Field | Description |
Step
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When you insert a step into this grid, this field prefills with the next sequential number. It specifies the order in which the step is performed in the workflow. The steps in the grid display automatically in step order. Use the
Move Up and
Move Down options to change the order of steps.
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Description
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Enter a short name or description for the approval step that helps identify the step.
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Conditions
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Conditions are optional for an approval step. Click in this field, and then click
to open the Conditions dialog box and define conditions under which a step occurs.
For example, you might want to create a condition that says if the total amount of a purchase requisition is greater than $10,000, then the requisition will be routed to the organization administrator for approval.
You can create a condition based on fields that are related to the record being approved. For example, for Purchasing records, this would include fields from a purchase requisition record, purchase order record, and so on, fields from the cost distribution project that is associated with a Purchasing record being approved, and the purchasing item categories of the purchasing item.
During the approval process, conditions are evaluated at the beginning of the step. If the condition is not met, the next action that occurs is based on the action that you select in the
Action if Conditions Not Met field in this grid.
The
Conditions field displays
<Conditions Defined> when a condition is created for an approval step.
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Action if Conditions Not Met
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If you entered a condition for the approval step, select one of the actions from the drop-down list in this field to determine what to do when the condition is not met. Conditions are evaluated at the beginning of the step.
The possible actions are:
- Skip to Next Step — This moves the approval to the next step in the workflow. When the step is skipped, none of the associated actions for the step (the alerts) will take place. You cannot use
Skip to Next Step for the last step of an approval workflow.
- Approve Step — This marks the step with the unmet condition approved by the approval administrator who is specified on the General tab of Approval Workflows Configuration. Any associated actions (alerts), including applicable, end-of-step actions for the step will be taken. An assignment is made to the approval administrator. If an approval notification is sent to "currently assigned" (employee or employees who are currently assigned to the approval workflow step), it is sent to the approval administrator.
- Assign to Administrator — This assign the approval step to the employee who is entered in the
Approval Administrator field on the General tab of Approval Workflows Configuration.
- Mark as Final Approved — This skips any remaining approval steps in the workflow and marks the approval as final approved. The approval administrator will be added in the
Responsibility column of the approval history grid. Any completed notifications that are sent to the employee who is currently assigned would be sent to the approval administrator. No approval alerts would be sent. The record is marked final approved.
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Workflow State
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Select one of the options from the drop-down list to determine the actions that an approver can take for this step.
For approval workflows for absence requests and AP invoices, this field prefills with
In Approval, which you cannot change.
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Assigned To (for applications other than AP Invoice Approvals)
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The grid contains an
Assigned To column that functions differently based on the approval workflow's application (entered on the General tab). The following
Assigned To description applies if an approval workflow's application is
not AP Invoice Approvals. See also the
Assigned To (for AP Invoice Approvals) field description below.
Click in this field and then click
to select the role of the employees who can take action (approve, reject, and so on) for this approval step. This opens the Field Selection dialog box, on which you can select one or more roles. The list of roles may differ based on the application that you selected for the approval workflow in the
Application field on the General tab of the form.
You can select employee roles in addition to, or instead of, selecting employees by name in the
Specific Employees field in this grid. You must select at least one role or one specific employee to take action for a step.
You select roles and/or specific employees who
can take action for this step in the approval process in the
Assigned To and/or
Specific Employees field.
You specify who
must complete the step in the
Who Must Complete field in the Approval Step grid.
Possible roles that you can select in the
Assigned To field on the Field Selection dialog box are:
- Approval Administrator — This is the employee who is entered in the
Approval Administrator field on the General tab.
- Buyer — This role applies for approval workflows for purchase orders, purchase order change orders, and purchase order releases. This is the employee who is entered in the
Buyer field for the purchase order, change order, or release order to be approved.
- Buyer's Supervisor — This role applies for approval workflows for purchase orders, purchase order change orders, and purchase order releases. This is the supervisor (entered in the Employee Info Center) for the employee who is the buyer specified for the purchase order, change order, or release order to be approved.
- Expense Group Administrator — This role applies for approval workflows for Employee Expenses. This is the employee who can access expense reports for all employees in a particular expense group. The administrator is configured by selecting the
Group option in the
Level field in the Expense tab of the Employee Info Center.
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Expense Group Company Administrator — This role applies for approval workflows for Employee Expenses and if you use the Multicompany feature. This is the employee who can access expense reports for employees in all expense groups in a particular company. The company administrator is configured by selecting the
Company option in the
Level field in the Expense tab of the Employee Info Center.
- Expense Group System Administrator — This role applies for approval workflows for Employee Expenses. This is the employee who can access expense reports for all groups and employees. The administrator is configured by selecting the
System option in the
Level field in the Expense tab of the Employee Info Center.
- Company Buyer — This role applies for approval workflows for purchase orders, purchase order change orders, and purchase order releases. These are the employees who are listed on the Buyers tab of in
for the active company. All the employees on the Buyer tab must take action for the approval step when the approval process occurs in the Vision company for which they are designated as the company buyers.
- Create User — This is the employee who created the record to be approved.
- GL Budget Submitter— This role applies for approval workflows for GL budget approvals. This is the employee who submitted the GL Budget record to be approved.
- Inventory Manager — This role applies for approval workflows for inventory item requests. You specify these employees in the Manager grid on the Inventory tab in
. All of the employees in the Manager grid must take action for the approval step when the approval process occurs in the Vision company for which they are designated as inventory managers.
- Principal-in-Charge — This role applies for Purchasing and Inventory applications. This is the principal-in-charge who is assigned to the project (in the Project Info Center) that is associated with the record to be approved.
- Project Biller — This role applies for Purchasing and Inventory applications. This is the biller who is assigned to the project (in the Project Info Center) that is associated with the record to be approved.
- Project Manager — This role applies for Purchasing and Inventory applications. This is the project manager who is assigned to the project (in the Project Info Center) that is associated with the record to be approved.
- Project Supervisor — This role applies for Purchasing and Inventory applications. This is the project supervisor who is assigned to the project (in the Project Info Center) that is associated with the record to be approved.
- Requestor — This role applies for approval workflows for purchase requisitions, requests for price quotes, inventory item requests, and absence requests. For Purchasing and Inventory records, the requestor is the employee who is entered in the
Requested By field for the record. For absence requests, the requestor is employee for whom the absence request applies.
- Requestor's Supervisor — This role applies for approval workflows for purchase requisitions, requests for price quotes, inventory item requests, and absence requests. This is the supervisor (entered in the Employee Info Center) for the employee who is the requestor of the record to be approved.
- Submitter — This is the employee who submitted the record to be approved; they clicked the
Submit button on the entry form to submit the record. Do not assign step 1 to the submitter. The submitter is not logged until a record is submitted.
- Timesheet Group Administrator — This role applies for approval workflows for absence requests. This is the employee who is the administrator for the timesheet group for the employee who is requesting the absence. The employee's timesheet group is entered on the Time tab in the Employee Info Center. Administrators for timesheet groups are specified in the Administration section of the Time tab in the Employee Info Center. Timesheet groups are set up in
.
- Timesheet Group Company Administrator — This role applies for approval workflows for absence requests. This is the employee who is the company-level administrator for all timesheet groups for the company of the employee who is requesting the absence. An employee is specified as a company-level timesheet group administrator in the Administration section of the Time tab in the Employee Info Center.
- Timesheet Group System Administrator — This role applies for approval workflows for absence requests. This is the employee who is the system-level administrator for all timesheet groups in all companies in Vision. An employee is specified as a system-level timesheet group administrator in the Administration section of the Time tab in the Employee Info Center.
- Organization-level approval roles — This includes any approval role that you set up at the organization level in Organization Configuration (if you use organizations in Vision).
For Purchasing records, Vision uses the cost distribution project to identify the organization for a Purchasing record. If no cost distribution project is entered, Vision uses the organization of the requester. This allows organization-level approvers to be used even if cost distribution projects are not used.
For absence request approvals, Vision uses the organization-level approval role from the organization of the employee who is requesting an absence approval.
- User-defined fields — For approval workflows for the Purchasing applications, Inventory item requests, and AP Invoice Approvals, this includes any user-defined fields that you create for the Project Info Center that contains employees.
For approval workflows for absence requests, this includes any user-defined employee fields that you create for the Employee Info Center.
Approval Workflows for Purchasing Applications and Project-Related Roles
To determine the employee to assign for roles that are related to a project, such as the project manager or project supervisor, Vison looks for the project in the following places in the order listed:
- The cost distribution override project that is entered for the purchasing or inventory line item to be approved. This is entered on the Cost Distribution tab for purchase requisitions and request for price quotes. It is entered on the Default Distribution tab for purchase orders. To see the override project, click the
View Details button on the Items grid for a line item in the Purchasing or Inventory entry form.
- If no cost distribution override project is entered on these tabs, Vision looks to the cost distribution project for the record. If multiple projects are found, then multiple approval assignments can be made for the step. For example, nine projects each with a different project manager would produce nine different approval assignments. However if all projects belonged to the same project manager, then Vision would make only one approval assignment.
Approval workflow failures can occur when an employee has not been entered for a role that is assigned to an approval step. For example, if you select
Project Manager in the
Assigned To field, and a record going through the approval process has no employee entered in the
Project Manger field in the Project Info Center, a workflow failure occurs. In this situation, the approval would be sent to the employee who is specified as the approval administrator entered in the
Approval Administrator field on the General tab on the Approvals Configuration form.
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Specific Employees
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This column does not display when you are creating an approval workflow for AP Invoice Approvals.
Click in this field, and then click
to select one or more specific employees by name who can take action for this step in the approval process. You can select specific employees in addition to, or instead of, selecting employee roles in the
Assigned To field in this grid. You must select at least one role or one specific employee to take action for a step.
You select roles and/or specific employees who
can take action for this step in the approval process in the
Specific Employees and/or
Assigned To fields. You also choose who
must complete the step in the
Who Must Complete field in this grid.
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Assigned To (for AP Invoice Approvals)
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The grid contains an
Assigned To column that functions differently based on the approval workflow's application (entered on the General tab). The following
Assigned To description applies if an approval workflow's application is AP Invoice Approvals. See also the
Assigned To (for applications other than AP Invoice Approvals) description above.
Click the
ellipsis icon in this field to open the Assigned To dialog box. Then select the roles and/or specific employees who
can take action (approve, reject, and so on) for this approval step or the approval hierarchy that will determine the employees who can take action for the approval step.
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Who Must Complete
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Use the drop-down list in this field to select which roles and/or employees that you selected in the Assigned To and/or
Specific Employees fields are required to complete the action for this approval step. You select roles and/or specific employees who
can take action for this step in the approval process in the
Assigned To and/or
Specific Employees fields. You choose who
must complete the step in the
Who Must Complete field in this grid.
Options in the
Who Must Complete drop-down list are:
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Any — Any of the one or more roles or specific employees who are assigned to this approval step (in the
Assigned To field in this grid) can complete the step by marking the record as approved. After one employee approves the record, it moves to the next step in the approval process.
- All — All of the one or more roles or specific employees who are assigned to this approval step (in the
Assigned To field in this grid) must mark the record as approved for the step before it is complete and can move to the next step. If there are multiple approvers and any one of them rejects the record, then the record is rejected.
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Days Allotted
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Enter the number of days in which an assigned approver must complete and approve this step. The day count begins when a purchasing or inventory item is submitted. If the approver does not take action on the step within the allotted number of days, any applicable reminder or escalation alerts that you add for a step will be sent.
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Review Action
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This field does
not apply for approval workflows for absence requests. This field applies only if you selected
In Review in the
Workflow State field.
In Review allows approvers to edit the record for approval, as well as approve, reject, or reassign it as applicable.
The option that you select in the
Review Action field determines what happens after an approver edits a record that is undergoing approval.
Options are:
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Approve — Select this option to have Vision approve the record after an approver edits the record. The workflow continues on to the next step in the approval process. You may want to avoid this option if all steps in a workflow use conditions. It would be possible for the approver to edit the record so that none of the subsequent step conditions are met.
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Restart Approval — Select this option to send the record back to step 1 of the approval process after an approver edits the record for the approval step. This allows approvers from earlier steps to review and approve the record.
After an approver edits a record for this approval step, the
Approvals option on the toolbar of the application form no longer displays the
Approve,
Reject, and
Reassign options on the submenu. Instead, only a
Review option displays. When an approver clicks the
Review option, Vision follows the review action that was specified for the approval workflow step (either approve the step or restart the approval process).
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Reject Action
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This setting determines what happens when a reviewer rejects a record that is going through the approval process.
Options are:
- Assign to Submitter — The approval record is assigned to the employee who originally submitted it, so they can revise and resubmit it.
- Cancel — This option does not apply for approval workflows for AP invoices and absence requests. This rejects the record (purchase requisition, request for quote, purchase order, or item request) and cancels the approval process (the remaining approval workflow steps are ignored). The status of the record is changed to Rejected. The record is also closed and no more changes can be made to the record. Any applicable reject notifications are sent.
- None — There will be no reject option for the approval. The record can only be approved.
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Assignment Type
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This field is enabled when the
Application option is set to
Employee Expenses on the General tab. This field displays which application is used for the approval step.
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