Tyms Approval Workflow Priority Rules: What Every Admin Should Know

After creating your approval workflows, it's essential to understand how priority impacts which transactions are sent to which approvers. This ensures your approval process works as intended, without overlap or missed transactions. 

What is Workflow Priority?

Approval workflows are executed in order of priority, from the lowest number (highest priority) to the highest number (lowest priority). When you create multiple approval workflows within the same module (e.g., Expenses), Tyms evaluates them based on their priority numbers, starting from the lowest (highest priority).

Key Concepts

• Priority Matters: When multiple workflows apply to the same module, Tyms uses the assigned priority to determine which rule takes effect.
• One Workflow Per Transaction: A transaction will only follow the first matching workflow based on priority. It will not be evaluated against subsequent workflows.

Example of Incorrect Priority Setup

Suppose you’ve created four approval workflow rules with these conditions:

• Priority 1: Amount less than 100,000
• Priority 2: Amount less than 200,000
• Priority 3: Amount less than 50,000
• Priority 4: Amount greater than 100,000

In this setup:

• Transactions below 50,000 will be picked up by Priority 1, not Priority 3, even though Priority 3 is a more specific match, because Priority 1 comes first.
• Approvers set under Priority 3 will not see these transactions.
• Similarly, Priority 2 and 4 approvers may not receive transactions they’re expected to approve because earlier rules already captured them.

How This Affects Approvers

Each workflow has its own set of approvers. If priority is not set correctly:

• Approvers may not see transactions they’re meant to approve.
• Transactions might be approved by unintended users or missed entirely.

Recommended Setup (Correct Priority Order)

To ensure approvers receive the correct transactions, set your priorities from the most specific to the most general, in a logical, non-overlapping order:

• Priority 1: Amount less than 50,000
• Priority 2: Amount between 50,000 and 100,000
  • Use conditions: Amount  less than 100,000
• Priority 3: Amount between 100,000 and 200,000
  • Use conditions: Amount  less than 200,000
• Priority 4: Amount greater than  200,000 

This way:

• Each workflow handles a clearly defined transaction range.
• There is no overlap, and approvers only see the transactions relevant to them.

Best Practices

• Start with the most specific rules at the top (lowest priority number).
• Avoid overlapping conditions between workflows.
• Always test your workflow setup with different transaction amounts

Summary

• Approval workflows are evaluated in order of priority.
• A transaction is only assigned to the first matching rule.
• Use clear ranges and proper ordering to ensure accuracy.