Approval Management

1. Feature Overview

Approval Management in Sangam CRM automates business approval workflows, ensuring:

• Compliance: No critical actions proceed without proper approval.

• Transparency: Track every approval with a clear audit trail.

• Efficiency: Streamlined multi-level approvals reduce manual follow-ups.

You can configure approvals across all CRM modules with flexible rules, including sequential or parallel approval methods.

2. Key Capabilities

3. How It Works

Enabling and Configuring Approval Management in Sangam CRM

Step 1: Enable Approval Management Feature per Module

• Navigate to Admin → Studio → [Select Module] → Enable Features tab.

• Enable the Approval Management feature for the required module.

Step 2: Access Approval Management Configuration

• Go to Admin Panel → Services → Approval Management to open the configuration interface.

• You will see a list view of existing approval processes. Click the + icon to create a new approval process configuration.

Step 3: Create Approval Process

• Enter the Process Name, description, and the CRM module where this process will apply.

• Click Next to proceed.

Step 4: Define Rule Criteria (with Repeat Approval)

• Add rules that specify when the approval should be triggered, using single or multiple conditions. For example:

  • "Status is Request" means whenever the record’s status is set to 'Request', the approval workflow starts.

Major Feature — Repeat Approval:

• If enabled, this ensures that any time an already approved record is modified by the end user, the approval process is automatically re-initiated. This is critical for maintaining compliance and audit integrity—ensuring that if important data changes after approval, a fresh review and sign-off is required.

• Example: If a sales quote is approved but later changed (e.g., price, quantity, or discount edits), the updated record is routed back into the full approval workflow, rather than staying approved by default.

• Multiple rule conditions (fields and values) can be defined and all rules are evaluated together with AND logic.

Step 5: Assign Approvers (with Alternate User Management)

• Select who will approve the record from the option to add multiple users, reporting managers (up to 3 levels), or both.

• Choose the Approval Method:

  • Anyone: The record is approved if any of the selected approvers approve.

  • Everyone: All selected approvers must provide approval. Supports both Sequential (one after another) and Parallel (simultaneous) orders.

Major Feature — Alternate User:

• Assign an alternate user. If the original approver is inactive or has left the organization—and the admin forgot to update the workflow—the approval request is automatically rerouted to the alternate user.

• This ensures no approval gets stuck due to outdated user assignments and guarantees uninterrupted business processes.

• Alerts and notifications can be set up for requests and approvals, including email templates for communication.

Step 6: Configure Actions and Field Updates on Approval, Disapproval, or Self-Cancellation

• In this step, the admin can precisely define what happens when an approval request is approved, rejected, or self-cancelled by the requester.

• For each outcome (Approval, Rejection, Self Cancellation):

  • Set Alerts/Notifications: Choose to notify via email, in-app notifications, or other channels.

  • Select Notification Template: Use custom templates to communicate the outcome to requesters and approvers.

  • Update Fields Automatically: Admins can configure specific fields to be updated on the approval record depending on the action taken; for instance, set the ‘Status’ field to “Approved,” “Disapproved,” or “Self Cancelled” as shown below.

• This level of automation ensures that every approval request is not only tracked but also brings CRM data up to date automatically following the completion of each stage.

Step 7: Save and Review Configuration

• Once the admin completes all configuration steps and clicks Save, the system redirects to a comprehensive summary view.

• This page displays the entire approval workflow configuration in one place, including:

  • Process details (name, status, module, description)

  • Approval rule criteria

  • List of assigned approvers and alternate users

  • Selected notification templates and approval methods

  • Field update actions for approval, rejection, and self-cancellation

• This organized view allows easy auditing, quick edits, and confidence that all conditions, notifications, and user assignments are properly set.

Step 8: Approval Process in Action

• When a record is sent for approval, a Pending and self cancel button appears on the detail view.

• During approval, records cannot be edited or deleted.

• The Approval Job sub-panel shows full approval history—who approved, stages, and comments.

• Mass actions are restricted for records in approval on list views.

Step 9: Actions for Approvers

• Approver receive notification on their mobile app and web crm platform

• Approvers receive requests and see Approve and Disapprove buttons on the detail view.

• Approvers can add comments while taking action.

4. Advanced Approval on Quotation Line Items

• In the Quotation module, each line item’s price, quantity, and discount fields are statically compared against corresponding values in the Product Master.

• The system displays individual line items separately in the approval workflow, reflecting exactly which items have been sent for approval.

• The Repeat Approval condition continues to operate as configured, triggering new approvals when approved records are modified.

• Multiple Approval Processes:

  • More than one approval process can run in parallel on a single record.

  • For example, approvals may be required simultaneously from two different departments, each with distinct approval criteria.

  • The record will remain locked and under approval until both departments have granted their approvals.

  • Only after all parallel approvals succeed will the record unlock and advance.

This advanced quotation line item approval mechanism ensures precise controls over pricing and discounts, tracks approval per product item, and supports complex multi-department workflows, maximizing compliance and operational efficiency.

Example Use Case

A manufacturing company requires purchase order approval from both the finance and compliance departments. Each department has its own approval criteria on different fields within the same quotation. Both departments must approve before the order is processed, ensuring strict governance and control.

When to Enable

Use this advanced mechanism when line item-level financial controls are necessary.

Enable if multiple departments or teams must independently approve different conditions on a single quotation.

Ideal when compliance or operational workflows require granular control in sales or procurement processes.

5. Flow Chart of Approval Process

6. User Experience

For End Users

• Submit records for approval; track status (Pending, Approved, Rejected).

• Receive notifications and emails on status changes.

• Optionally locked record during approval.

• Self Cancelled Feature: If information is incomplete or needs correction, requestors can self-cancel an approval request, update details, and resubmit for approval. Notifications sent to approvers and workflows reset accordingly.

For Approvers

• View and action approval requests via dashboards/notifications.

• Approve/reject with comments.

• Workflows respect sequential, parallel, and alternate approver rules.

For Administrators

• Enable, configure, and monitor approval workflows per module.

• Assign approvers and define approval order and escalation policies.

• Monitor full audit trail in Approval Job module.

• Configure record edit restrictions during approval.

7. Approval Types

1. Sequential Approval

   • Record goes first to Manager A, then Manager B, then Director.

   • All must approve to move forward.

2. Parallel Approval

   • Record is sent to three approvers at the same time.

   • Optionally, the first one to approve moves the record forward.

3. Alternate User

   • If the primary approver is unavailable, the backup approver can take action.

8. Example Scenarios

• Multi-user Approval: Approval workflows with 1-3 approvers, sequential “everyone approves” or parallel “anyone approves,” including alternates and inactive user logic.

• User + Report To Approvals: Combined individual and hierarchical approvals, e.g., sales plus finance checks.

• Self-Approval Handling: Requests redirected to alternate approvers if requester is approver.

• Dealer Pricing Matrix: Dealer account pricing triggers specific parallel or single-person approvals based on price thresholds.

• Dynamic Line Item Approvals: Approvals triggered on configurable fields like margin and totals on line items.

• Notifications & Audit: All approval actions send real-time notifications and emails; every event logged for traceability.

• Cross-Platform Usage: Fully supported on web, Android, and iOS for mobile access.

• PDF Drafts: Pending, self-cancelled, or rejected records generate draft PDFs for compliance and review.

• Repeat and Branch-Specific Approvals: Support for recurring approvals and branch/team-specific processes.

• Robustness: Graceful handling of incomplete or changing approval scenarios and load conditions.

9. Glossary

10. Best Practices

• Use sequential approvals for compliance-critical processes; parallel for fast throughput.

• Apply approval only on critical fields to reduce operational load.

• Prefer role-based and reporting-manager approvers for flexibility.

• Audit Approval Job logs regularly for process improvement and compliance.