Approval and Denial Threshold Rules

CSM follows a set process to determine whether an approval or a denial can be actioned. You can configure approvals for any Major Business Object.

Prerequisite: For information on setting thresholds, see Define Approver Properties.

Important information

Primary Settings is the main setting for the threshold for that Approval Block and it applies to all the approvers in that block, regardless of whether they are individual users or teams/workgroups.
The Primary Settings entry is present by default when you create an Approval Block and it cannot be deleted.
Threshold settings for approvals and denials are not available when you select a single approver in the list, but they are available for teams and workgroups.
No workgroup, team, user, or manual approval takes precedence over another.
Teams and workgroups are treated identically within the approval process when processing votes.
Approvals and denials work on the basis that the approval/denial that fulfils the rules first completes the request. The system doesn't wait for everyone to respond to an approval request.
If Count Block and Manual is selected, the timing of manual approvals may change the predicted behavior of your Approval Blocks. For more information, see Configure Customer Approvals.
The teams/users/workgroups in the list of approvers all contribute towards fulfillment of the Primary Settings threshold. Think of each entry in the list as an entity or separate vote towards fulfillment of the Primary Settings threshold, so a team represents one vote and a user represents one vote. Look at the examples below to understand how this works.
It isn't possible to select All Approvers and Enable Denials at the same time.

Examples

Table 1. Approvals (Count Block and Manual selected)
Scenario Description	Approver list contents	Example	Action	Outcome
Primary Settings with all approvers	Primary Settings Jane John	Primary Settings set to All Approvers to approve.	Jane and John approve the request.	Request completed because all approvers have approved. Each user counted as an entity with respect to the Primary Settings; users have no individual thresholds.
Primary Settings with a percentage.	Primary Settings Jane John	Primary Settings set to Approvers 50%	Either Jane OR John approve the request.	Request completed - 50% of approvers have approved. 1 of the 2 entities in the list of approvers has approved.
Team with a percentage.	Primary Settings Team A with 6 members	Primary Settings set to All Approvers Team set to Approvers 50%	Three team members approve.	3 team members in total need to approve to fulfill the team 50% setting. For Primary Settings, the team is the only entity in the list so All Approvers fulfilled.
Workgroup with a percentage and a user.	Primary Settings Amanda Workgroup B with 6 members	Primary Settings set to All Approvers. Workgroup set to Approvers 50%.	Amanda approves plus 3 other workgroup members.	When Amanda approves, it fulfills half of the Primary Settings as she represents 1 of the 2 entities in the list of approvers in the Approval block. 3 workgroup members in total need to approve to fulfill the team 50% setting and also complete the conditions to fulfill the Primary Setting.
Workgroup with a specific number and a user.	Primary Settings Claire Workgroup B with 6 members	Primary Settings set to Specific number 4. Workgroup set to All Approvers.	Whatever happens, this request can never be fulfilled.	You cannot have a specific number of 4 when there are only 2 entities in the list of approvers. The specific number cannot exceed the number of approval entities in the list.
Workgroup with a specific number and a user.	Primary Settings Claire Workgroup B with 6 members	Primary Settings set to Specific number 1. Workgroup set to All Approvers.	Claire approves. 3 members of the workgroup approve.	If Claire approves first, she negates the need for anyone else to approve and the request is complete. If all 6 workgroup members approve first then that negates the need for Claire to approve.
Two teams	Primary Settings Luke Team 1 with 2 members Team 2 with 6 members	Primary Settings set to All Approvers. Team 1 set to All Approvers. Team 2 set to Approvers 50%.	Luke approves. All team members from team 1 approve. 3 team members from team 2 approve.	All 3 entities need to respond to fulfill the All Approvers setting for Primary Settings. When Luke approves, it fulfills a third of the Primary Settings as he represents a third of the list of approvers in the Approval block. All team members from team 1 approve; this fulfills the team 1 setting and another third of the Primary Setting. 3 team members from team 2 in total need to approve to fulfill the team 50% setting and also complete the conditions to fulfill the final third need for the Primary Settings.

Table 2. Approvals and Denials (Count Block and Manual selected)
Scenario Description	Approver list contents	Example	Action	Outcome
Primary settings with a percentage.	Primary Settings	Primary Settings set to Approvers 50%, Denials 50%	This request can never be fulfilled unless there are manual approvals. This is because there are no approvers or voting entities in the list.	If Count Block and Manual is selected, you have no approvers in the list and don't use manual approvals, this scenario can never work. However it is valid if you have a system where all approvals are going to be manual.
Users and percentages.	Primary Settings Tim Lisa	Primary Settings set to Approvers 50% Primary Settings set to Denials 50%	Either Tim or Lisa needs to approve or deny in order to complete the request.	Request fulfilled because 1 user is 50% of the list of approval entities.
Users with specific numbers.	Primary Settings 5 individual users	Primary Settings set to Approvers Specific Number of 2, Denials Specific Number of 2	2 users deny the approval request.	Denial request completed because Primary Settings are fulfilled.
Team with percentages.	Primary Settings Team with 10 members	Primary Settings set to Approvers Specific Number of 1, Denials Specific Number of 1 Team set to Approvers 20% & Denials 30%	3 team members deny the approval request.	A third of denials is achieved (3 of 10 team members) and 3 is greater that the 1 entity needed to fulfill the Primary Settings. Request complete.
Primary settings with denials disabled	Primary Settings Team A with 6 members	Primary Settings set to Approvers 50% Denials NOT enabled. Team set to Approvers 50% & Denials 50%	3 team members deny the approval request.	At least 3 members of the team needs to approve/deny to fulfill the Primary Setting AND 3 team members in total need to approve or deny to fulfill the team 50% setting.
Two teams	Primary Settings Team A with 4 members Team B with 3 members	Primary Settings set to Approvers Specific Number of 2, Denials Specific Number of 1 Both Teams set to Approvers Specific Number of 2, Denials Specific Number of 3	3 members of team B deny the approval request.	The Team B denials threshold has been met so the request is completed. The Primary Settings of 2 to approve can also no longer be met anyway.
Workgroup, users and specific numbers.	Primary Settings Approver Workgroup with 5 members Josie Jack	Primary Settings set to Approvers Specific Number of 1, Denials Specific Number of 1 Workgroup set to Approvers Specific Number of 3, Denials Specific Number of 3	3 members of the workgroup deny the approval request.	Both workgroup and Primary Settings thresholds are met at the same time and the request is completed..
Workgroup, users and specific numbers.	Primary Settings Approver Workgroup with 5 members Josie Jack	Primary Settings set to Approvers Specific Number of 2, Denials Specific Number of 2 Workgroup set to Approvers Specific Number of 3, Denials Specific Number of 3	3 members of the workgroup deny the approval request.	In this case, Josie or Jack needs to deny an approval as well in order to meet the Primary Settings threshold of 2.
Workgroup, users and different percentages.	Primary Settings Approver Workgroup of 10 Mitch Anna	Primary Settings set to Approvers 30%, Denials 30% Workgroup set to Approvers 50%, Denials 50%	5 members of the workgroup deny the approval request.	There are 3 voting entities in the list for Primary Settings and the workgroup alone represents 30% so 5 workgroup denials fulfills both thresholds at the same time.
Workgroup, users and identical percentages.	Primary Settings Approver Workgroup of 10 Katherine Andy	Primary Settings set to Approvers 50%, Denials 50% Workgroup set to Approvers 50%, Denials 50%	3 members of the workgroup deny the approval request, along with Katherine.	There are 3 voting entities in the list for Primary Settings and the workgroup plus Katherine represents approximately 60% so this fulfills the Primary Settings. 5 of 10 workgroup approvals fufills the Workgroup setting.
Combination of Approval Block and Manual Approvals.	Primary Settings 5 individual users	Primary Settings set to Approvers Specific Number of 2, Denials set to a Specific Number of 3	3 denials are manually carried out in a CSM Client using the Form Arrangement tab.	3 manually created denials completes the request because Primary Settings requires 3 from the approval block OR from manual approvals.

Table 3. Approvals and Denials (Count Block only selected)
Scenario Description	Approver list contents	Example	Action	Outcome
Primary settings with a percentage.	Primary Settings	Primary Settings set to Approvers 50%, Denials 50%	Whatever happens, this request can never be fulfilled. This is because there are no approvers or voting entities in the list.	With Count Block only selected and no approvers in the list, this scenario can never work. Equally, if Count Block and Manual is selected and you have no approvers in the list and don't use manual approvals. it can never work.
Primary settings with users.	Primary Settings 10 individual users	Primary Settings: Approvers 20%, Denials 30%	3 approvals are manually carried out in a CSM Client using the Form Arrangement tab.	Nothing happens as only approvals coming from the Approval block are being counted.

Ordering Approval Blocks within the Approval Block Editor changes the order in which approvals are triggered but changing the order of approvers within an Approval Block has no effect.