How order approvals work in LUSID

LUSID's order management system has a built-in approval workflow that lets you gate orders before they reach the market. Whether you require a single or dual sign-off on every trade, the approval process gives front-office teams a structured, auditable way to review orders without leaving the Order Blotter.

Note

The approval workflow is a domain-wide configuration. Contact your FINBOURNE representative to enable this feature for your environment.

How it works

Every order in LUSID has an approval state and a compliance state, that together control whether an order can be placed in the market. Orders can only be placed in the market once they have passed compliance and your domain's configured approval process.

An order block shows a derived approval state based on the approval status of the orders within it.

Approval modes

You can configure your domain to use one of the following approval modes:

Order approval states

An order moves through the following states:

• Pending: The order has passed compliance and is awaiting approval. It cannot be placed while in this state.

• FirstStageApproved: One approver has approved the order in a dual-stage process. A second approver must still act.

• Approved: All required approvals have been granted. The order can now be placed in the market.

• Rejected: An approver has rejected the order. It cannot be placed.

How do I set up order approvals?

Step 1: Configure the approval mode in the Configuration Store

You can set the domain-wide approval mode in the Configuration Store. The default value is No Approval, so LUSID automatically approves all new orders.

To enable single-stage or dual-stage approval, you must update the relevant configuration set with the appropriate value:

1. Navigate to System Settings > Configuration Store.

2. Select the Shared keys tab.

3. Click Edit on the following set:

   • Scope: system

   • Code: LUSID-OrderManagement

   

4. Set the OrderApproval value to one of the following:

   • no-approval: No approval

   • single-stage: Single-stage approval

   • two-stage: Dual-stage approval

   

5. Save the configuration set.

Step 2: Assign approval permissions to users

Only users with the appropriate permissions can approve orders; you must assign roles accordingly. In a typical setup:

• Traders / junior staff: Can create and submit orders for approval, but cannot approve.

• Lead Portfolio Managers / Investment Team: Can approve orders.

• Compliance: Cannot create or approve orders, but may have the ability to override hard compliance rules.

See how to create roles and policies in LUSID.

How do I approve an order?

Viewing orders pending approval

Orders awaiting approval are visible in the Order Blotter. You can filter or sort by the Approval State column to identify orders in a Pending state.

Approving an order block

1. Locate the individual order or order block you want to approve in the Order Blotter.

   • For order blocks: Select Options on the order block row.
     

   • For individual orders: Select the block containing the order, then select Options on the order row in the lower grid.
     

2. Select Approve / Reject from the menu.
   

3. Choose Approve or Reject and provide a supporting comment.
   

How do I track approvals and order history?

Who created the order

In the Order Blotter, you can add the Created By, Modified By, and more columns to identify who initiated an order. You can add these columns via the column Configuration icon:

Viewing approval history

To view the full approval history of an order, including who acted at each stage:

1. Click on the Order code via the lower grid to open the order detail view.
   

2. Select View audit history.
   

For example: