The signatures required for each transaction - depending on type and content of the transaction - are calculated when the transaction is stored before then being stored within the transaction record. A set of up to ten required signatures can be stored for each transaction.

If required and configured, the user's signature can automatically be added to the created transaction after the transaction has been completed.

In the “Control & Release” transaction, the signature authorization of the current user for the current transaction is checked, and - if sufficient - one of the required signatures is marked as “signed” when the user releases this transaction.

An event is generated in the event table for each transaction added an for each signature given. A reference to the event and user of each signature is stored within the transaction.

When all required signatures for a transaction have been given, the transaction is marked as released. In this case the transaction status flag in the transaction is set to Released and the Workflow entry for the service “Release” is set to 'Done'.

If a transaction is rejected it is marked with an 'R' (for Rejected) signature. The workflow entry for service 'Release' is set to 'E' for error. The transaction is marked with an 'N' in the status field and stored in the 'deleted items queue'.

If a transaction is sent back for correction this is marked in the transaction as 'C' (for 'to correct') signature. The Workflow entry for service Release is set to 'E' for error. The transaction is marked with 'N' in the status field and stored in the pending items queue.

Multi release method is possible for business contracts where we could set up multiple amount thresholds for multiple approvals/signatures. The definition for multi signature setting is done from Maintaining Multi Signature Setting. This definition is then linked to required business transactions in Maintaining Entity Group Transaction Profiles.

The release group is a code assigned to all users in the user profile. This value describes the authorization class a user belongs to (e.g. clerk or officer). The key table for these codes is RELGRP.

The release amount for a user is the maximum amount up to which the signature of this user is valid. This value together with the user release group is used during Control & Release to determine the users valid signature for a specific transaction.

A signature is a one letter code describing type and qualification of one signature applied to a transaction.

Release signature code 'R' is reserved for rejection of a transaction.

Release signature code 'C' is reserved for 'Sent to Correction'.

The use of codes other than 'R' and 'C' depends on the classification of signatures used in an installation. The codetable for these codes is RELSIG.

Signature level codes 'A','B', 'C', 'D', 'E' are typically used for signatures of different quality which can be requested for a business transaction. Special signatures such as 'Special Level 1', 'Special Level 2', 'Special Level 3' can also be requested for business transactions. The codetable for these codes is SIGTYP.

All xxxATT transactions are released automatically (relreq = “”). All other transactions require a signature (relreq = 'A' ).

The “Required Signatures” field in a transaction contains the signatures this transaction requires in order to be released for further processing. This field has to be filled by the “TRNISM.SetRelRequestxxx” methods on storage of a transaction.

The “Obtained Signatures” field in a transaction contains the signatures applied to this transaction. This field is amended by any signature applied either during Control & Release or creation of the transaction.

The valid signature describes the signature the current user may add to this transaction for a transaction (i.e. TRN record): the valid signature is determined by rule TRNISM.UsrRelFlg from users release group and release amount and the relevant amount of the transaction. If these amounts are not in the same currency they are converted using today's rate and conversion type 'M'.

This identifies the position of a signature in the sequence of required or applied signatures (i.e. 1^st, 2^nd, or 10^th signature)

In Control & Release, the signature position can be checked either manually or automatically. Automatically, the system uses rule TRNISM.GetUseIdx to search for the highest requested signature, for which the allowed signature would be sufficient. That means that an overqualified signature might be used to satisfy a request.

A transaction as a whole is released if the applied signatures are identical to the required signatures. If required and applied signatures are identical, the transaction status TRN\RELFLG is set to 'Released'. If a workflow entry for release exists (row in the WFE table with the service entry REL) the status of this entry is changed to 'Done'.

The release procedure is controlled via the transaction profile. It can be defined or changed via the fields “Release Method” and “Relevant Amount” in the transaction “Maintaining Entity Group Transaction Profiles”.