This article covers:
- Types and examples;
- Using approvals;
- Validation rules when setting up approvals;
- Approve for others and administer approvals;
- Setting up approvals;
- Updating the approver field on non-approved records.
The success of a project often depends on the measures and controls put in place to govern the project. PPO caters for this requirement through its Approval functionality, allowing approvals to be created for time entries; documents; project stage gates; scope changes and more.
Types and examples
- Approvals on Time Entries, and
- Approvals on other entities.
- allow Business Cases and other documents to be approved on-line;
- allow a formal Stage Gate process to be followed including single or multiple approvals by review committee members;
- allow project Sponsors and Owners to approve Scope Changes by simply approving from their Home Pages.
Using approvals









Validation rules when setting up approvals
- The item cannot be edited while waiting for approval (i.e. while an approval status is "Ready") - This ensures that the item submitted for approval is the same item viewed by the approver and that no changes have been made between the time the item was submitted and the time the item is reviewed.
- The item cannot be edited after it has been approved - This ensures that the approved item is not altered after approval. This rule may not be required in the case of stage gate approvals, where the project is moved to the next phase but the project can still be edited until the project ends.
- Approvals must be submitted in sequence - This rule will not be applicable if there is only one approval required or if approvals can be approved in parallel, but is specifically applicable to stage gate approvals. This rule ensures that approvals are submitted in the correct order (i.e. that the execution phase is not approved before the initiation phase).
Approve for others and administer approvals

The 'Approval Administration' function allows PPO Administrators to override or correct approvals without going through the normal approvals process. Care should be taken when awarding this functionality to users as it will allow them to add, edit and delete approvals.
When a user has access to administer approvals, they will see the Approvals entity from the projects menu:

When accessing the approvals from the projects menu, the user is taken to an approvals list page.

From here the user can drill through to an approval record and will see the following action menu and edit button:

This action menu allows the administrator to delete the approval, add a new approval, view the approvals list or see the related item. The edit button allows the administrator to edit the approval record.
We strongly recommend that users NOT add approvals manually, but rather contact the PPO Support Team for assistance on setting up an automated approvals process.
The Approval Administration functionality and the direct editing of approvals should only be used in exceptional cases when a fix is required. The administrator also needs to be aware of business rules that will be kicked of as a result of the update and may want to temporarily disable the business rules to prevent unwanted behaviour. If in doubt, please contact the PPO Support Desk who will be able to assist you.
Approve for Others
Setting up approvals
To set up an automated approvals process, submit a request from the PPO Support Portal and specify the following:
- The entity on which the approval should occur (for example, on Documents; on Projects; on Scope Changes).
- The items that require approval (for example, only Business Case type documents; only full Life Cycle type projects).
- The number of approvers / approval records per item.
- The approvers (The approvers can be specified on a project or entity level, for example, the project manager, project sponsor, scope change manager, or it can be calculated to be a specific person for all approvals, for example, the PMO manager).
- The originator (This is the person who will need to rework the item if the approval is declined. Examples are: the project manager, the person who originally loaded the item).
- Whether the approvals should be done in sequence or not. If a sequence is required, specify the sequence.
- What should happen when all approvals are approved (for example, the project should move to the next phase; the document status should change to approved).
Once the PPO Support Team has all of this information, they will be able to assist with the set up of the approvals process.
Updating the approver field on non-approved records
If the approval records have been added and the approver changes, the records can be automatically updated with a new approver, by means of a business rule. For example, if Joe Bloggs is the approver, and he is on leave, and the records now need to be approved by Jane Branch, you don’t want to manually update all the approval records, so this can easily be updated by means of a business rule.
If you need assistance in setting this up, please feel free to log a support call and the support team will gladly assist you.