Mesh provides a powerful approval workflow engine, empowering you to craft a customized card/budget request approval to meet your organization's unique needs. In addition to the General Purpose and Subscription workflows, the tool provides the option to create/edit a workflow for Travel and expenses (i.e., reimbursements). 

Follow the steps below to set up approval workflows for new/edited General Purpose and Subscription requests: 

1. Log in to the Mesh platform with your Administrator profile. 

2. Navigate to your Company Name, and click on Company Settings.

3. Scroll to the Approval Workflows section and click the Approval settings button. 

4. Expand the 'General purpose' menu. 

5. Click on Settings and check the relevant boxes. 

6. Click the 'New requests' to view the default suggested workflow. Navigate to the upper right corner and click the Edit button to change the approval workflow.

7. You can click on one of the steps to change its properties. 

7a. You can use a Mesh role (e.g., Admin/Pro or Approving Manager), an Employee (i.e., a specific user), or a 'Group' of users. 

7a1. Mesh Role

7a2. Employee

7a3. Group

Notes: 

• When a group is used in a step all the group members receive a notification but only one needs to take action (i.e., Approve or Decline the request). 
• You can re-use a previously created group. The group will be available after you create and publish the workflow. 
• You can create several groups. 
• A group can have up to 50 members. 

• The current step will be affected when adding members to an existing group. Existing groups will not be modified.

7b. You can change "Always" to "Conditionally" which enables the option to add conditions. 

7b1. You can specify an amount. In other words, a $ threshold figure that triggers the involvement of the mentioned approver. For instance, if a user requests a card above $500, the relevant approver is required, while for amounts below $500, this step is omitted.

7b2. You can also add a custom field condition. 

Note: you can set a gatekeeper if a requester does not specify a value for a custom field. In the following example, If the department is NOT specified involve Matt Ryan in the approval process. 

7b3. You can add several conditions. 

7b4. If the approver step includes a Mesh role of type Approving Manager, it is possible to skip the step if the requester is an Admin or Pro. 

7c. After you made all the selections for a step please click on Save to store this step. 

Note: You may also click on a step, Delete it, and add other steps as described below. 

8. You can add a vertical step by clicking on the + icon located in between steps. You will be presented with the option described in step 7 with respect to the 'Mesh role' or 'Employee' involved in this newly added step and the 'Always' vs. 'Conditional' options for the step. 

9. You may also add a parallel step by clicking the + icon next to the step number. You will be able to enter the same data as previously explained (i.e., 'Mesh role' or 'Employee' and 'Always' vs. 'Conditional') and click on Save to store the info.

For example, three people are needed in this case. 

Notes:

• The "parallel" option will send the request to all parties involved in the step without requiring a hierarchy like the "vertical" step. This means that if three people are involved, all of them will receive the request and can approve at their own pace, without waiting for someone else to do so before them. Only when all approvers have completed their task is it possible to move to the next step in the mentioned workflow.
• On the other hand, if conditions are involved, only the relevant approver needs to take action. In other words, the conditions create branching. 

For example, in the following step, if the request is above $999, James will need to approve it. If it is below $999, David will be responsible for approval. 

Note: The workflow editor offers combinations that may result in relevant ‘involvement’ paths. For example, if the request is below $999 and comes from the Sales department, David, Dan, and someone from the finance department with an Admin/Pro profile will be involved in the approval process. 

10. You can modify the step name to facilitate a clearer comprehension of the approval process for anyone reviewing the request.

Here is an example: 

Note: The updated name will reflect across all forms containing the list of approvers.

11. After defining all the steps to mimic your organization's approval process, you Publish the approval workflow.   

Note: At least one unconditional approval step is needed to publish an approval flow. 

12. Repeat steps 4 - 11 for New and Edit budget approval workflows of Subscription cards.

Disclaimer: The approval workflow editor is robust and flexible, allowing users with an Administrator profile to replicate their company's card/budget approval process. Mesh Payments does not provide recommendations for approval workflows. As a result, we cannot be held responsible for approval workflows created by customers. This includes card/budget approval workflows that may be considered 'non-logical' or ones where steps were intentionally or unintentionally omitted.