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25 business rules examples by department

Real business rules examples from finance, procurement, sales, operations, HR and compliance, written in plain English you can adapt for your own policy.

The Condexa team · · 6 min read

A business rule is a statement that says what must happen, or what the answer is, given a set of facts. Most organisations have hundreds of them. Very few have them written down in one place.

Here are 25 business rules examples, grouped by department. Use them as a starting point for documenting your own. If you want a formal definition first, see what is a business rules engine.

Finance

  1. Invoices over 10,000 that do not match a purchase order must be held for review.
  2. A supplier's bank details cannot be changed and paid on the same day.
  3. Expenses without a receipt above a set amount are rejected.
  4. Journals above a set value need a second approver from a different team.
  5. Customers with an overdue balance over 60 days go on credit hold.

Procurement

  1. Purchase orders are approved according to value and cost centre, following the approval matrix.
  2. New suppliers must pass onboarding checks before the first order is placed.
  3. Capital purchases always need finance director approval.
  4. Orders may not be split to stay under an approval limit.
  5. Suppliers on the watch list need procurement sign-off for every order.

Sales and pricing

  1. A sales rep can discount up to a set percentage; above that, the sales manager must approve.
  2. Customers in the top tier get free delivery on orders above a minimum value.
  3. Quotes are valid for 30 days unless a different term is agreed in writing.
  4. Promotional prices cannot be combined with contract prices.
  5. A new customer's first order is limited until credit checks are complete.

Operations and logistics

  1. Orders for restricted items cannot ship to countries on the restricted list.
  2. Hazardous goods must use an approved carrier.
  3. Orders received after the cut-off time ship the next working day.
  4. Stock below the reorder point for a key item raises a purchase request.
  5. Returns outside the returns window need a manager's approval.

HR and people

  1. Overtime above a set number of hours per week needs line manager approval.
  2. Holiday requests that leave a team below minimum cover are referred to the manager.
  3. New starters cannot be given system access until their contract is signed.

Compliance and risk

  1. Customers and suppliers must be screened before onboarding and at set intervals.
  2. Any decision that overrides a rule must record who overrode it and why.

What good business rules have in common

Look back over the list and you will notice a few things.

  • They are specific. Each one names the facts it uses and the answer it gives.
  • The numbers are separate from the logic. "Up to a set percentage" means the percentage can live in a table and change without rewriting the rule.
  • They apply everywhere. A discount rule that only works in one system is not really a rule; it is a suggestion.
  • They can be explained. For any answer, you should be able to say which rule applied and why.

Where business rules usually live

In most businesses, these rules are scattered:

  • In application code, where every change is a developer ticket
  • In spreadsheets, where nobody is sure which copy is current
  • In email chains and approval inboxes
  • In the head of the one person who has been there longest

Each of those works for a while. None of them scales, and none of them can explain a decision months later. We cover the risks in more detail in hard-coded business rules and spreadsheet decision logic.

Turning examples into working rules

Once you have written your rules down, the next step is making them run. That is what a business rules engine does: it holds the rules outside your applications, answers any system that asks, and records why it gave each answer.

With Condexa, each decision becomes a visual workflow. Numbers such as limits, bands and lists sit in lookup tables and lists the business owns. You test with real examples, publish when ready, and your ERP, CRM or Power App calls it over a REST API.

Next steps

Read how to document business rules so they stay useful, or look at common use cases such as pricing and discounts and compliance checks. When you have a rule in mind, bring it to a 30-minute demo.

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