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Teams, regions, routing groups and approvals

Four admin settings decide who hears about a request and who approves an order. Routing groups send requests to the people who serve a set of locations or shops. Approvals shows who approves an order over a buyer's limit. Teams and Regions describe your people and places for Gearflow AI.

These four settings answer two questions: who gets a request, and who approves an order. Routing groups and Approvals show on most accounts. Teams and Regions show only when Gearflow turns on AI routing for your account. This page describes the screens as of November 2026.

Only an admin sees these pages. Each page opens only for a person with account management, which belongs to the Admin tier. Anyone else goes back to the requests list with "Unauthorized".

Page Where Who sees it
Routing Settings → Notifications → Routing tab Every admin.
Approvals Settings → Approvals (People group) Admins on an account that does not approve orders in SAP.
Teams Settings → Teams (People group) Admins, only when Gearflow turns on AI routing for your account.
Regions Settings → Regions (Your organization group) Admins, only when Gearflow turns on AI routing for your account.

#Routing groups

A routing group sends the requests for some places to the people who serve them. The page says it: "A routing group decides who gets a request, not how they hear it: requests that fall into a group reach the people in it." How each person hears (inbox, email, text) is still their own notification setting.

#The list

The list has the columns Name, Groups by, Covers, People and Requests. Amber text marks a group that does nothing yet: "No locations", "No shops" or "Nobody yet".

#Make a group

  1. Click New routing group.
  2. Type the Group name.
  3. Select Group by: Locations or Shops. You cannot change this after the group is made.
  4. Under Locations in this group (or Shops in this group), tick the places the group covers.
  5. Under People in this group, tick the people who serve them.
  6. Read the summary line at the bottom. It says what the group will do, for example "Requests for 3 shops reach 4 people."
  7. Click Create group.

Group by Locations uses the account's locations: yards, shops and jobsites. Group by Shops uses the record's own shop. If the record has no shop, it uses the shop that services the unit.

#Which requests belong to a group

A new request gets one group, by these rules in this order:

  1. The request is at one of the group's locations or shops.
  2. If no group holds the request's places, the request gets the group of the person who files it. A mechanic in a group does not have to choose a group for each request.
  3. If neither applies, the request has no group and routes as it did before.

A location or shop can be in one group only. A place that another group holds is greyed out with "In [group]". To move it, remove it from the other group first. Older groups can still share a place. The editor then warns "also in another group", and the request goes to the first group by name.

#Who receives a group's requests

Every person in the group receives its requests, unless their own notification setting excludes them. The role changes one thing, and each person's row shows it:

A shop is asked before a group. If a request's shop has a member who will hear about it, the shop's people get it and the group does not. If the group also reaches nobody, the request goes to the usual people for its business unit.

#Warnings in the editor

The editor shows amber warnings for groups that look set up but route nothing:

Warning What to do
"N locations no longer exist" (or shops) The place was removed. It routes nothing. Untick it.
"N people in this group will not hear about its requests" Their own notification setting excludes them. Being in a group does not override it.
"N locations are also in another group" (or shops) Only the first group by name gets those requests. Untick the place in one group.
"Nobody in this group receives its requests" Add the people who serve these places. Until then, requests route as they did before.
"Nothing reaches this group yet" Add places, or add the people whose requests should carry the group.

Delete is in the editor. Requests already routed through the group keep their history and stop showing a group. This cannot be undone.

#Approvals

Approvals shows who approves an order that is over the buyer's purchasing limit. The page is read-only. Gearflow reads the rules from the words in each person's user record, and only confirmed rules count. For what happens to an order that goes for approval, see Order approvals over a purchasing limit.

Accounts that approve in SAP do not see this page. Those accounts keep their approvals in SAP, and Settings shows no Approvals row for them.

#Where the rules come from

Each rule comes from one person's user record in Users:

  1. In Settings → Users, open a person and click Edit.
  2. In What they manage or Where they cover, write who approves what. For example "approves parts orders over $5,000".
  3. Save. Gearflow reads an approval rule from the words and shows it as "Gearflow reads this as an approval rule:", with each condition it found.
  4. Click Confirm rule if it is correct, or Not right if it is not. If Gearflow cannot find a place or name in your account, you must rewrite the words before you can confirm.

A purchasing limit belongs to each person. Set it in the same dialog, in Purchasing limit in dollars (blank for no limit). Blank means no limit. A person within their limit sends the PO. Over it, the order waits for an approver.

#The approval map

The Approval map lists every confirmed rule, lowest amount first. Use Group by to sort the rules by Location, Request type, Department or Business unit. Rules under "Any [field]" apply to every row.

Each row has the columns Who approves and Flags. Click a person's chip to open their user record. Two flags show problems:

Rules that are not confirmed show under the map as "Not counted until confirmed".

On an order, each rule that matches approves in turn, and the last approver sends the PO.

#Test an order

Test an order shows who would approve an order before anyone places it.

  1. Select the Request type (Parts, Materials or Tools), Location, Department and Business unit.
  2. Type the Amount.
  3. Click Test.

The result is one of three:

#Teams

Teams tells Gearflow AI who your people are, what they manage and where they cover. It shows only when Gearflow turns on AI routing for your account.

The list has the columns Team, Members, What they manage and Where they cover.

To make a team:

  1. Click Create team.
  2. Type the Name.
  3. Under Who is in it, click Add and select people.
  4. In What they manage, write what the team handles, in plain words.
  5. In Where they cover, write the jobs, shops or places the team serves.
  6. Click Create team.

Gearflow AI reads these words to decide who hears about each ticket and request, and who owns it. As of November 2026, it acts on the words for tickets only, and only when Gearflow turns on live routing for your account. For requests, and in trial mode, it records what it would decide and changes nothing you see. Each person has the same two fields in their own user record.

Delete is in the team's drawer. Its members stop hearing about its requests.

#Regions

A region is a name and the US states it covers. Every location belongs to the region its state is in. A team's Where they cover words can then name a region, for example "Southwest". Regions shows only when Gearflow turns on AI routing for your account.

The list has the columns Region, States and Locations. A line under the list names the locations that are in no region.

To make a region:

  1. Click Add region.
  2. Type the Name.
  3. Click Add states and select states.
  4. Click Add region.

Rules: