Completion Check stage rules

Get Authority and Get Authority Regular rules

In the Completion Check stage, if you define Statistical Override rules, you must also define a rule to approve or reject the process if no pending signatures exist. If a rule is not defined to handle this situation, the Approval Server considers this condition an error and it runs Get Authority or Get Authority Regular rules to collect information. For more information about Get Authority rules, see Self-Check-stage-rules. 
Like Get Authority rules, Get Authority Regular rules collect data that is used by the Completion rule. If you define Statistical Override rules, you must also define a rule to approve or reject the process if no pending signatures exist. If a rule is not defined to handle this condition, the Approval Server considers condition as an error and it runs Get Authority Regular rules only during the Completion Check stage of an approval process.

Completion rules

Completion rules test whether sufficient authorization exists to stop routing an approval request. A process is complete when the If you define Statistical Override rules is met. You must also define a rule to approve or reject the process if no pending signatures exist. If a rule is not defined to handle this condition, the Approval Server considers this an error and routes the request to all required approvers even if they have not yet responded.

• No Completion—If the Completion rule condition is not met, the Get Next Approver rules are performed and the request is routed to the next approver. If no new approvers are found by the Get Next Approver rules, if you define Statistical Override rules, you must also define a rule to approve or reject the process if no pending signatures exist. If a rule is not defined to handle this condition, the Approval Server considers this as an error condition. checks the Approval Success field of the Process Definition form.
  • If this field is set to No More Approvers, the process is done with Approved status.
  • If the Approval Success field is set to Completion Rule, the process is done with an error state because no more approvers exist and no Completion rule has succeeded.
• Successful Completion—If the Completion rule condition is met, the request is not routed to any further approvers. If outstanding signatures exist when the routing Completion rules are fulfilled, the request remains active until either all approvers approve or one rejects the request.

A process that requires a fixed number of signatures will complete successfully when the process exhausts the Approver List. For example, you can create a process that completes routing when any five approvers respond instead of completing with one approver of specific authority.

Examples of the routing completion check

The amount of the request might determine the rules governing approval of a business lunch. If Frank requests approval of a $150 business lunch, and Jack has the authority to approve requests for $150 or less, the process passes the completion check when Jack approves the request. If Jack does not have authority to approve requests of $150, the approval process does not pass the completion check when Jack approves it, and the process returns to the Get Next Approver stage. In this example, the Completion rule uses data gathered by a Get Authority rule to test for completion against a specific dollar amount.

Alternatively, the same request might require signatures from two steps up the management hierarchy. When Frank's manager and his manager's manager have approved the request, no more approvers are required, and the process is complete. In this case, the Completion rule uses data gathered by a Get Authority rule to test the approver relationships.

The Cost Completion and Level Completion rules in the Lunch Scheduler sample application are further examples of Completion rules. For information about creating a Completion rule, see Defining-Completion-rules.

The following figure illustrates how, if you define Statistical Override rules, you must also define a rule to approve or reject the process if no pending signatures exist. If a rule is not defined to handle this condition, the Approval Server considers this an error and uses the Completion, Get Authority, and Get Authority Regular rule types during the Completion Check stage.

Completion Check stage of an approval process