Approval Workflows and Automation

Use Approval Workflows when you need to decide which orders, purchase orders, bills, shipments and returns Arcus pauses for review, and which follow-up steps run on their own once work moves forward. Check it before you change a threshold or turn an automation on, because the settings take effect on live work.

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Open Approval Workflows

1. In the deck, open Settings.
2. Under System, choose Approval Workflows.

The breadcrumb reads Settings > System > Approval Workflows. You can also search for Approval Workflows in the command palette, or follow the link from an order that is waiting for approval. You need the settings.view permission to open the page. Saving the settings, and adding, changing, turning off or deleting a routing rule, need settings.edit. Reading the routing rules needs orders.view. The cards show to every role that can open the page, but the server refuses a change from a role without settings.edit. One Save Changes button saves every card except the routing rules. It appears only once you have changed something. Routing rules save on their own as soon as you save the rule.

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How Thresholds Work

A blank threshold or a zero value disables that approval gate. A positive threshold means records above that amount pause for review. The exact result depends on the workflow.

• Order approval: sales orders and invoices above the threshold move to Pending Approval before confirmation can finish.
• Purchase order approval: POs above the threshold stay in approval review before they can be sent to the vendor.
• Vendor bill approval: bills above the threshold stay in draft and do not post to the general ledger until approved.
• Journal entry approval: manual journal entries can route to pending approval based on supervisor and controller tiers.

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Order Approval

The Approval Threshold card controls customer order approval. When a threshold is set, an order or invoice above it cannot finish confirmation until an authorized manager approves it.

• Require approval for orders over: the dollar amount that triggers review. Leave it blank to turn order approval off. A note under the box confirms what the setting does, or says “No approval threshold is set. All orders can be confirmed immediately without manager approval.”
• Require a senior (tier-2) approver for orders over: a second, higher amount. Orders above it need a senior approver (an owner, admin or controller by default); a junior manager who can clear ordinary orders cannot approve them. It must be greater than the first threshold. Orders between the two amounts still go to any approver.
• Require two approvers for tier-2 orders: shown once a tier-2 amount is set. Two different senior users must approve, and neither can be the person who created the order.
• Require approval when the effective discount exceeds: a percentage below list price. An order whose net price sits more than this percentage below list goes to approval whatever its size, so a deep discount on a small order cannot slip under the dollar threshold. Leave it blank to turn it off.
• Require approval when the blended margin falls below: a margin floor in percent. An order whose blended gross margin is under the floor goes to approval. Leave it blank to turn it off.

Any one trigger is enough. An order goes to Pending Approval when it passes the dollar threshold, the discount limit or the margin floor.

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Approval Routing Rules

The Approval Routing Rules card sits below the settings cards. A rule overrides the amount bands above for the orders it matches. Rules are checked in priority order, the first matching rule wins, and an order that matches no rule falls back to the amount-band thresholds. With no rules, the card says “No routing rules configured. All orders use the standard amount-band thresholds above.” Choose Add Rule to open the rule form. A rule needs a Rule name and at least one filter:

• Customer (specific account), Account tag, Sales channel.
• Min order amount ($)** and **Max order amount ($).
• Min effective discount % and Max blended margin %.
• A credit status: Any credit status (wildcard), On credit hold or Normal credit status.

Then choose the outcome: the Required approver role (Order editors, Senior approver (tier 2), Admin / settings editors or Accounting controller) and the Number of approvers required (1 approver or 2 distinct approvers). Priority (lower = higher precedence) decides the order rules are checked, and Rule is active is on by default. An inactive rule is kept but never used. Choose Save Rule to save it. Each row shows the rule’s name, Active or Inactive, its priority, its filters and its outcome. Use Disable or Enable to switch a rule, the pencil to edit it, and the trash can to delete it. Deleting asks you to confirm, and orders that matched the rule fall back to the amount bands. If the account tag list is empty, the form says “No account tags exist yet. Create one in Settings > Tags to route by tag.” A rule saved before channels were real records shows a notice that its channel is legacy text: pick a real channel and save to bind the rule to it.

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Purchase Order Approval

The Purchase Order Approval card controls whether a PO needs manager review before it can move from draft to open. When approval is required, the PO shows an approval banner and locks editing until it is approved, rejected, or withdrawn for revision.

• Require approval for POs over: the amount that triggers review. Blank or zero turns it off. With it off the card says “No PO approval threshold is set. POs go straight from draft to open on transition.”
• Require a senior (tier-2) approver for POs over: a higher amount that needs an approver with senior authority. It must be greater than the PO threshold.
• The PO creator cannot approve their own PO.
• Approvers can approve or reject from the PO detail page or the pending approval inbox.
• Rejected POs require a reason and return to the creator for revision.
• The creator can withdraw a pending approval request when the PO needs changes.

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Finance Approvals

Finance approvals cover journal entries and vendor bills. Use them when your accounting process requires separation of duties before posting to the ledger.

• Supervisor tier starts at: manual journal entries at or above this amount can require supervisor review.
• Controller tier starts at: higher-value manual journal entries can require controller review. The supervisor amount must be at or below the controller amount.
• Require approval for bills over: vendor bills above the threshold remain unposted until approved.
• Two-approver threshold: stored for future policy planning. Until enforcement ships, bills above this amount follow the same single-approver workflow as the bill threshold, so treat the bill approval threshold as the active gate.

With no journal entry tiers set, the card says “No JE approval tiers are set. All manual journal entries auto-post.” With no bill threshold it says “No AP approval threshold is set. All vendor bills post to the GL immediately on creation.”

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Vendor Bill Approval Side Effects

Vendor bill approval does more than add a label. It changes accounting timing.

• Pending bills stay in draft and do not post to the general ledger.
• The bill creator cannot approve their own bill. The approver needs the Approve Bills permission.
• Approving the bill posts it and can complete related accounting steps.
• Rejecting the bill records the rejection reason and emails the creator.
• A quick check above the threshold creates the bill but does not issue the check until approval.

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Purchase-to-Pay Automation

The Purchase-to-Pay card controls what happens when inventory is received and when PO-linked vendor bills are reviewed.

• Auto-create vendor bill on PO receipt: receiving items creates a matching vendor bill from the received quantities and unit costs. A bill above the vendor bill threshold still goes through approval. The receive form shows a checkbox so a user can override this for one receipt.
• Enforce three-way match on vendor bills: when a bill references a PO, Arcus compares billed quantity and unit cost with the PO and its receipts. Billed quantity above the received quantity (plus the tolerance) is blocked. A unit-cost difference above the price threshold becomes a warning on the bill and shows as a yellow banner on AP Bills.
• Price variance threshold: the unit-cost difference from the PO, in percent, before a warning shows. Defaults to 5% and must be between 0 and 100.
• Quantity over-receive tolerance (AP 3-way match): how far billed quantity may exceed received quantity, in percent. Defaults to 5% and must be between 0 and 100.
• Dock over-receive tolerance (PO receive): how many units a clerk may receive above the ordered quantity. Leave it blank to use the AP tolerance. Set it lower than the AP tolerance for stricter dock control, or 0% for none. When the dock tolerance is lower and a bill lands in the gap, the bill is accepted with a non-blocking warning so AP can check with the dock.

The price and quantity boxes appear once the three-way match switch is on.

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Order Auto-Confirm

The Order Auto-Confirm card moves draft orders to confirmed and reserves inventory without anyone clicking. Both switches are off by default.

• Auto-confirm orders when payment captures full balance: a paid-in-full order confirms on its own. A partial payment never auto-confirms, and a manual or fraud hold still blocks it.
• Auto-confirm net-terms orders (no payment required): a draft on net terms confirms after it has sat untouched for the Grace window (minutes). Inventory reserves and the confirmation email sends, as with a manual confirm. Credit holds, approval rules and the stock-short policy still apply, and a refused order stays in draft with the reason on its timeline. The grace window is a whole number from 1 to 1440 and defaults to 15.
• Stock-short policy: shown once either switch is on. Skip auto-confirm (the default) leaves a short order in draft for a person to confirm after restocking. Backorder lets the order confirm and turns the short lines into backorders.
• Stock allocation strategy: Allocate now (reserve at confirmation) is the default and reserves stock when the order confirms. Allocate at pack (defer reservation to pick time) leaves stock free until the order is picked. An order or a line can override the default.

Automation always stops at packed with a label. A person ships every order. The order timeline records every auto-confirm.

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Delivery Notifications

Approval Workflows owns Delivery Notifications. Use Send delivery email per package to send a “Package N of M delivered” email as each package arrives in a multi-package shipment. When it is off, one delivery confirmation email goes out after every package has been delivered. Packing triggers, rate automation, and label auto-buy are configured in Packing Configuration. Payment eligibility for automation is controlled by the Payment Intent Gate in Payments.

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Pickup Reminders

For pickup orders the customer has not collected, a daily job sends reminder emails. Reminders never cancel or refund anything.

• Reminder days (comma-separated): for example 3,7,12 sends one reminder on each of those days after the order is ready. At least one day is required.
• Pickup no-show restocking fee (% of refund): from 0 to 100, where 0 means no fee. The fee is disclosed in the no-show email. Nothing is refunded automatically; a person applies any fee when they issue a manual refund.

An abandoned order stays awaiting pickup until a staff member marks it picked up or a customer no-show.

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Empty Draft Package Cleanup

Empty draft packages are hidden in the Fulfillment Station by default. With Auto-clean empty draft packages on, a nightly job deletes empty drafts older than Delete empty drafts older than (hours). The age is 1 to 720 hours and defaults to 24. Each deletion voids any label, re-derives the order’s fulfillment status, and is written to the audit log. With the switch off, empty drafts stay until a person deletes them. Arcus refuses to fulfill an empty package either way.

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Zero-Value Walk-In Audit Trail

Walk-in packs with $0 service lines, such as freebies or warranty replacements, post nothing to the ledger. **Require operator reason for zero-value service lines** makes the walk-in pack refuse an order with a$0 service line until the operator enters a reason, such as “promotional freebie”. With it off, the line is still logged, with the reason recorded as unspecified. Either way each $0 line gets its own audit entry.

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Credit Hold Override Notifications

When an operator with the Override Credit Hold permission pushes an order through a credit hold, Arcus can email your finance team.

• Notification recipients (comma-separated emails): each address gets a separate alert with the order, customer, amount, original hold reason, the operator’s override reason, and who overrode it and when. Leave it blank to send nothing. The list can hold up to 2000 characters.
• Only notify when order total exceeds: in dollars. 0 notifies on every override.

With no recipients, the override is still written to the audit log and order timeline, but no email goes out.

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Custom Hold Codes

Define named reasons to hold an order, such as “Inventory Review” or “Compliance Check”. A held order cannot be fulfilled until it is released. The built-in Manual, Credit Limit and Fraud holds are always available and are managed by the system. Choose Add hold code, then fill in:

• Code key: lowercase letters, numbers and underscores, starting with a letter, 2 to 40 characters.
• Display label: the name people see.
• Required to release: Order editors, Fraud-review authority or Credit-override authority.
• Active: turns the code on or off.

Choose Remove to take a code out of the list. With none defined, the card says “No custom hold codes defined. Operators can still place a generic Manual hold on any order.”

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Credit Management and Delinquency

• Block order confirmation when an invoice is overdue by more than: days, from 1 to 365, defaulting to 30. When an account has an invoice overdue by more than this, confirming a new order is blocked until the balance is current or someone with credit-override authority pushes it through.
• Automatically place delinquent accounts on credit hold (nightly): off by default. When on, the nightly job puts any account past the window on credit hold. Turning it on can place many accounts on hold at the next run, and someone has to release each one, so check the window first. A warning shows when the switch is on.
• Acknowledgement alert recipients (comma-separated emails): when a rep acknowledges a delinquent account to push an order through, each address gets an alert with the order, customer and reason. Blank turns it off.
• Only send the acknowledgement alert when the order total is at least: in dollars. 0 always notifies.

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Credit Limit Enforcement

These settings apply when confirming an order would take a customer past their positive credit limit. Manual credit holds and pre-pay accounts are not affected.

• Block orders that exceed a customer’s credit limit: on by default. An over-limit order is held, and someone with the Override Credit Hold permission can push it through with a reason. When off, the order confirms with a warning and the page says only manual holds and pre-pay accounts still stop an order.
• Grace amount: dollars over the limit that confirm with no block. 0 blocks at the first cent over.
• Hard block (no override) when an order exceeds the limit by more than: a percentage from 0 to 1000. Below it an over-limit order is a soft block that can be overridden. At or past it the order is refused outright: reduce the order, take payment or raise the credit limit. 0 turns the hard tier off.

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Kit Component Shortfall

Auto-backorder a short kit component is on by default. A kit short on a component confirms and the short component goes on backorder. When it is off, an order containing a kit that cannot be fully built from stock cannot be confirmed until stock is available, and the card shows a strict mode notice.

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Return Label Policy (moved)

Return Label Policy now lives with the rest of the returns configuration at Settings, then Shipping and Fulfillment, then Returns. Every returns policy control (return window, refund defaults, settlement gates, return labels, fee guardrails, and serial validation) is on that one page with a single Save.

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Messages You May See

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What Happens When You Save

• Orders, POs and bills: new thresholds apply to records created or approved from then on. Records already waiting for approval stay waiting.
• Accounting: a bill over the threshold posts nothing until approved. A manual journal entry in a tier waits for its approver.
• Email and notifications: the credit hold override and delinquency alerts, pickup reminders, per-package delivery emails and bill rejection emails depend on these settings.
• Audit: saving the settings, and every create, update and delete of a routing rule, is written to the audit log.
• Other screens: a saved change reaches other signed-in people without a reload.

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What to Test After Changes

• Order threshold: create a test order below and above the threshold.
• Routing rule: create a test order that matches the rule and confirm the approver it asks for.
• PO threshold: submit a PO above the threshold and confirm the approval banner appears.
• Vendor bill threshold: create a test bill above the threshold and confirm it does not post until approved.
• Journal entry tiers: create a safe manual entry and confirm the expected approval status.
• Auto-bill on receipt: receive a small PO and confirm the created bill is correct.
• Three-way match: test a clean bill, a price variance, and an over-quantity bill.
• Auto-confirm: pay a test order in full and confirm it moves to confirmed.
• Delivery notifications: complete a safe multi-package shipment and confirm the expected package-level messages.

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Common Blocks

• Approval did not trigger: confirm the threshold is above zero and the record total is greater than the threshold. Check whether a routing rule matched first.
• User cannot approve: check their role, custom permissions, and whether they created the record.
• PO cannot be edited: withdraw the approval request or wait for an approval decision.
• Bill did not post: pending approval bills post only after approval.
• Quick check did not issue: a bill above the AP threshold must be approved before the check is issued.
• Three-way match blocks a bill: compare billed quantity to received quantity and review tolerance settings.
• An order did not auto-confirm: check for a hold, an approval rule, a credit limit block, a short item under the stock-short policy, or a payment that is only partial.
• Delivery email did not send: check Send delivery email per package, the delivery status, and the active delivery email template.

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