# Adding and Editing Approver Groups - Updated on Jun 23, 2023 - Published on May 2, 2022 - 5 minute(s) read - TL - MS - RS One of the biggest challenges sellers and sales organizations face is non-standard pricing, where products are discounted depending on a variety of factors such as customers, products, seasonality, inventory, etc. Often, sellers have to discount products to meet buyers' budgetary restrictions during negotiations. Mobileforce CPQ provides a comprehensive approval process for product pricing and discounting which has the following highlights: 1. Rules to control discount levels and approvals 2. Guardrails to ensure discounts are always within the specified ranges 3. Simple approval mechanisms to over-ride discount levels 4. Ability of business users to set up the approval rules and approvers: without having to rely on time consuming IT resources. 5. Automated approval process tied together with quoting, to ensure business processes are followed when discounting products 6. Approval tiers, chain of control, alternate approvers, and approval automation and simplification directly via email or via CPQ. In Mobileforce CPQ, approvals are specified at three different granularities: 1. In Approver Groups: where the chain of command for approvals is established. This includes business roles such as Sales Managers, Sales Directors, VPs, Finance, etc. 2. In Products: where approval rules are established at a product level. 3. In Quote Templates: where organization level approval rules and guardrails are specified. These are described below. Mobileforce CPQ allows admins to specify a group of one or more users that can approve a quote, if required by a company's [approval rules](https://documentation.mobileforcesoftware.com/v1/docs/adding-approval-rules). Additionally, admins can configure an escalated approvals workflow. ## Creating approver groups From the **Approver Group** page, click **Add**. Additionally, you can click the button to [edit existing approver groups](https://documentation.mobileforcesoftware.com/v1/docs/how-to-add-approval-groups#editing-approver-groups). ## Editing Approver Groups To edit an approver group, from the Approver Group page, click the button for the desired entry, where you can then modify the options. **Note** Additionally, you can: - Click the button to copy an existing group, and then click the button to modify it. - Click the button to delete an existing group. In the **General** section, do the following: - Enter the name of the group (required) - Enter the group description When you save the group, Mobileforce CPQ automatically populates the metadata values (such as **Created Time**) for the group. ### Configure escalated approvals Using Mobileforce CPQ, admins can configure escalated approvals by specifying the numerical approval level in the **Level** field. Mobileforce CPQ requests approval from groups with lower Level values, before requesting approval from groups with higher approval levels. **Example:** For example, if your business model requires initial approval is to be obtained from the sales manager before requesting approval from the VP of Sales, then you could set the **Level** value or the manager approver group to _1_, and the **Level** value for the VP approver group to _2_. In this model, Mobileforce CPQ will not send an approval notification to the VP of Sales until the sales manager has approved the quote. ### Approvers options The **Approvers** section allows you to specify who can approve a quote. Approvers can be individual users (specified through email addresses) or through roles. Approvers are classified in two groups: - **Notified Approvers:** Mobileforce CPQ sends email messages to these approvers informing them of the quote to be approved. - **Additional Approvers:** Mobileforce CPQ does not send email messages to these approvers. This feature allows you to specify users who can approve requests on a contingency basis. (For example, a C-level executive who can approve a quote when the VP of Sales is unavailable). Mobileforce allows you to specify approvers using three methods: - **User Emails:** Specify the user(s) who can approve the quote in a comma separated list of email addresses. - **User Roles:** Specify the Mobileforce CPQ role(s) who can approve the quote. Please note that all users with this role (currently or in the future) are granted this authority. - **Dynamic Expression:** Enter a form expression that returns a comma separated list of email addresses who can approve the quote. ### Access Control options Specify the following options: **Active:** Specify whether the group is currently active. By default, the setting is set to Yes. To deactivate the group, the setting should be set to No. ## Activating and Deactivating Approver Groups You can easily activate and deactivate approver groups from the **Approver Groups** page. - Click the button to deactivate an active group. - Click the button to activate an inactive group. **Note:** By default the **Approver Groups** page does not display inactive groups. Click **Show Inactive** to list all groups, regardless of status. ## Designing Approver Groups When designing Approver Groups, admins must not only mirror the approval structure of their organization, but also consider how this structure is to be used in the [Approval Rules](https://documentation.mobileforcesoftware.com/v1/docs/adding-approval-rules) for [Quote Templates](https://documentation.mobileforcesoftware.com/v1/docs/how-to-add-a-quote-template), [Product](https://documentation.mobileforcesoftware.com/v1/docs/products) listings, or both. **Example:** An organization can require approval levels for specific products, such as a construction equipment company requiring legal approval to sell commercial vehicles to a residential customer. In this case, the admins would create an Approver Group for the legal department and design approval rules for the applicable products. Another organization may give their sales team freedom to provide percentage discounts, but increased discounts require higher levels of approval. In this case, the admins would create Approver Groups for Managers, VPs, and CEO, and design approval rules for the quote template. ### Product Listings Admins should configure Approval Rules for a Product when their organization requires specific or unique approval for one or just a few products. These rules are specified on the Approval tab of the Product screen. For more information, see [Products](https://documentation.mobileforcesoftware.com/v1/docs/products) listings. ### Quote Templates Admins configure Approval Rules for a Quote Template to mirror their organizational approval requirements for all proposals or all proposals that use a specific quote template. Unique approval requirements could indicate to an Admin that creation of multiple quote templates is required. **Example:** A company may have approval requirements for quotes for commercial customers that are different than for their residential customers. Admins could create a specific Quote Template for commercial customers, and then design the rules for them.