# Expense approval routing (DMN)

Routing decisions are where DMN pays off, because the answer is a person or a role rather than a number, and the rules change often.

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## What this example shows

* A category input matched against a list.
* Amount bands controlling the approval level.
* An output naming the approving role.

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## Columns

| **Column**        | **Type and meaning**                            |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------------------------- |
| Amount (input)    | number: claim total                             |
| Category (input)  | string: travel, equipment, entertainment, other |
| Approver (output) | string: the approving role                      |

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## The decision table

Hit policy: **U (Unique)**. Cells are FEEL expressions, so a range, a list or a negation is a legal value; a dash means the input is irrelevant to that rule.

| **Amount**    | **Category**         | **Approver**       | **Annotation**                        |
| ------------- | -------------------- | ------------------ | ------------------------------------- |
| < 100         | \-                   | "line manager"     | Auto-approved above receipts check    |
| \[100..1000)  | not("entertainment") | "line manager"     |                                       |
| \[100..1000)  | "entertainment"      | "department head"  | Policy requires a second pair of eyes |
| \[1000..5000) | \-                   | "department head"  |                                       |
| \>= 5000      | \-                   | "finance director" |                                       |

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## Making it your own

* not("entertainment") is a FEEL negation, which saves listing every other category.
* Return a role rather than a person, so the table survives people changing jobs.
* Add a cost-centre input if approval depends on budget ownership.

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## Related

[Holiday entitlement (DMN)Service length and contract type.](https://help.gocapable.com/diagrams/holiday-entitlement-dmn.html)

[Insurance risk score (DMN)Collect, because every matching rule contributes.](https://help.gocapable.com/diagrams/insurance-risk-score-dmn.html)

[DMN examplesBack to the rest of these examples.](https://help.gocapable.com/diagrams/dmn-examples.html)

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_The hit policy is the whole decision._