Rules in Approval Workflows
Business rules are enforced in the approval pipeline as well as on direct saves. They are checked twice: once when the change is proposed, and again when it is written.
When a submitter sends a change for review
Error rules run there and then. The submission is rehearsed against the same engine a grid save uses — filling rules first, then the checks — and a blocking failure refuses the submission outright. Nothing is queued. The message names the rule, the column and the reason, so the submitter fixes it while the row is still in front of them.
Warning rules do not block a submission. Those rows join the queue carrying their warning markers, and the approver sees them.
Until 1.2026.8.23 this check did not exist. Rules ran only when an approver applied the change, so a blocking failure landed on the approver: an error about a value they had not typed, on a row they could not edit. All they could do was send it back.
When an approver applies a submission
The rules run again. A request can sit for days, and the data underneath moves in the meantime — a code that was free on Tuesday may be taken by Friday, a domain value may have been withdrawn. An error rule that fails here still rolls the whole apply back and names what failed, but it is now the exception rather than the normal path.
Force approve does not bypass error rules
An administrator using Force approve gets the same error-rule check. If applying the submission would write a row that breaks an error rule, the force approval is refused with the same explanation. Warning rules do not block a force approval.
This is deliberate. An error rule marks data that is definitively wrong and should not reach the master record under any circumstances. If an emergency needs it bypassed:
- Open the entity's Business Rules tab.
- Click Disable on the rule.
- Apply the submission.
- Click Enable to switch the rule back on.
- Run Validate Now so the row that got through is flagged.
Deletes
Rules do not apply to a delete. There is no row left to check.
Related
- Approval Workflows — the full propose, review, apply cycle
- Role: Approver — the review screen this message appears on
- Role: Administrator — force approve and what it is for
- Business Rules Overview — severity and where rules run
- Validating Entities — flag a row that got through