How to use Velocity agent verdicts to speed up approvals

The Velocity agent pre-checks approval requests before they reach you. For each item in the approval queue, it assigns a verdict — approve without risk, approve with caution, or reject — together with the reasoning behind it.

This article explains what the agent checks, how the verdicts work, and what to keep in mind.

The Velocity agent assigns a verdict to:

• Quote approvals

• Time entry approvals

• Invoice approvals

• Expense approvals

• Purchase invoice approvals

• Leave approvals

• Purchase order approvals

The rules below are the defaults VOGSY ships with. Back-office users can fine-tune them per approval type in Velocity agent prompts, part of the AI config section of the back office.

The rules below are the defaults VOGSY ships with for each approval type. You can adjust them to match your organization's own policies in Velocity agent prompts, part of the AI config section of the back office.

Quote approval

• Approve without risk: the discount is within standard authorization and the calculated margin is 20% or higher.

• Approve with caution: the discount is within standard authorization and the calculated margin is between 10% and 20%.

• Reject: the calculated margin is below 10%, the discount exceeds the standard authorization, or no related project exists to calculate the margin from.

Time entry approval

• Approve without risk: hours match planning and fall within budget.

• Approve with caution: hours deviate from planning, push the budget close to its limit, or are tracked on a day off, non-working day, or holiday.

• Reject: hours would cause the budget to be exceeded.

Invoice approval

• Approve without risk: the draft invoice hasn't been manually adjusted, and all tracked hours for the period are approved.

• Approve with caution: the draft invoice was manually adjusted, it's the first invoice for this customer or project, or a fixed price deliverable's invoiced-plus-scheduled total doesn't match the full deliverable amount.

• Reject: not all tracked hours for the invoiced period are approved.

Expense approval

• Approve without risk: the amount is below a defined threshold and includes valid supporting documentation.

• Approve with caution: the amount is above the threshold, or documentation is incomplete.

• Reject: no supporting documentation is provided, or the expense is tied to a project without budget or where the claimer isn't a team member.

Purchase invoice approval

How the agent evaluates an invoice depends on whether it's linked to a purchase order.

With a linked purchase order

• Approve without risk: the invoice matches the purchase order in amount and quantity, and stays within the calculated cost budget.

• Approve with caution: the invoice deviates from the purchase order within a defined tolerance, or brings the cost budget close to its limit.

• Reject: the invoice deviates beyond the defined tolerance, or the cost budget would be exceeded.

Without a linked purchase order

• Approve without risk: the invoice amount is consistent with previous invoices from the same supplier, and stays within the calculated cost budget.

• Approve with caution: it's the first invoice from this supplier, the amount deviates from previous invoices within a defined tolerance, or the invoice brings the cost budget close to its limit.

• Reject: the amount deviates from previous invoices beyond the defined tolerance, or the cost budget would be exceeded.

Leave approval

• Approve without risk: leave balance is sufficient, and the leave dates don't overlap with days already planned with project hours.

• Approve with caution: 10% or less of the leave balance would remain after the request, or the leave dates overlap with planned project hours.

• Reject: leave balance is insufficient. Additional reject conditions are still being defined.

Purchase order approval

• Approve without risk: the order amount is below a defined threshold and falls within the calculated cost budget for the related deliverable or activity.

• Approve with caution: the order amount is above the defined threshold, but still falls within the calculated cost budget.

• Reject: the order amount falls outside the calculated cost budget.

The rules behind each verdict are default settings that ship with the agent. Back-office users can fine-tune them per approval type in Velocity agent prompts, part of the AI config section of the back office — so the verdicts reflect your organization's own policies.

1. Submit or receive an approval request as usual.

2. The Velocity agent pre-checks the request and assigns a verdict with reasoning.

3. Items with an "approve without risk" verdict are visually distinguished in the approval queue, so you can process them quickly.

4. Review the verdict and reasoning for items marked "approve with caution" or "reject," and decide accordingly.