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Budget Approval Routes

Budget Approval flow

After a Budget Approval Route has been assigned to a Matter and a Budget is submitted, it is possible to see the status of the Budget for each firm involved in the
Budget
 tab.
After selecting a budget, a new section titled
Approval History
 is displayed. Preceding the Approval History, the Budget Approval Route and the name of the assigned Budget Approval Route are shown. In the Approval History section, all the approvers that constitute the approval route can be seen. The date field is populated once an action is performed by an approver.
When the next-level approver signs in and goes to the matter associated with the budget under the
Budget
 tab, a message indicating that there is a pending approval is displayed in the Budget Status section.
If the approver selects
View
, a new page will appear. There will also be actions that can be performed, such as Approve and Reject.

Additional approvers

There is also an option to include additional approvers. This option is only available for current approvers. The approvers that are added can then approve or reject the Budget.
important
If any of the additional approvers approve or reject a Budget, that Budget is not going to the next level approver, their approval/rejection only means that they agree/disagree on it. If the current level approver performs any action (such as approve or reject) prior to the additional approver reviewing, the additional approver will be removed from the approval flow, so it is crucial for the current approver to wait for them to approve or reject.
When an additional approver logs into Legal Tracker and tries to access the Matter, an error message may appear stating that the user doesn't have access to the Matter.
For such cases, it is possible for them to act on the Budget by selecting on
Budget pending review
 section on the Action items panel which redirects them to the Pending Budgets page, or they can access the Budget by selecting on
Budget review
 under
Financial
 option.
In the Pending Budgets page, the user will be able to approve and reject the budget. If the user doesn't have access to the matter and selects
Edit
, the message about the lack of permissions will be shown to the user, otherwise, they'll be redirected to the Matter's page.
If the additional approver selects
Approve
, the current level approver will be able to see it on the Approval History under the
Budget
 tab. The current level approver can also add another approver if needed.

Approve budget

If the current approver selects
Approve
, the Budget goes to the next level approver.
After approving the budget, an option for undo approval will appear.
important
The Undo option is not available on the Budget review page so that the approvers who don’t have access to Matter won't be able to Undo approvals.
If undo approval action is performed, the options to approve or reject will reappear. The approved status for that user will be removed from the Approval History as well.

Reject budget

If the current approver Rejects the Budget, the user must specify an explanation for the rejection.
The rejection will cause the budget to return to the previous level approver. The previous level approver will see the following: a new record on the budget Approval History specifying that there was a rejection and 2 new actions that can be performed over the Budget.
If the approver selects
Disagree and approve
, the Budget will go to the next level; if the approver selects
Agree with rejection
, an explanation of the rejection will be required.

Edit current budget

Previously when Company users post a Budget on behalf of a firm, the budget was approved once the
Save
 button was selected. Now, even if a Company user posts the Law Firm budget, the Budget Approval Route will begin, avoiding the final approve when saving the Budget.

Reject to submitter

There is a way to directly reject a Budget to the submitter without having all the approver levels having to reject individually. This is a functionality only available for the user role specified in the
Budget & Accruals Setup
 page, Question 2.2
Rejector role and users with budget rejector functionality
.
This will make a new option available for the roles selected called
Reject to submitter
, so that when it is selected the reason of rejection will be required by the submitter of the budget.
This will cause the Budget status to change to
Rejected
. Approval history will state that the Budget was rejected to the submitter.
This option will also be available for such users on the Budget review page.
note
Both final approve and reject can't be undone.

Firm acknowledgment

When the Budget is posted by a Company user on behalf of a Firm, an Acknowledge action by the Firm is required. Both
Status & Approval
 history will specify Pending [Firm name] acknowledgment. Once acknowledged, the status of the Budget changes to
acknowledged
.
When the Firm user signs in and goes to the Matter and selects the
Budget
 tab, they’ll see an option
Acknowledge
 the Budget.
Once the Firm acknowledges the Budget, the status of the Budget shows besides the Approved status, an acknowledged status. This is only for Firms as they are not able to see Approval History.
From the budget Company user perspective, a new entry on the budget Approval History states acknowledged performed by the Firm.

This article applies to:

  • PRODUCT: Legal Tracker
  • Subject: Budget
  • Audiences: Company

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