You can create a rule template, or a rule within a project or shell template. By default, rule templates remain inactive; the Validate, Activate and Deactivate buttons on the toolbar are disabled. Rules within project and shell templates can be validated and activated.
You can create a new rule manually or by copying an existing rule. If you create a rule within a project or shell template, the rule can be "pushed" to existing projects or shells.
To create a rule template
- Go to the Company Workspace tab and switch to Admin mode.
- In the left Navigator, click one of the following:
- Company Workspace node > Rules
- Templates > Rules
- Templates > Projects (Standard) > [project] > [template] > Rules
- Templates > Shells > [shell] > [template] > Rules
Note: At the Template > Shells level, you can create rules only for CBS shells, not generic shells.
- Click New. The Create a New Rule window opens.
- Select the Control Source and Rule Level.
Note: For details on choosing the source and level, see About control sources and levels.
- Click OK. The Edit Rule window opens.
- Use the information in the first table below to complete the fields on the General tab.
- Click the Rule tab and complete the fields using the information in the second table below.
- In project or shell templates, if you chose "Per selected CBS Summary Codes" or "Per selected CBS Codes" as the rule Level, then the CBS Codes tab appears in the Edit Rule window. See the following procedure for selecting CBS codes.
- Click OK to save and close the Edit Rule window.
In this field: | Do this: |
|---|---|
Name | Enter a name for the rule. |
Description | Enter a description of the rule. |
Control Source | Unifier displays the control source you chose in this field. |
Rule Level | Unifier displays the rule level you chose in this field. |
Status | Unifier displays the current status of the rule. |
Users/Groups who can override | (Optional; appears only at the project and shell templates level) This option is available only for the following rule levels:
Click the Select button and from the picker that appears, select the users or groups that will be allowed to override this rule at runtime. If you select this option, the specified users/groups should be able to override a rule failure condition during a workflow. Unifier will display the name(s) of the overriding user(s) and any comments in the Audit Log. Note: If you use this option, users/groups can override this rule, even if the data is not valid. Also, the users/groups specified in this option will be added to the project/shell if they do not already exist there |
Notify Users/Groups when overridden | (Optional; appears only at the project and shell templates level) Click the Select button and from the picker that appears, select the users or groups that should be notified if this rule is overridden. |
In this field: | Do this: |
|---|---|
Limit Expression | This defines the Upper Limit that the rule validates against and is static. For example, for cost rules, this might be the Assigned Budget, or can include the sum of several budget-related data sources on the cost sheet. Click the Formula button. The Formula Creation window opens. The data source list includes all available cost sheet data sources for cost-related rules, or funding sheets data sources for fund-related rules. This is the value on the left of the Condition. Pending positive values are not considered. Note: Unifier identifies the non-terminal documents as pending. |
Include positive pendings in calculation | Deselected by default. When this option is selected (checked) by the user, Unifier will consider positive values from non-terminal records in the Limit Expression formula calculation. When this option is deselected (unchecked) by the user, Unifier will ignore positive values from non-terminal records in the Limit Expression formula calculation. |
Condition | The option "greater than or equal to" is the only selection available. Rules always check that the "Upper Limit" (Limit Expression) is greater than or equal to the amount calculated by the Data Expression. |
Data Expression | This is what is being validated. For example: Purchase Order (Pending) + Purchase Order (Approved) + Change Commit (Pending) + Change Commit (Approved) Click the Formula button. The Formula Creation window opens. The data source list includes all available cost sheet data sources for cost-related rules, or funding sheets data sources for fund-related rules. This is the value on the right of the Condition. Pending negative values are not considered. |
Include negative pendings in calculation | Deselected by default. When this option is selected (checked) by the user, Unifier will consider positive values from non-terminal records in the Data Expression formula calculation. When this option is deselected (unchecked) by the user, Unifier will ignore positive values from non-terminal records in the Data Expression formula calculation. |
Show this message when condition is not met | This field is required. Enter a message to display to users if the rule condition is not met. |