Approval limits

An approval limit is the largest amount an administrator can approve on their own. Each administrator has three: a Decision Approval Limit, a Contract Approval Limit and a Milestone Approval Limit.

Before you start

You need Can edit Approval Limits to see or change anyone's limits, your own included. Without it the Approval Limits section is not shown on any administrator's page, and limits sent from anywhere else are ignored while the rest of the change is saved.

What each limit blocks

Decision Approval Limit stops the administrator sending a Decision whose funding amount is above the limit.
Contract Approval Limit stops the administrator sending a Contract whose funding amount is above the limit.
Milestone Approval Limit stops the administrator approving a Milestone review whose amount is above the limit.

An amount equal to the limit passes. Only an amount above it is blocked, and the page says which amount and which limit stopped it, in your organisation's currency.

A blank limit, or 0, means no limit. The show page shows N/A for it.

Set an administrator's limits

Go to People > Administrators and select the administrator.
Select Edit.
Open Approval Limits, after Signature. Each input starts with your organisation's currency symbol.
Type an amount of 0 or more, with no more than two decimal places, or leave it blank for no limit.
Select Save approval limits.

If an amount cannot be saved, the reason appears under that input and nothing is changed.

See an administrator's limits

Open the administrator from People > Administrators. Approval Limits sits between Signature and Activity, with each limit as an amount or N/A.

When an amount is over the limit

A limit blocks only the send or the approval. Nothing moves to a more senior administrator by itself, and you can still ask someone else to review it:

On a Decision, select Request Review and choose the reviewer.
On a Contract, assign it to another administrator for review.
On a Milestone review, select Request Reviewer and choose the reviewer.

The reviewer must be an administrator. When they send or approve, their own permissions, Data Access Rules and approval limits apply, not yours.

Common set-ups

Delegation. Record each person's delegated authority as their three limits, so nobody can approve a Decision, Contract or Milestone above it.
Two-step tranche approval. Set a grants officer's Milestone Approval Limit at the threshold in your delegations schedule. Larger Milestones are then sent with Request Reviewer to a programme manager whose limit covers them.