AX1346

Multiple Approvals Process Step

The Multiple Approvals Process Step is intended to be used when you want multiple users to approve a process concurrently instead of sequentially. The difference in approach is as follows:

  • For sequential approvals, use several Approval Process Steps in a sequential order. Only one approval step is active at a time, and that step must be completed before the process moves to the next approval step.

  • For concurrent approvals, use a Multiple Approvals Process Step with two or more Approval Process Steps as sub-steps. When the parent Multiple Approvals Process Step becomes active, then all approval sub-steps become active concurrently. All of the sub-steps must be completed before the process moves to the next step.

Process behavior

When the Multiple Approvals Process Step is the active step, then all of its approval sub-steps are also made active. Owners of the approval sub-steps can complete their steps as appropriate without any dependencies on the other sub-steps. When all sub-steps are approved by their owners, then the Multiple Approvals Process Step is automatically marked as complete and the process moves on to the next step. However, if any of the sub-steps are rejected, then the entire step is rejected and the process is moved back to the step immediately before the Multiple Approvals Process Step.

Step-specific settings

The only available step settings for Multiple Approvals Process Steps are display text and description. These steps do not have owner assignments or due dates. Owner assignments and due dates are defined individually for each sub-step.

Restrictions and limitations

  • A Multiple Approvals Process Step must have two or more sub-steps. The sub-steps can only be Approval Process Steps.

  • When an owner of a sub-step in a Multiple Approvals Process Step completes a step, the previous and next steps shown in the Process Action dialog are the top-level steps before and after the Multiple Approvals Process Step. The other sub-steps do not have an order and therefore are not shown in relation to the step being approved or rejected.