Is it possible to set up Auto Reject rules for transactions in the Transaction Console?

Summary:

Setting up Self Auto Approve in the Transaction Console is easy enough - is there a way to set up Auto Reject?

Content (please ensure you mask any confidential information):

We know we can set up Auto Approve in Transaction Console and I've seen documentation about setting up Auto Reject from the BPM Task configuration but we don't roll out/promote BPM to everyone (that would manage approvals) as it can by quite tricky to navigate/lock down.

Is there a way to configure a transaction to auto reject in the Transaction Console approval rule tool?

We want to manage our Absence Donation process so that all submissions during an enrollment widow are accepted and processed with approvals. When we close the donation window (speaking procedurally), we want to flip a rule on that will subsequently auto-reject any new transactions. Can this only be achieved by configuring the task in BPM?