📘 Screen: Approval rules
Approval rules are the company's payment policy written into the system: up to what amount a payment can go out with a single person's signature, and from what amount it needs to go through more people. Each rule is a value range — "up to R$ 10k", "from R$ 10k to R$ 100k", "above R$ 100k" — and each range has a sequence of steps, with the approvers for each step.
What uses this rule is the payment batch. When someone sends a batch for approval, upCampo adds up the batch, looks for the active range that covers that total and copies its steps to the batch: from then on, each approver signs in turn, in order. With no range set up, no batch is sent — the approval rules screen is the setup that makes approval exist.
Approval rules apply only to accounts payable: they authorize money going out. With the option Require approval to settle turned on in File > Company/Crop Settings, every payable follows the path add to batch → send for approval → approve → pay, and Accounts Payable/Receivable itself offers the Add to batch button in the payment window. Receivables are received normally, whether the option is on or not.
📍 Location in the system
Menu: Financial > Approval rules
It closes the setup block of the Financial menu, after Currency Rates — it is setup, not a day-to-day operation. Like every screen in the web portal, it only appears for those who have permission, granted in File > Users.
🧩 Main function
To set up the value ranges and, within each one, the approval steps with their approvers. Two characteristics change how you use it:
- The setup is per company, not per farm. The same range applies to all of the company's farms — unlike the financial close, which is per farm.
- In each step, one approver signing is enough. Putting three people in a step does not require three signatures: it is the list of who can sign that step, and the first one to approve moves the batch forward. That way payment does not stop when someone is traveling.
📝 Main fields
The form at the top is the value range:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Description | The name of the range, required. The field's help text suggests the format: "E.g.: Up to R$ 10k". This text is what appears in the batch, next to the approval, and in system messages — it is worth writing it so it makes sense outside the screen. |
| Value from | The floor of the range, required. It can be zero, and in the lowest range that is normal. |
| Value up to | The ceiling. Blank means "no limit" — the field's help text says so, and the list shows No limit in the column. The last range is usually the one with no limit; otherwise a very large batch has no rule to cover it. |
| Active | Checked by default. Only an active range is used when sending the batch, and only an active range is included in the overlap check. Unchecking it is how you retire a rule without erasing the history. |
| Notes | Free space to record the decision: "approved at the partners' meeting on 09/10/2026". |
The list, above the form, shows Description, Value from, Value up to, Steps — the whole sequence on one line, in the format "Finance manager > Director" — and Active. Ranges are listed in order of value.
To avoid gaps between ranges, use the next cent as the floor of the following one: 0.00 to 10,000.00; 10,000.01 to 100,000.00; 100,000.01 with no limit. A batch that falls into a gap — R$ 10,000.005 does not exist, but R$ 10,000.00 set up in two ranges does — is not sent.
🗂 Tab: Steps
The range alone approves nothing: its steps do the approving. After saving the range, the Steps tab unlocks the setup of each one.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Order | The position of the step in the sequence: 1, 2, 3. Required, minimum 1, and it comes pre-filled with the next free position. Two steps cannot have the same order — upCampo responds "There is already a step with this order.", because with two steps in the same position the batch would not know which one is the current step. |
| Step | The name of the role that signs, required. The help text suggests "E.g.: Finance manager". It is what the approver reads in the batch ("step 2 of 3 - Director"), so name it after the role, not the person: changing managers should not force you to rewrite the rule. |
| Approvers | Who can sign this step. It accepts several, and the field's help text states both rules: "Any one of them can approve. Each person approves only one step of the same batch." At least one is required — with no approver, "Choose at least one approver for the step.". The list shows the company's users. |
The tab's buttons are Save, Cancel and Delete, and they act on the step selected in the grid — which shows Order, Step and Approvers. Changing a step requires edit permission on the screen; deleting the whole range requires delete permission.
🔒 Who cannot approve
Being on a step's approver list is not enough. At signing time, upCampo checks three things, and each refusal has its own message:
| Lock | What upCampo responds |
|---|---|
| Only an approver of the current step — the pending one with the lowest order — can sign | "You are not an approver of this batch's current step." |
| Whoever created the batch and whoever sent it for approval cannot approve it | "Whoever created or sent the batch cannot approve it." |
| Whoever has already signed one step cannot sign another in the same submission | "You have already approved another step of this batch. Each person approves only one." |
Together, the three guarantee what approval rules promise: a three-step batch was seen by three different people, and none of them is the one who built the batch. The same person can, however, be an approver of several steps in the setup — they simply sign the first one they reach.
Returning is different from approving. Any approver of the current step can return the batch to draft, with a reason — including someone who could not sign because they already signed another step. Refusing is always possible; it is releasing that is locked.
🧮 How the range is chosen
On the batch's Send for approval, upCampo:
- Adds up the batch — the amount to pay of each installment, excluding the ones that were rejected.
- Looks for the company's active range whose "value from" is less than or equal to that total and whose "value up to" is greater than or equal to it (or is blank, no limit).
- Copies that range's steps to the batch, renumbered 1, 2, 3 in the order set up, and puts the batch in Awaiting approval.
When something is missing, the batch stays in draft and the message says what to set up:
- no range covers the amount — "No active approval range covers this batch's amount (R$ 128,400.00). Set it up in Financial > Approval rules.";
- the range exists but has no steps — "The range 'Above R$ 100k' has no steps. Set them up in Financial > Approval rules.";
- a step's only approver is whoever created or is sending the batch — the message quoted above.
What changes in a batch already sent
It is worth knowing what the batch takes with it and what it keeps reading from the setup:
- Steps are copied when sending. How many there are, in what order and with what name — that is frozen in that batch. Creating a new step in the range does not add a step to a batch that is already in approval.
- Who can sign is read at that moment. Each step's approver list comes from the setup at the moment of the click: removing someone from the step removes their right to sign batches that are waiting, and adding someone grants that right right away — which is exactly the way to unlock a batch held up by someone's absence.
- A deleted step leaves the batch with no one to sign it. Deleting a step also erases its approvers, and the batch that was right at that step no longer has anyone to release it. The way out is Back to draft and resend, under the new rule.
✅ How to build the farm's approval rules
- Decide the ranges before setting them up. Two or three cover almost any farm: everyday payments, mid-sized ones and large ones.
- In
Financial > Approval rules, click New, describe the range, enter Value from and Value up to (empty in the last one) and save. - In the Steps tab, set up step 1 with the role and the approvers. Repeat for the others.
- Repeat for the other ranges, always starting the floor at the cent after the previous ceiling.
- Test with a real batch, a small one: build it, send it and watch the sequence appear in the batch's Approvals tab.
- A payment above the agreed amount does not go out without the signature of whoever the company has designated.
- Whoever builds the batch is not whoever releases it, and that becomes guaranteed by the system — not by each person's memory.
- Each signature is recorded with name, date and step, in the batch's Approvals tab.
- Vacations and trips do not stop the finance team: with several approvers in the step, one signature is enough.
- The payment policy stops being a verbal agreement and becomes setup, reviewable and auditable.
❓ Frequently asked questions
How do I require two partners to approve a large payment?
In upCampo's Financial > Approval rules, set up a range starting at the amount from which this applies and, within it, two steps: each step is one signature. Make one partner the approver of step 1 and the other of step 2 — or both on both steps, since upCampo prevents the same person from signing both. The batch is only approved after the last step.
The batch won't send and says no range covers the amount. What is missing?
An approval range for that total is missing. Open Financial > Approval rules and check three things: whether there is an active range whose interval contains the batch amount, whether the last range has Value up to blank (no limit) and whether there is no gap between one range's ceiling and the next one's floor. Until some range covers the amount, the batch stays in draft.
I set up three approvers in the step. Do all three need to approve?
No. Several approvers in a step are the people who can sign it, and one of them approving is enough for the batch to move on to the next step. When the goal is to require two signatures, the way to do it is to create two steps, not to put two people in the same step.
Why can't I approve a batch I built myself?
Because whoever creates or sends the batch does not approve it — upCampo responds "Whoever created or sent the batch cannot approve it.". That is the point of approval rules: the check has to be done by someone else. If your company has no other person for that step, add an approver to the step, or ask someone else to build the batch.
Does approval also apply to accounts receivable?
No. Since October 5, 2026, mandatory approval applies only to accounts payable, which is money leaving the company. Receivables are received directly in Accounts Payable/Receivable, even with the option Require approval to settle turned on.
Do approval rules apply to all of the company's farms?
Yes. Approval rules are set up per company: the same ranges apply to all of its farms. That is different from the financial close, which is per farm. Batches, on the other hand, belong to the farm where they were created.
I changed the approvers and have batches awaiting approval. Do they follow the old rule?
The batch's steps were copied at the moment of sending and do not change. But who can sign each step is read from the setup at the moment of the click: adding an approver immediately releases the batches held at that step, and removing someone removes their right to sign. That is how you unlock a batch whose approver has left the company.
Can I deactivate a range instead of deleting it?
Yes, and it is usually the best way: uncheck Active. The deactivated range is no longer used in new submissions and drops out of the overlap check, but it stays in the list, with its steps and history. Deleting erases the range and its steps at once — and a batch that was right at one of those steps is left with no one to sign it.
The system says the range overlaps another one. Why is that blocked?
Because a batch falls into a single range, based on its total amount. If two active ranges covered R$ 8k, sending would have no way of choosing which sequence of steps to follow — and approval would no longer be predictable. Adjust the values so the ranges meet without crossing (up to 10,000.00; from 10,000.01) or deactivate one of them.