Mandate Workflows
The feature Mandates was created to streamline requests for approval. The workflows can be set up for projects within budget and for projects over budget; this is especially useful considering that the approvals that are needed when a project is within budget are often different from projects that exceeded the expected amount.
In addition to selecting whether the project is overrun, you can also add a name, description and assign buildings to your workflow. Learn more about creating a new workflow here.
Within the Mandate workflows page, you can adjust the thresholds, workflow information, edit assigned buildings, duplicate, or archive the workflow.
The thresholds work considering that every user in Proprli has a role. By setting up the threshold, you can say to what amount this role is allowed to spend or to instruct to a supplier without needing further approval.
In the example below, the rule is that users assigned as CompanyMembers can, by themselves, approve up to €2000.
Please note that if a user is assigned to a role not mentioned in the Mandates workflow, that person's threshold will be zero. That means that users assigned to roles not mentioned in the flow will always have to ask for approval - even CompanyAdmins.
If the amount that needs to be instructed surpasses the threshold set for your role, the request for approval will be forwarded to each member, until it reaches the person authorised to approve that mandate. Please see example below.
Let's say your role is CompanyMember and you can approve up to €2000, but the project you are working on comes to €6800. That means that it will need to be approved by someone with the CompanyMember role, followed by the Property Manager, and then it will be sent for the Account Manager's approval - the one with the mandate high enough to grant final approval.
There are a few flexibilities within this system:
- You can set the value yourself;
- You can determine how many approvers are needed for each threshold;
- You can add the same role to multiple thresholds.
For example, if the CompanyMember has an instruction above their threshold, and the Account Manager (in this scenario, the last approver with the biggest threshold) is included as an option alongside Property Manager, then the CompanyMember could select the Account Manager, bypassing the need of an approver in between.
When the project exceeds the set budget, that is considered an overrun. Similar to the workflows described previously, the difference is that, in the very first threshold/approver, you can indicate that no further approval is required. This is often the case up to a certain amount, e.g. €5000, where no special approval is needed - it would fall back to the normal mandate flow. If it goes above the amount set in the first threshold, you might need approval from different users.
After setting up the mandate workflows, when accessing the Projects tab within the building page, you will be able to see the budget vs projected amount for each project. This is important because it can determine which of the mandate workflows will be applied.
For example, assigned to the same GL account you have a project that, if you instructed another supplier, would be above budget, and a different project that has no instructions yet, and a budget that would “cover the difference” on the overrun project. Since they are both assigned to the same GL account, the mandate flow followed in this case would be the regular one, not the overrun. Proprli will consider the total expected amount for the year for all items assigned to the same GL account. If there is budget left, it will not trigger the overrun project mandate.
In the Bid Room, you can choose the winning bid and start the RFA. Based on the mandate flow, you will see how many approvers are required and the order they should be selected as. You will be able to select from a list of users assigned to that role and that also have access to the asset the project is regarding.
To start a contract, you can navigate to the Bid Room and select New Contract. Select the supplier and set up the details, such as the GL account. Proceed to review. Proprli will check if you have the mandate to send this directly to the supplier. If you don’t have the mandate to do so, the contract will need to follow the mandate workflow, where you can select the required approvers.
If you have any questions, please contact our Support team.
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