Set Up the Finance Approval Setup page
The overall behavior of finance approvals is set up on the Finance Approval Setup page.
You can configure multiple approval levels for amount and over budget approvals, based on amount thresholds. Finance approval rules determine the routes for dimension approval workflows. Finance approval rules specify amount thresholds, approvers, and the other filters that are related to each rule, such as general ledger accounts and dimensions.
Direct approvers can be an individual or an approval group that includes multiple approvers. The approval group can have multiple levels and can be configured to have a sequence of one or more individual approvals for each approval level.
Enable Approver Selection
The Enable Approver Selection field provides the capability for a requester who is sending a finance document for approval to choose who is to approve the document provided that all the following setup is in place:
The Enable Approver Selection field is turned on.
Multiple approvers are set up on the approval group.
All Must Approve is not selected for the respective sequence on the approval group.
When Enable Approver Selection is turned off, Sparkrock 365 determines who is to approve the document based on the approval setup.
Dimension approval workflows
Dimension approval workflows include all workflows that can be configured on the Finance Approval Setup page, on the Document Types FastTab. Dimension approval workflows can be grouped into the following functional areas:
Finance requests, which include:
- Purchase requisitions
- Payment requests
- Expense claims
Purchase documents, which include:
- Purchase orders
- Purchase invoices
- Purchase credit memos
Document types
If desired, you can specify distinct approval processes for the following finance request types:
Purchase requisitions
Payment requests
Expense claims
Purchase orders
Purchase invoices
Purchase credit memos
Sequence of approval
In Sequence of Approval, you can specify the use of Approval Rules, or the use of the Direct Approver. You can also specify the use of both, with the direct approver to precede the amount and over budget approvals, or the direct approver to follow the amount and over budget approvals. For more information about approval rules, see Set Up Finance Approval Rules. For more information about direct approvers, see Direct Approvers.
Enabled
When the Enabled checkbox is selected, a request goes through an approval process for the specified document type. If your organization does not use approvals for a specific document type, clear the Enabled checkbox. Expense Claims submitted through mySparkrock release and auto-approve when submitted, if approvals are not enabled.
Self approval options
An employee may be able to create a document themselves or as an alternate, and may also be part of the approval chain. The Allow Self-Approval setting indicates whether a requestor can approve such a request.
Self-approvals involve the following individuals:
Requester: The person who is registered as a requester on the document. This person appears in Requested by mySparkrock User on the document page.
Creator: The person who created the document. In the case of alternates, this person might be a different person than the requester. This person appears in Created by on the document page.
Sender of the Request for Approval: The person who sends the request for approval. This person can be the requester, creator, or an administrative approver and appears in Requested Approval By on the document page.
Approver: The person who can approve a request as per the applied approval rules.
When the creator is different from the requestor and the creator or the requestor is an approver, the approval entries are generated as per the existing rules, but no auto approval takes place.
The following list describes the Allow Self-Approval options:
Never: If the user is the creator or the requester, this user cannot be an approver. The user is not to be added to the approval entries, except when all must approve. Specifying this option results in documents not being auto-approved.
If the creator or requestor has an alternative approver only these alternate approvers are displayed in the approval entries.
If the creator or requestor does not have an alternative approver, at the time of requesting the approval, an error appears that indicates what rules are required.
Always: The user can approve when the user is the requester, creator, or the sender of the approval. In this case the approval happens automatically. If only one approval rule is applied, the document also gets automatically approved.
If no other approver exists: Specifies that self-approval is to be allowed only when the approver is approving for themselves and no other approver for the rule and sequence exist. If no other approver is configured, the user who can be the requester or creator, is allowed to self-approve. Otherwise, when no other approver for the rule and sequence exists, the Backstop Approval Group determines the approver.
Last level approver is a requester
Consider the following scenario:
On the Finance Approval Setup page, Approval Level is set to Last Level Approves.
The respective document type allows self-approval.
The requester is an approver at a threshold that is higher than the threshold for the document. The requester can be a mySparkrock user or part of an approval group.
When this scenario occurs, the approval process skips all other rules and thresholds, and the document is automatically approved.
For example:
On the Finance Approval Setup page, Approval Level is set to Last Level Approves.
The respective document type allows self-approval.
Level 1 approver is John Smith who can approve amounts that are greater than the $1,000 amount threshold.
Level 2 approver is Peter Jones who can approve amounts that are greater than the $10,000 amount threshold.
If Peter Jones requests approval for a $5,000 document, the approval process goes directly to Peter Jones and the document is automatically approved. Level 1 approval is not applied as per the threshold.
Note
Note:
If the requester is in an approval group and the requester is not in sequence 1 of the group, or the sequence 1 of the group has the All Must Approve checkbox selected, the group must approve as per the usual process.
If the requester is a notification only approver, the requester is not considered to be an approver for determining which approval rule is to be used.
Skip lines options
When processing the approval for a document, the following options are available for skipping lines:
Skip Requisition Lines: Specifies whether to skip lines that originate from a requisition when processing the approval for this document.
Skip Payment Request Lines: Specifies whether to skip lines that originate from a payment request when processing the approval for this document.
Skip Expense Claim Lines: Specifies whether to skip lines that originate from an expense claim when processing the approval for this document.
Approval level
The Approval Level setting determines which approvals are created. When you have configured multiple levels of approval for an amount, over budget approval, or both, the Approval Level setting determines whether each distinct approval tier must approve a given request, or whether lower-level approvers are bypassed so that only one approval is required.
The Last Level Approves option creates approval entries for only the approver whose approval threshold limit is above the value of other applied rules. The approver can be an individual or a group.
The All Levels Approve option creates approval entries at each level for all applied approval rules. The approvals are processed sequentially from the lowest level to the highest.
Backstop Approval Group
During approval processing of a document, when Sparkrock 365 does not find an applicable approval rule, an approver who is assigned to the backstop approval group is responsible for approving the document. A backstop approval group is also used when Sparkrock 365 finds an eligible approval group, but does not find an eligible approver, for example, Allow Self-Approval is Never and the only approver is the one who is sending the document for approval.
See also
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