Serial Approval Scenarios for Owners
There are several different workflows and options to consider when using the serial signatory approval method on a project or contract. Select a scenario below to expand it and view the different steps you should take when setting up serial signatory approval.
Note: These scenarios focus on when your Owner organization acts as a General Contractor on a project.
Your project uses serial signatory approval but does not require approver signatures
This scenario does not account for document sets. Serial approval is required for all subcontracts by default, uses the default documents you selected during your project setup workflow, and does not require approvers to apply their signature to the Subcontractor document during the review process.
Note: The links in this topic go to General Contractor help topics. When you work as a General Contractor on a project as an Owner organization, you will follow similar workflows.
- Ensure your approvers are assigned the Invoice Approver user permission.
See Updating a User Profile for General Contractors for how to make changes to a user profile.
- Set up serial approval in your project settings.
From the Draw section, select the Require serial approval signatures on invoice option.
See the Draw Settings General Contractor topic for more information on this and other draw-related project settings.
- Assign signatory approvers on the User Role page.
To specify who will review and sign a submitted Subcontractor document and in what order, assign the Serial Signatory Approvers project role. The number assigned to a user signifies the order in which your serial signatory approvers will approve and sign a document.
One of your subcontracts uses serial signatory approval and requires approver signatures
This scenario does not account for document sets. Serial approval is required for specific contracts, uses the default documents you selected during your project setup workflow, and requires your signatory approvers to apply their signature to the Subcontractor document during the review process.
Note: The below links go to General Contractor help topics. As an Owner working as a General Contractor on a project, you will follow similar workflows.
- Ensure your approvers are assigned the Invoice Approver user permission.
See Updating a User Profile for Another User for how to make changes to a user profile.
- Require approval signatures in your project settings.
- From the Subcontract section, select the Signature Serial Approval option for the Default Subcontractor Invoice Approval Method for New Subcontracts.
- From the Draw section of your Project Settings page, select the Require serial approval signatures on invoice option.
See the Subcontract Settings and Draw Settings topics for more information on these and other subcontract and draw-related project settings.
- Create a subcontract with the Serial Signatory Approval invoice approval option.
If the project does not use the serial signatory approval method by default, you will need to specify this approval method when creating a subcontract. Choosing this option tells the application to prompt your serial signatory approvers to approve and sign the Subcontractor's submitted draw documents in a set order.
See the Contract Fields and Settings topic for more information on approval methods and other available contract settings.
- Assign signatory approvers on the User Role page.
To specify who will review and sign a submitted Subcontractor document and in what order, assign the Serial Signatory Approvers project role. The number assigned to a user signifies the order in which your serial signatory approvers will approve and sign a document.
Your project uses serial signatory approval, requires approver signatures, and has a document set assigned for Subcontractor documents
A project uses document sets and the Subcontractor is assigned either the project's default or a unique document. Approvers are required to sign Subcontractor documents when reviewing them in a specified order. If the Subcontractor is assigned a document set which differs from the default, the documents included in the set require the same number of approvers and approver signatures as the default.
Note: Some of the below links go to General Contractor help topics. As an Owner working as a General Contractor on a project, you will follow similar workflows.
- Ensure your approvers are assigned the Invoice Approver user permission.
See Updating a User Profile for General Contractors for how to make changes to a user profile.
- Set up serial approval in your project settings.
- From the Subcontract section, select the Signature Serial Approval option for the Default Subcontractor Invoice Approval Method for New Subcontracts.
- From the Draw section, select the Require serial approval signatures on invoice option.
See the Subcontract Settings and Draw Settings topics for more information on these and other subcontract and draw-related project settings.
- Create a document set.
A document set includes the documents you expect a Subcontractor to sign while submitting their billing documents. These documents, at minimum, include an invoice and an unconditional lien waiver, but you can also require conditional lien waivers and sworn statements. You can assign a unique document set to individual subcontracts.
In order to use the serial signatory approval method, the documents chosen for your document sets must allow multiple approval signatures.
- Assign a document set.
If a Subcontractor is required to submit documents which differ from the project's default document set, use the Assign Document Sets page to select and assign an available document set to the organization.
Your project uses serial signatory approval, requires approver signatures, and has a document set assigned for Subcontractor documents, but the number of approvers for the document set does not match the default number of approvers.
A project uses document sets and the Subcontractor is assigned either the project's default or a unique document. Approvers are required to sign Subcontractor documents when reviewing them in a specified order. If the Subcontractor is assigned a document set which differs from the default, the documents included in the set require a different number of approvers and approver signatures than the default.
Note: The below links go to General Contractor help topics. As an Owner working as a General Contractor on a project, you will follow similar workflows.
- Ensure your approvers are assigned the Invoice Approver user permission.
See Updating a User Profile for General Contractors for how to make changes to a user profile.
- Set up serial approval in your project settings.
- From the Subcontract section, select the Signature Serial Approval option for the Default Subcontractor Invoice Approval Method for New Subcontracts.
- From the Draw section, select the Require serial approval signatures on invoice option.
See the Subcontract Settings and Draw Settings topics for more information on these and other subcontract and draw-related project settings.
- Create a document set.
A document set includes the documents you expect a Subcontractor to sign while submitting their billing documents. These documents, at minimum, include an invoice and an unconditional lien waiver, but you can also require conditional lien waivers and sworn statements. You can assign a unique document set to individual subcontracts.
In order to use the serial signatory approval method, the documents chosen for your document sets must allow multiple approval signatures.
- Assign a document set.
If a Subcontractor is required to submit documents which differ from the project's default document set, use the Assign Document Sets page to select and assign an available document set to the organization.
- Set up a conditional approval rule.
Conditional approval rules tell the application how to approach invoice approval based on set criteria. An invoice from a contract assigned to an approval group is routed to the assigned group instead of the default Approvers on the project.
When the number of signatory approvers required to approve an invoice for a specific contract is greater than the number of approvers required for default project documents, you will need to create a conditional approval rule to ensure your document and signing order are compatible with one another.
Note: Only default Approvers are assigned on the Manage Project Users page. Default approval cannot be modified on the Project Approval Rules page.
Last Published Wednesday, July 10, 2024