Approval Rules
Configure who must approve bills, expenses, and invoices before they proceed. Set thresholds, assign approvers by role, and define escalation paths.
Approval Rules control which bills, expenses, and invoices require sign-off before they can be paid or processed. Instead of hard-coding approval authority in your processes, you define rules in one place and the system enforces them automatically.
Navigate to Settings > Automation and open the Approval Rules section.
How Rules Work
Each rule has three components:
| Component | What it does |
|---|---|
| Document type | Which financial document this rule applies to (Bill, Expense, Customer Invoice) |
| Threshold | Dollar amount above which this rule activates. Rules with no threshold apply to every document of that type. |
| Approvers | Who must approve — a specific user, a role (e.g., Finance Manager), or a group |
When a document is submitted for approval, Muin evaluates every active rule for that document type in threshold order. The first matching rule determines the approval chain.
Example Configuration
| Rule | Type | Threshold | Approver |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small expenses | Expense | Under $500 | Finance Coordinator |
| Large expenses | Expense | $500 and above | Finance Director |
| All bills | Bill | (any amount) | Finance Manager |
| High-value bills | Bill | $10,000 and above | CFO |
A $750 expense would match “Large expenses” and route to the Finance Director. A $12,000 bill would match both the “All bills” rule and “High-value bills” — in this case both approvers are required (sequential approval chain).
Creating an Approval Rule
- In Settings > Automation > Approval Rules, click Add Rule
- Select the document type
- Set the threshold (leave blank to match all amounts)
- Choose the approver — search by name, or select a role to approve by role membership at the time of submission
- Save — the rule is active immediately for new submissions
Role-based approvers. When you assign a role as an approver (e.g., “Finance Manager”), Muin resolves to the current members of that role at submission time. If the role has multiple members, any one of them can approve (parallel approval).
Approval Workflow
Once a document enters an approval chain:
- The approver receives an in-app notification and (if configured) an email
- The approver opens the document, reviews it, and clicks Approve or Reject
- If approved: the document moves to the next step in the chain (or proceeds to payment if no further steps)
- If rejected: the submitter is notified with the reason; they can revise and resubmit
Delegation
If an approver will be unavailable (vacation, leave), they can delegate their approval authority to a colleague for a defined period. Delegations are recorded in the audit trail.
Cycle detection. Muin prevents circular delegation (A delegates to B, B delegates to A). If a cycle is detected, the delegation is rejected with an error.
SLA Escalation
If an approval step goes unanswered for more than the configured SLA hours, Muin automatically escalates — either to the next approver in the chain or to a designated admin. SLA hours are configurable per document type.
Bulk Approval
Approvers with a queue of pending items can use Bulk Approve to process multiple documents in one action. Bulk approval applies to all selected documents in the same step — each document is approved individually in the audit trail.
To bulk approve: open the Approvals queue, select the documents you want to approve, and click Approve Selected.
Audit Trail
Every approval action is permanently logged:
- Who submitted the document
- Which rule matched
- Who approved or rejected (and when)
- The delegation chain if delegation was used
- Any SLA escalation that occurred
The audit log is accessible from the document detail page under Approval History.
Permissions
| Action | Required permission |
|---|---|
| View approval rules | settings:read or finance:read |
| Create and edit rules | settings:write |
| Approve / reject documents | Designated in the rule |
| Delegate approval authority | Any user who is an approver |
Common Questions
What happens if no rule matches a document? By default, documents with no matching rule do not require approval and proceed directly to the next step. You can change this to “require explicit approval even with no rule” in Settings > Automation > Approval Defaults.
Can I have different rules for different departments? Yes — add a department condition to the rule. Only documents tagged with that department will match.
How do I test a rule before making it active? Save the rule in Inactive status. Switch it to Active only when you’re ready to enforce it. Inactive rules are visible in the list but do not affect document routing.
What if an approver is no longer with the organization? Deactivating a user account automatically removes them from approval chains. Documents waiting for their approval are routed to the next rule or to a configured admin fallback.