Role Dependencies
You can define sign off requirements for roles in a role set. When you define a requirement, you are specifying that one role cannot be signed off before another.
A role set has four roles (roles A, B, C, and D). A role dependency exists between roles A, C, and D, where roles C and D cannot be signed off before role A is signed off.
From the Working Papers interface, the dependency is defined using the Requires option:
For this role set, roles A and B can be signed off at any time, and roles C and D can only be signed off after role A.
There are two possible cases when role requirements can be broken:
-
Protection is activated
With Protection properly enforced in the file, if a staff member attempts to sign off role D before role A has been signed off, they receive the following error:
-
Protection is not activated
With Protection off, staff members are not restricted from signing off roles. As a result, the role can be signed off without error. However, because the role dependency was defined, a warning (
) appears next to the document.
When defining role requirements, you are prevented from defining cyclic dependencies between roles. For example, you cannot simultaneously require that:
- Role A be signed off before Role D, and
- Role D be signed off before Role A
There is an inherent check in Working Papers that prevents you from defining such a dependency.
