Video 26 of 26: Delegation of Authority

Watch the Delegation of Authority video on YouTube

Watch the video walkthroughhttps://youtu.be/VWc4DIUQeHk

In this walkthrough, you'll set up your Delegation of Authority in the Deep Space web app. That's who can approve what, and up to how much. It controls approvals on purchase orders, supplier invoices, subcontracts, variations, claims, payment schedules, tender recommendations, and site records like SWMS and permits.

The full series: 26 videos in Builder's Wheel order (Win, Set Up, Build, Move the Money, Govern)

Build an Estimate and Proposal Win
Multi-Trade Tender Win
Set Up Your Workspace Set Up
Add Users and Give Them Access Set Up
Company Settings: Get Your Documents Ready Set Up
Connect Xero and Map Your Cost Codes Set Up
Folder Templates and Project Documents Set Up
Document Templates vs Contract Templates Set Up
Email Templates and Sending Documents Set Up
Head Contract Setup Set Up
Build Your Programme Set Up
Subcontracts: Award to Executed Set Up
DS Site: Invites, Inductions and Site Sign-on Build
Drawings to Site and Subbies Build
Run Your Programme on Site Build
RFIs, Notices and the Project Inbox Build
Inbox to Xero: How the Money Flows Move the Money
Purchase Orders Move the Money
Process Supplier Invoices Move the Money
Subbie Claims: Inbox to Payment Schedule Move the Money
Retentions and Security Move the Money
Variations, End to End Move the Money
Provisional Sums: Allowances, Drawdowns and Over-runs Move the Money
Progress Claims to Your Client Move the Money
Budget and Forecasting Govern
Delegation of Authority Govern

Plan it first

Start with a plan, not the settings. Our DoA planning guide lists every approval workflow, with example setups and worksheets you can fill in on the page. Worksheet A covers your company settings. Worksheet B covers your roles and dollar limits.

For each role, note whether it's company-wide or a project team role, who holds it today, and its limit. Enter limits ex GST, in the currency you trade in. Send it to our support team and we'll set it up with you.

Get your roles right

Company-wide roles, like General Manager or Managing Director, come from Admin, Security. Check every role you plan to use actually has someone in it.

Project roles, like Project Manager or Construction Manager, are set per project, in Project settings, Team. If a step routes to a role nobody holds on that project, it jumps to Highest Authority. That's the most common reason approvals go to the wrong person.

Thresholds and Highest Authority

Go to Admin, Finance, Delegation of Authority.

Open Approval Thresholds. This is your ladder: each role and how much it can approve per record. Here a Project Manager approves up to fifty thousand, a Construction Manager up to one hundred and fifty thousand, and so on up to the Managing Director.

Click Add Threshold. Tick Project-level roles only for a project role, so it goes to whoever holds that role on each project. Pick the role, enter the limit ex GST, and add a description. Changing a limit adds a new row and keeps the old one in the history.

Set Highest Authority. Anything above every threshold goes here, and these roles can step in when an approver is away and a step is stuck. Pick one or more roles.

Build your workflows

On Approval Workflows, pick a record type to see its workflow. There's one active workflow per record type, and it applies company-wide, across every project.

Each workflow is a set of steps. A Fixed role step goes to named roles, from the company or from the project team. Any one of them closes the step, unless you tick Require all approvers. Min amount skips the step below that value. Here, the commercial check only kicks in from twenty five thousand dollars.

A DoA-driven step doesn't name anyone. It uses your threshold ladder and goes to the first role whose limit covers the amount.

Test it with the Threshold simulator. At eighteen thousand, the commercial check is skipped, and sign-off goes to the Project Manager.

At one hundred and twenty thousand, the commercial check is on, and sign-off steps up to the Construction Manager.

To build a new one, click Add Workflow. Name it and choose the record type, here Subcontract Agreement. The record type can't be changed later. Step one is a commercial check by the project's Contract Admin or QS.

Step two is DoA-driven. Step three is director sign-off, with both directors required, and only on contracts of a million dollars or more.

Check it in the simulator before you save. A one point four million dollar subcontract goes through all three steps.

Project overrides

Need different rules on one project? Select the project, then set a project override. It copies the company workflow for that project only, and you edit it there. From then on, changes to the company default don't reach that project, until you revert it.

Two company switches

Skip approval when unconfigured approves record types with no workflow straight away. Leave it off and they fall back to the project's Project Manager, then your workspace admins. Auto-approve within submitter's authority approves steps when the submitter's own limit covers the amount. It's off by default, because it relaxes segregation of duties, and only applies to records submitted after you turn it on.

Day to day

Approvers find everything in My Approvals, the clipboard icon at the top. Pending my action is what's waiting on you. Returned to me is anything rejected back.

Each record shows its approval route, which steps were skipped, and who it's waiting on.

Approve, Reject or Delegate. A rejection sends it back to the submitter with your reason, and resubmitting starts again from step one.

Going on leave? Under Delegations, add an out-of-office rule. Pick who covers for you and the dates, and your approvals route to them while you're away.

Admins can see every request under Approval Requests, filtered by type and status, with the current step and amount.

Common questions

It skipped the PM and went straight to someone senior.

Check the project's Team. If the role the amount routes to is empty on that project, it goes to Highest Authority. Fill the role, or add a Fixed role step for the PM first.

I'm getting approvals for projects I'm not on.

You're probably a Highest Authority role or a workspace admin, so you're the fallback. Fill the project roles, and keep Highest Authority to the people who should catch everything else.

Why can't I approve my own payment schedule?

Subcontract payment schedules block self-approval, for segregation of duties. Someone else on the route, or Highest Authority, approves it.

The approver is away and an approval is stuck.

Highest Authority can step in and approve a stuck step. Better still, approvers add an out-of-office rule before they go, so their approvals route to someone else.

Quick reference

Plan roles and limits first (Worksheets A and B)
Fill company roles and each project's Team
Thresholds ex GST, plus Highest Authority
One workflow per record type: Fixed and DoA-driven steps
Test with the simulator, override per project if needed
Approve, reject or delegate in My Approvals

Need a hand? Email help@deepspacegroup.ai

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