When a shopper places an order that requires approval, that order is not submitted until the approval has been given. Approvers are notified, via email, when orders come in that require approval. An approver can log in and see all orders that require approval for their account.

If the order is approved, what happens next depends on the type of payment method the shopper needs to use. Commerce Cloud cannot store credit card information, so it cannot maintain credit card information for the time period in between when the order is placed and when the order is approved. Therefore, if the shopper needs to use a credit card for payment, she must return to the order’s details after the order has been approved and provide credit card payment information. The amount of time the shopper has to make payment on an approved order is configured via the Price Hold Period, described in Set a price hold period. Other than payment information, the shopper should not be able to modify any other order details. Limiting the shopper’s order editing ability requires some customization of the checkout layout, described in Manage the checkout flow for orders requiring approval in the Extending Oracle Commerce Cloud guide.

If the shopper used a deferred payment method like invoice or cash when placing the order, no additional payment details are needed and the order is submitted immediately upon approval.

When an approver approves an order that needs payment, an email is sent to the shopper notifying her that the order has been approved and she should provide payment information. When an approver approves an order that does not need payment, the standard order placed email is sent to the shopper, telling her that the order has been submitted.

If the approver rejects the order, the shopper is notified via email. Rejected orders cannot be modified or re-submitted. However, the shopper can view the rejected order’s details and add its items to a new shopping cart to form the basis of a modified order that can pass approval.