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This documentation supports the 25.1 version of BMC Helix Business Workflows.To view an earlier version, select the version from the Product version menu.

Requesting for ad hoc approvals for cases

An ad hoc approval is an approval that is outside the regular approval flow and is raised runtime during the case lifecycle. An ad hoc approval is available only for cases. During the lifecycle of a case, as a case agent, you can raise an ad hoc approval request when the case is not in the Pending, Closed, Canceled, or Approval Rejected status.

Related topics

Case-and-task-approvals

Example

In the Apex Global company, Hannah, a case business analyst has enabled ad hoc approvals for the Finance line of business.

A case is created in which receipts are submitted for approval and payment for an onsite visit of an employee. The per diem amount in the case is above the per diem limit. Bill, the case agent working on the case requests for an ad hoc approval from the Cost Center Head for the per diem amount.

After Bill receives the approval from the Cost Center Head, he resolves the case.

Before you begin

You can request for ad hoc approvals in the following conditions:

  • A case business analyst has enabled ad hoc approvals for cases for your line of business.
  • You have write permission for the case for which you want to request an ad hoc approval.
  • The status of the case for which you want to raise an ad hoc request is not in Pending, Closed, Canceled, or Approval Rejected status.

To request an ad hoc approval for a case

  1.  As a case agent, open a case for which you want to request for an ad hoc approval.
  2. On the case details page, click Request ad hoc approval icon.
  3. In the Add approvers panel, select the approvers.
  4. Click Add.

Results

When you raise an ad hoc approval request, the status of the case changes to Pending and the case is sent to the approver. A standard approval notification is sent to the approver if configured. A note is added about the case status change to the case activity feed.

When the approver approves the case, the case goes back to the status in which it was before the ad hoc approval was raised. For example, if an ad hoc approval is raised when the case was in the Assigned status, the case status changes to Pending. After the approval, instead of the next status that the case should move to according to the defined case status lifecycle, the status changes back to Assigned. The case then follows the usual case status transition.

If the approval is rejected, the case status changes to Approval Rejected. It then follows the usual case status transition path.

Troubleshooting

If you cannot see the Request approval option in a case, you might not have the write permission to the case, or ad hoc approvals are not enabled for your line of business. Contact your case business analyst for more details.

 

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