A quote may or may not requireapproval before it is submitted to a customer. For example if themanual discount percentage applied at either the header level or theline level of a quote does not exceed the manual discount percentagespecified in any of the approval rules that are applicable for thatquote an approval is not required. However if the manual discountpercentage applied at either the header level or the line level ofa quote exceeds the manual discount percentage specified in any ofthe approval rules that are applicable for that quote at least oneapproval is required.

For example in a simple scenario if a Field SalesRepresentative creates a quote that offers a 20% manual discount fora line item in a quote and the Field Sales Representative is authorizedto offer a manual discount of 25% an approval is not required. Howeverif the Field Sales Representative offers a 30% discount for a lineitem in the quote an approval is required because the manual discountpercentage that the Field Sales Representative is authorized to offerhas been exceeded.

Approval rules can be configured at the line levelor header level and approvals are triggered automatically basedon a combination of parameters in the approval rules. The followingtable describes the parameters and indicates whether the parameteris applicable at the line level or the header level:

If an approval rule does not specify a parameterthe approval rule applies to all the values for that parameter. Forexample if an approval rule does not specify a Category ID the approvalrule applies to all categories.

Based on the output of an approval rule one ormore approvals may be required.

Consider the following matrix of approval rules:

For example let us assume that a Field Sales Representativecreates a quote for a customer who wants to purchase a Brand-X TVwhich has a Category ID of Electronics. Based on the matrix of approvalrules in the previous table:

• The Field Sales Representative can create a quotethat offers a 5% manual discount on the Brand-X TV without requiringapproval because the manual discount percentage has not been exceededfor any of the approval rules.
• If the Field Sales Representative offers a 50%manual discount on the Brand-X TV an approval is required becausethe manual discount percentage has been violated by Rule A Rule BRule D
  Rule E or Rule F.
• Without requiring approval the Field Sales Representativecan offer a 45% manual discount on the Brand-X TV to a Grade A customerbut only a 40% manual discount to a Grade B customer.

Approval rules can be enhanced to provide more flexibility.For example an Override flag can be set in an approval rule. Whenthe Override flag is set to Y in an approval rule all the other approvalrules that prevent giving this discount are ignored. If multiple approvalrules have the Override flag set to Y the approval rule with thehighest manual discount percentage is used. For example in the previoustable the Override flag is set to Y for Rule B Rule D Rule E RuleF and Rule H. Of these five approval rules only Rule B
Rule D and Rule E are applicable if the Field Sales Representativeis creating a quote for a Brand-X TV for a Grade B customer. (RuleF is not applicable because it is specific to Grade A customers andRule H is not applicable because it is specific to the Vice Presidentuser group/role.) Rule E has a higher manual discount percentage thanRule B or Rule D. Therefore the Field Sales Representative can offera 40% manual discount on the Brand-X TV to Grade B customers withoutrequiring approval.

If an order line or an order header satisfies theconditions that are configured in an approval rule an approval isrequired. You can also configure an override rule whereby if an ordersatisfies the conditions that are configured in an approval rulean approval is not required. For example in the previous table theOverride flag is set to Y for Vice President and therefore approvalis not required.