Template Budget Approval Rules tab for automating line-item approvals

You can write approval rules on the Budget Approval Rules tab of program, project, and invoice templates to streamline the approval process. Using the rule builder, you can define rules that automatically approve budget and invoice line items.

Each time a line item is added or edited, HCL® Marketing Operations checks it against the approval conditions that are set in the template. If the line item meets the conditions, it triggers an approval process. If the line item change does not meet the conditions, it is approved automatically.

Note: If you do not write any rules, HCL Marketing Operations does not require any approvals.

Each line item requires a separate approval. Depending on the conditions that are set, one line item can trigger multiple, parallel approvals from multiple approvers.

To build rule conditions, you can use any attribute in any form in the template. For projects and programs, you can also build conditions that are based on the following budget attributes.

Expenditure date
Source account
Cost category
Committed amount
Forecast amount
Vendor name

For invoices, you can also build conditions that are based on the following line item attributes.

Source account
Cost category
Cost per unit
Quantity
Total cost

For more information about the approval process, see the HCL Marketing Operations User's Guide.

You can build rules for Marketing Operations placeholder users.

Program templates: program owner and account owner
Project templates: project owner and account owner
Invoice templates: invoice owner and account owner

These placeholder users can then be mapped to real users in your organization.