscribing to the Enterprise plans of the Aidi platform.
Approval chains for project requests are defined in the Admin menu.
Approval Chains Defined at the Project Level
Approval chains defined at the project level can be imported at the time that the project is created.
Importing an existing approval chain:
- At the Configure step of the project creation, select Project Template.
- Select the project to use as a template from the dropdown list.
- Check the appropriate boxes according to what is to be copied to this new project. For approval chains, check Budget Approval Chains and Purchase Order Approval Chains as needed.
Manual addition of an approval chain
In Projects on the Initialize tab, double-click on any project line to open it, then access the Details page by clicking on the icon in the top right-hand corner.
- Go to Configure approval chain.
- Select the item for which you want to configure the approval chain, i.e. Budget, Purchase order or Project modification request.
- If no approval chain is required for the selected item, click on the No approval chain (Direct approval) button.
- If more than one component has been defined for the project, you can choose to configure a single approval chain that will be used for all components of the project for the selected item.
(Example: the approval chain could be set to apply to all project budgets, regardless of component).
- It is also possible to configure an approval chain by component for each element.
(Example: the approval chain could be different for purchase orders created in component A than from those created in component B.)
✏️Note: If only one component is defined for this project, this button will not be available.
- Click on the dropdown list to select an approver.
The approver can be a contact role or a project contact.
Contact role (Available for Advanced and Enterprise subscriptions)
The list of contact roles is defined in the Admin menu, and roles are assigned to contacts by project. Roles are assigned to a project contact in the project Contacts section. Some organizations may refer to roles as governance roles or project roles.
When a role is selected as a step in an approval chain, it means that all project contacts with that role will receive an email and notification in Aidi when their approval is required on something. Any contact with the role is able to approve the request, provided their Aidi access profile gives them access to the entity and they have the appropriate approval role.
If several contacts have this role, they all have the same opportunity to make the approval, there is no pre-established order. Which contact approves the request will have their name associated with that action.
This feature simplifies the approval process and is particularly useful in the event of the absence of a person designated as an approver.
Project contacts
The list of proposed approvers includes project contacts who have a user role with budget / purchase order approval access.
- It is possible to specify a minimum dollar amount per approver. In this way, a designated approver will be chosen based on if the amount is greater than or equal to a specified value.
- To add another approver, click on the “+” sign under existing approvers.
- You can define people to be notified by email at the end of the approval circuit.
3-Dots Menu
Add a reminder: Enter the number of days before a reminder is to be sent, select whether reminders are to be sent only from Monday to Friday and click Save.
Manage email recipients: Enter the email addresses of those who should receive a copy of the approval request email. Click on the "+" button to add more people and on the "-" button to delete them. Click on Save.
Approval Chain Defined at the Purchase Order Level
Approval chains defined at the purchase order level can be imported when the purchase order is created, to avoid having to create them for each purchase order.
Import of an existing approval chain:
- In the Purchase order creation Configure step, select Purchase order.
- Select the purchase order to be used as a template from the drop-down list.
- Check the appropriate boxes according to the approval chains to be copied to this purchase order.
Manual addition of an approval chain
In the Purchase orders page of the Execution tab, double-click on the purchase order line to open it and access the Configure approval chain section.
- Select the item for which you wish to configure the approval chain, i.e. Invoice, Payment Request, Directive, Change Order, or any other contractual modification available.
✏️ Note: If no approval chain is required for one or more elements, simply leave that section empty.
- Click on the drop-down list to select an approver. The approver can be a contact role or a project contacts.
- You can specify a minimum amount for each approver. In this way, an approver will only be assigned approval requests when the amount of the request is greater than or equal to the specified value.
✏️ Note: The approval chain for the payment request does not include a value field.
- To add another approver, click on the "+" sign under existing approvers.
- You can define people to whom to send an e-mail notification at the end of the approval chain.
- The 3 dots menu allows you to set a reminder, manage email recipients of a copy of the approval request, and delete the approver.
Approval Chain Defined at Scheduler Level
In the scheduler, approval chains are defined and specific to each task.
- In the Diagram view, access the task by clicking the stylus in front of the task for which you wish to configure the approval chain.
- In the Approbation section, select an approver. Proposed approvers are project contacts who have scheduler approval permissions in their access profile.
✏️ Note: It is not possible to define a contact role as an approver for a task, as can be done at project and purchase order level.
- Once an approver has been added, the Send for approval button appears at the bottom of the page.
- To add further approvers to the approval chain, click on the "+" sign below the approvers listed, and on the "-" sign to remove the last approver from the list.
- To set a reminder, specify the number of days before the reminder is sent, and select whether reminders are to be sent only from Monday to Friday.
- To manage the email recipients of the approval request, enter their email addresses. Click on the "+" button to add more people, and on the "-" button to delete them.
- You can request that an email be sent at the end of the chain to different collaborators; you can enter as many email addresses as you like.
- Click Save when finished.
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