The rolling approval process in Mercury ensures that plan items requiring changes, which are already in an advanced status (e.g., Booking Requested/Booked/Declined), are not modified unnoticed. It serves as a safety mechanism for budget-relevant adjustments.

The approval cycle

Each plan item typically goes through the following status steps, often visualized by colored dots (bubbles):

  • In planning: The initial status. All values are entered here.
  • Request approval: Planning is complete and awaiting review.
  • Internal approval granted: The first internal authority has approved the item.
  • External approval granted: The client has approved the plan. Booking is now possible.
  • Booking status (Booking Requested/Booked/Declined): Was set manually or achieved by sending an insertion order.

How does the "rolling" process work?

The process is called "rolling" because a plan item can roll back to the start at any time if changes occur:

  1. If you modify a plan item that was already approved or booked (e.g., runtime, budget), the status must be set back to In planning.
  2. Visual indication: Even if the item is back "In planning", it retains the colored marker of the highest status ever reached (e.g., a bubble for "Booking Requested") on the outer edge. This allows you to immediately see that this item was already in the booking process.
  3. This is also shown in the Excel export, e.g., as "In planning (booked)".

Note on automation: Currently, resetting the status to "In planning" must often be done manually. An update that automatically resets the status upon changes to relevant data is currently being planned.

Important Rule: Deleting vs. Cancelling

As soon as a plan item has reached a Booking status (Requested, Booked, Declined), a safety rule applies:

  • The item can no longer be deleted.
  • It can only be cancelled.

This ensures that no transactions disappear for which emails may have already been sent to publishers.

Individual Customization (Permissions)

To speed up the process, certain users (e.g., Super Users) can be granted the right to skip steps. For example, they can set plan items directly to "Internal approval granted" without selecting "Request approval" first.