Reroute documents through current policies
Rerouting reassigns pending documents to fresh approval chains based on your current policies. Use it when you have updated a policy and want existing pending documents to follow the new rules.
For one-off changes to a single invoice without changing policies, use a routing override instead. It is non-destructive at the policy level.
Only Administrators and Controllers can reroute approvals.
When to reroute
- You updated a policy and want pending documents to use the new version.
- Documents routed to the wrong approver due to a misconfiguration that has since been corrected.
- An approver left and their pending documents need reassignment.
- Organizational changes mean different people should approve certain documents.
How to reroute
Rerouting is initiated from the document list, with the documents you want to reroute selected.
- In the left sidebar, click Invoices (or the relevant document type — POs, Receipts).
- The list page loads. Filter the list to documents currently pending approval — for example, switch to the Pending Approval tab and use the Needs my action scope if you are an approver, or use the Filter button to narrow by status.
- Click the checkbox on each row you want to reroute. To select every visible row in one go, click the checkbox in the table header.
- With rows selected, the bulk action bar appears at the top of the list with the selected count on the left and action buttons on the right. Look for a Reroute action in the bar. (The action only appears when every selected row is in a status that allows rerouting — pending approval, not yet fully approved.)
- Click Reroute. A confirmation dialog opens explaining that the existing approval chains will be cancelled and replaced with fresh chains based on the current policies.
- Click the primary confirm button at the bottom-right of the dialog.
If you select documents and don't see a Reroute button in the bulk action bar, the most common cause is that one or more selected documents are in a status that doesn't allow rerouting (already fully approved, already synced to ERP, cancelled, etc.). Narrow the selection to pending-approval documents and the action should appear.
When you confirm:
- The old approval chain on each selected document is cancelled.
- A new chain is created based on the current policies.
- Documents enter the new chain at Step 1.
Existing approvals get discarded
Rerouting cancels existing approval progress. Approvals already given on the old chain need to be re-done under the new chain.
If a document was on Step 3 of a 4-step chain and you reroute, the document restarts at Step 1 of whatever policy now applies. All previous approvals on it are discarded.
That is why rerouting works best for big policy changes affecting many documents. For smaller corrections, there are gentler options.
When NOT to reroute
- Only one or two documents are affected. Ask the new approver to approve them directly, or use routing overrides, instead of restarting the chain.
- The change is minor. If you tweaked a condition threshold slightly, existing in-flight documents may be close to fully approved already. Letting them finish under the old policy may be the better path.
- Documents are on their final approval step. Restarting wastes prior approvals. Consider whether the updated policy would meaningfully change the outcome.
After rerouting
- New approvers receive notifications.
- Chain progress on each document resets to reflect the new chain.
- The reroute action is recorded in the document's history for audit.
Verify the reroute by opening any affected document and checking its chain.