Approval workflows now support department-level approver assignment.
This means an admin can assign an approver directly to a department, and users within that department can inherit that approver automatically. It removes the need to manually maintain approver assignments for every individual user.
This is especially useful for organisations with large numbers of users, frequent staff changes, or SSO-driven department assignment.
What Was It Like Before?
Previously, approvers had to be assigned at user level or product level.
For smaller teams, this was manageable. But for larger organisations with thousands of users across many departments, this created a lot of manual admin work.
If someone changed department, left the organisation, or lost their approver role, admins often had to update multiple records manually to keep approval routing accurate.
How Department-Level Approvers Work
Each department can now have a designated approver.
When a user places an order, the approval workflow can use that user’s department to determine who should approve the order.
Approval Logic and Precedence
The new logic is designed to preserve existing flexibility.
If a user has a specific approver assigned, that user-level approver takes precedence over the department approver.
If product-level approval and department-level approval both apply, the approval logic works on an OR basis. This means the order can be approved by any valid approver in the applicable approval route, rather than requiring duplicate approval unnecessarily.
SSO and Department Changes
For organisations using SSO, department membership can continue to be managed through SSO attributes.
If a user changes department via SSO, their department-level approval relationship is updated accordingly. If that user was previously acting as an approver for another department, the system can clear invalid approver assignments so approval routing does not point to the wrong person.
This helps keep approval workflows accurate without constant manual cleanup.
Admin Notifications
Two new notification flows help admins stay informed.
When a new user is created via SSO, admins can receive an email containing key user details, including:
- Name
- Email address
- Department
- Current department approver
Admins can also be alerted when a department does not have a valid approver, such as when the approver is deleted, made inactive, moved department, or no longer has the required role.
Department List Improvements
The department list has also been improved to make approver management easier.
Departments now show approver information directly in the list, making it easier to spot departments without an assigned approver.
The sender details have also been consolidated into a clearer Senders column, showing email and SMS sender information together.
How to Set It Up
1. Enable Approval Workflow Settings
Start by ensuring approval workflows are enabled and configured for the storefront.
Go to the relevant approval workflow settings in Admin and confirm that department-based approval behaviour is available for your workflow.
2. Assign an Approver to a Department
Go to the department management area in Admin and edit the relevant department.
Select the user who should act as the department approver.
The selected approver should be an appropriate admin or approver user within that department.
Save the department.
3. Confirm User Department Assignment
For SSO-based setups, confirm that users are being assigned to the correct departments during login.
Department membership should continue to come from SSO, so make sure the relevant SSO attributes and mappings are configured correctly.
4. Review User-Level Overrides
If any users require a specific approver that differs from their department approver, set that directly on the user profile.
This user-level approver will override the department-level approver for that user.
5. Enable Notification Templates
Enable the relevant message templates if you want admins to receive alerts.
The two key templates are:
- New SSO User - store owner
- Departments without approver - store owner
These help keep admins informed when new SSO users are created or when a department lacks a valid approver.
Tips
This feature is most useful when departments represent real approval groups, such as schools, teams, branches, or cost centres.
For large SSO-based organisations, use department approvers as the default approval route and reserve user-specific approvers only for exceptions.
It’s also worth regularly reviewing the department list to identify departments without valid approvers. (the new Department Without Approver email template helps with this)
Troubleshooting
If orders are not routing to the expected approver, first check the user’s department assignment.
If the user has a specific approver set on their profile, remember that this can override the department approver.
If no department approver is being used, confirm that the department has an active approver assigned and that the approver still has the correct role.
If notification emails are not being sent, check that the relevant message templates are enabled and that the admin recipient is configured correctly.
Summary
Department-level approvers make approval workflows much easier to manage at scale.
By assigning approvers to departments instead of individual users, admins can reduce manual maintenance, support SSO-driven user management, and keep approval routing more accurate as teams change over time.