Assign approvers in workflows

Beta. Randomly assign and Assign approver are currently in Beta and may not be available to all customers yet.

Overview

Randomly assign gives an approval step one owner from the users and groups you configure. Assign approver lets designated people choose who reviews each request. This guide covers both setup methods, task and notification behavior, completing an assignment, and changing a randomly assigned Procurement approver, with separate instructions for each workflow.

Compare Randomly assign and Require any

Use Randomly assign for group approvals when you want a clear owner. Ramp assigns one person from a combined pool of the users and groups you select, rather than assigning someone separately for each group.

Like Require any, only one approval is required, and other people in the approval pool can still approve under your usual approval rules. Assignment does not give the selected person exclusive approval authority.

The approval chain can show the assigned person and the group they were assigned from. If a delegate is acting for them, it can show the delegate with for [assigned person's name] instead.

Expense and bill workflows

Beta. Randomly assign is in Beta and may not be available to all customers yet.

Random assignment works in spend request approvals, card transaction and reimbursement reviews, and Bill Pay approvals.

Set up Randomly assign for expense and bill workflows

Open the policy you want to change:

You need permission to edit the policy. If you cannot edit it, ask a policy administrator to make the change.

  1. Select Edit on the approval workflow.
  2. Open an approval step's type menu, such as Require any, and choose Randomly assign. To create a step, select Add step > Approval first.
  3. Choose one or more users or groups from Groups and Users, then close the picker.
  4. Save the workflow using the action shown. The usual action is Save workflow; draft or policy-review flows can instead show Save draft, Publish workflow, or Submit for approval. For expense reviews, confirm Save changes if prompted.

Expense and bill tasks and notifications

For Randomly assign steps, personal approval tasks (such as those on your Ramp homepage) go to the assigned person and their approval delegates for card transaction reviews. Unpaid bill approval tasks also go to the assigned person and their approval delegates. For pending reimbursements paid by your company, personal approval tasks go to the assigned person and their approval delegates.

Purchase-order requests configured outside the Procurement workflow builder also send personal approval tasks to the assigned person and their approval delegates.

Initial approval-request notifications target the assigned person and their approval delegates. Bill Pay approval reminders target the assigned person and their approval delegates. Delayed reimbursement chat notifications also target the assigned person and their approval delegates.

Separate Ramp Digest notifications about vendor-change approvals can also go to other eligible approvers.

Other eligible people can still approve. Assignment does not give the selected person exclusive approval authority.

Procurement workflows

Beta. Randomly assign and Assign approver are in Beta and may not be available to all customers yet.

These steps require access to Procurement workflows. If you cannot access them, ask your Ramp administrator to check your organization's access.

Set up Randomly assign for Procurement

Go to Manage spend > Programs. For an existing request program with a saved approval workflow, open its row menu and select Edit approval workflow. For a default policy, select Edit default policy instead. You need permission to edit the program's workflow. If you cannot edit it, ask a workflow administrator to make the change.

The Procurement setup instructions in this guide apply to the canvas editor. For change-order workflows or programs without a saved workflow, follow the matching workflow-builder entry path. If that path opens the simple editor, ask a workflow administrator to help configure the policy rather than following the canvas steps below.

  1. Add or open a Require approval step in the workflow builder.
  2. Select Randomly assign as the approval type.
  3. In Select users or groups, choose one or more users or groups.
  4. Select Done, then save or publish the workflow.

Procurement tasks and notifications

For Randomly assign steps on purchase order and approvals-only requests, personal approval tasks (such as those on your Ramp homepage) go to the assigned person and their approval delegates, rather than everyone in the pool. Approval-request notifications and reminders also target the assigned person and their approval delegates.

Other eligible people can still approve. Assignment does not give the selected person exclusive approval authority.

Reassign a randomly assigned Procurement approval

You can change the assigned owner of a pending Randomly assign step without changing the workflow's configured approval pool. Reassignment does not require permission to edit the workflow, but you must be able to access the request.

The Assigned to section, including Reassign, is hidden when approval-group member names are hidden for you. If you cannot see it, ask a workflow administrator to help arrange the reassignment.

  1. Open the request from Requests.
  2. Open its pending approval step in the workflow progress view.
  3. Under Assigned to, select Reassign.
  4. Choose a replacement in Approver, then select Reassign to save.

The replacement must be an active person from that step's approval pool. Reassign only appears when another candidate is available, and is disabled while the workflow is paused. Resume approvals before reassigning.

Set up Assign approver in Procurement

Assign approver is only available in Procurement workflows: spend request, change order, release, and approvals-only workflows.

Use Assign approver when someone should choose the approver for each request, instead of having Ramp choose automatically. Open the Procurement workflow editor, then add an Assign approver step from Actions and configure both fields:

Select Done, then save or publish the workflow.

When someone submits an Assign approver task on a request, Ramp adds a separate approval step immediately afterward, with the chosen person assigned to it. Choosing an approver does not approve the request. Other eligible people in the configured destination groups can still complete that approval.

While this approval is pending, the approval chain can show the chosen person and their source group, unless group member names are hidden for you.

Complete an Assign approver task

The people designated in Assigned by complete the assignment task. Being the requester or an Admin does not by itself make you the person who can complete it.

  1. Open the request from Requests.
  2. Open its Assign approver step in the workflow progress view and select Assign. You can also open the assignment form from the request's tasks using Complete form.
  3. Select one person in Send to from the list provided.
  4. Submit the form. The current request page uses Submit form; the older request page uses Submit.

Self-approval settings can exclude the request owner from Send to, but completing the assignment does not by itself exclude you.

When one assigned person submits the selection, the assignment task is completed for the other people assigned to that same step. The separate approval step still needs to be completed.

If the workflow is paused, resolve the pause and resume the workflow before submitting the assignment. If the assignment is no longer pending or the selected person is no longer eligible, reopen the request to check its current status and available choices.