Title: Approval Processing in Enterpriseone

Title: Approval Processing in EnterpriseOne

Abstract: Many businesses require the approval of Requisitions and/or Purchase Orders by the appropriate person(s) when the order exceeds a user-defined monetary amount. The approval process is intended to maintain control over the processing of these orders.

Setup

Address Book

Create Approval Routes

Assign Approval Route

Processing Options

Order Activity Rules

Held Orders (F4209)

Work Center/E-Mail Messaging

Examples

Purchase Order Approved and Not Changed

Purchase Order Entered Below the Approval Limit

Purchase Order is Rejected, Amended, then Approved

Setup

Address Book

The originator of the requisition and/or purchase order, as well as each person on the approval route, must be setup in the address book. (P01012/G01)

The search type field for both the originator and approvers should be populated with an "E" for employees Note: This search type can be any search type used for an employee type address book number as long as the Employee Y/N field is checked on the Additional tab of the Address Book Revisions (P01012). The address book assignment is made in the user information master and should be handled by the System Administrator. The system will look at the employee address number rather than the User ID to determine who is the approver or budget approver.

Note: All users must have a valid Address Book Number assigned in the User Profile.

Create Approval Routes

The approval route is setup in Approval Level Revisions (P43008/G43A13).

To create an approval route, use a unique route code name and description. The document type must also be specified for the route code.Note: Since the document type must be specified, it is possible to have the same route code name for different document types.

Two types of approvers are supported: budget and monetary.For the purposes of this document, approvers are assumed to be monetary approvers, unless it is explicitly stated that they are budget approvers.Budget approvers release budget holds at the line level for account-based lines with line types that have an inventory interfaces of A, B, C, or D.

Monetary approvers approve order totals with a user-defined limit.Within the Approval Level Revisions (P43008) program, the monetary approvers’ address book numbers are entered under the “Responsible” (data item RPER) column.

The “From Amount” (data item ALIM) designates the amount that the order total must exceed to require a monetary approval. The responsible person(s) should be listed in ascending order based on the from amount. The from amount must be greater than ZERO. A value of zero will produce unexpected results and is not supported by PeopleSoft. If ALL orders need to enter the Approval process the value must be greater then Zero (i.e., 1).

It is not recommended that you have more than one person at an approval limit. If this setup is used, the person with the lower address book number will receive all e-mail notifications.Furthermore, when the person with the lower address book number approves the order, the order will be routed to the next higher approval level and not to the second person at the lower approval level.

Note: If the person originating the order is on the approval route, then the order will only need to be approved by the Person(s) following the originator on the route. The prior approvers will be bypassed and a “B” code will be added to the Held Orders (F4209). If there is no one higher on the route, the order will automatically be approved.

Budget approvals and monetary approvals may be combined onto one approval route.In this case, the budget approver should also use the Orders Awaiting Approval (P43081) program to release the budget holds.

Assign Approval Route

The approval route is assigned during Purchase Order Entry (P4310). There are five ways to activate approvals within the processing options on the Approvals tab.

Enter the specific approval route name: This is the unique route name that was assigned when the route was created. The name must be in all uppercase when entered into the processing option.
"1" – Originators Address Book Number: Setup an approval route that is named the same as each person’s address book number. This is useful when each user needs to have a separate route code.
" 2" – Originators User Profile: Setup an approval route that is named the same as each person’s user profile. This is the same as using option 1, however the user profile is used rather then the address book number.
" 3" – Branch/Plant Route Code: The approval route is attached to the Branch/Plant Constants found on menu G43A41. The same approval route can be attached to more than one Branch/Plant. This option is useful when approvals are handled the same people in each branch.
"4" – Default Location Route Code: The approval route is attached in the Default Location and Printers (P400951/G43A41). The route will be associated to the Terminal/User ID. This allows groups of users to be attached to the same approval route code.

Processing Options

The approval process is dependent on Status Codes. This is very important to remember when setting up the approval process.

HINT: If approvals are not working as expected, the first thing that should be checked is the Status Code flow for Order Type/Line Type combination compared to the current status of the order.

The following is a list of programs and the processing options for each program that relate to Approval Processing.

Purchase Order Entry (P4310)

Display tab:

Processing option #6 is used to specify the next status at which detail lines are protected from being changed. The entire detail line is protected when the next status is greater than or equal to this status. If this field is left blank, the system does not protect detail lines from being changed.

Approvals tab:

Processing option #1 must be set to bring in a valid Approval Route Code.
Processing option #2 determines what the next status code will be for orders that need to be approved.
Processing option #3 determines what the next status code will be for orders that are less than the first "From" amount on the approval route.

Orders Awaiting Approval (P43081)

Process tab:

Processing option #1 controls what orders will be approved. Only orders with a next status code equal to the one setup in this processing option can be approved.
Processing option #2 determines what the next status code will be for orders that are approved.
Processing option #3 determines what the next status code will be for orders that are rejected.
Processing option #4 allows a specific budget hold code to be used for approvals.

Review Approval Notification (P012501)

Queue Mgmt tab:

The processing option for this program relate to the Work Center messages. Processing option #1 should be set to the search code used for Employees (i.e., "E").

Order Activity Rules

Setup Order Activity Rules to include approval process.

NOTE: There has to be Order Activity Rules for combination of Order Type and Line Type using approvals. The following print screens show the setup for a Requisition Order and a Purchase Order using DEMO data.

Order Type = OR and Line Type = S:

Note: The other allowed status code of 120 is needed for orders in amounts that are below the approval amounts. The other allowed status code of 100 is needed for orders that are rejected by an approver.

Order Type = OP and Line Type = S:

Note: The other allowed status code of 280 is needed for orders in amounts that are below the approval amounts. The other allowed status code of 220 is needed for orders that are rejected by an approver.

In 8.9 and later, an error, Approval Status Codes Missing (43S1), will be triggered in Purchase Order Entry (P4310) if the Order Activity Rules do not include both the Awaiting Approval and Approved Statuses.

Note: Due to this change, the approved status (280) and the awaiting approval status (230) must be added as other allowed status codes at all statuses where lines may return back to the approval process.

Here is one specific example of the status codes of a purchase order:

Enter a Purchase Order that needs approval status codes are: 220-230

After the Purchase Order is Approved status codes are: 230-280

If the Purchase Order is changed and needs approval status codes are: 280-230

If the Purchase Order is changed and doesn't need approval status codes are: 280-280

Back to Top

Held Orders (F4209)

The Held Orders (F4209) file has several uses, one use is to keep track of orders in the Approval Process. Each order going through the approval process will create records in this file with a "**" hold code. These records are order level, i.e., using company, document number and document type as the key.Line number and suffix will be 0 or 000.The important field to remember when dealing with the Approval Process is the Status - Approval (ASTS) field. This field holds the codes for approvals.

The first '**' record in the Held Orders (F4209) file will have an ASTS of “O”, which contains the time stamp when the order was originated:

O Originated - This status records when the originator entered the order.

Additional '**' records in the Held Orders (F4209) file will track subsequent actions to the order.For these records, the ASTS consists of a number as the first character, signifying an approver or originator , and a letter in the second character, signifying the action taken.Below is a list of codes and their purpose.

First character meaning:

1 Budget Approver

2 Monetary Approver

3 Originator of the Order

Second character meaning:

R Rejected - Valid with first position 2 .

A Approved - Valid with first positions 1 or 2.

N Pending Action - Message is waiting in the Approval Process. Valid with first positions 1, 2, or 3.

B Bypassed - A level of Approval was skipped. Valid with first characters 1 or 2.

Once the order is approved, the Orders Awaiting Approval (P43081) will display this message, i.e., the 3N message, to the originator. The originator’s action is to delete the message using the Delete Message row exit.

However, if one or more lines on the order have been rejected by any monetary approver, the originator’s action is to change or cancel the line.

Example: Held Order (F4209) Statuses for Monetary Approval Route

The following table lists an example of '**' records in the Held Orders (F4209) file for an order with an approval route of monetary approvers.

Held Orders (F4209) Records / Approved Status (ASTS)
Enter Order
One record is created / O
One record is created / 2N
First Approver
The 2N record is overwritten / 2A
A new record is created for the next approver / 2N
Each Additional Approver
The 2N record is overwritten / 2A
A new record is created for the next approver / N
Approved
The 2N record is overwritten / 2A
A new record is created for the originator / 3N
Rejected
The 2N record is overwritten / 2R
A new record is created for the originator / 3N
When the originator deletes a message in the Orders Awaiting Approval program with the Row Exit Delete Message, the "3N" record is deleted from the Held Orders (F4209) file, but the other records will remain.

Back to Top

Work Center/E-Mail Messaging

When an order enters the approval route the Approvers will receive a message in the Work Center or through external E-Mail based on system setup. There are three message formats and these can be revised if a client wishes to do so. The following is the Work Flow Message ID’s (P92002/GH951):

LM0016 - JDE-Req Approval Required

LM0017 - JDE-Requisition Approved

LM0018 - JDE-Requisition Rejected

The Approval process will not remove these messages automatically, they must be deleted from the Work Center manually.

Approvers can get messages sent to external mail applications.

The version of Orders Awaiting Approval (P43081) that is called from the Work Center is hard coded to be ZJDE0001. SAR # 5330563 request that different versions be able to be called from the work center, but this is currently considered an enhancement.

Back to Top

Example: Purchase Order Approved and Not Changed

Setup

Activate Approvals behind the Purchase Order Entry (P4310) program. See Assign Approval Route.

Enter Purchase Order (P4310)

Enter Purchase Order for multiple lines and be sure to exceed the limit of any approver on the Approval Route being used. In the following example, a Purchase Order was entered for an amount that needs to be approved by the First and Second Level Approver. The originator is NOT on the approval route.

The Held Orders (F4209) file will have the following ** records:

RPER / AN8 / ASTS
Originator Address Book Number / Originator Address Book Number / O
First Level Approver’s Address Book Number / Originator Address Book Number / 2N

The 2N value in the ASTS indicates the First Level Approver has a message pending in the Work Center or an external E-Mail has been sent. The order will not process to the Second Level Approver until the First Approver approves the order.

The First Approver approves the Order

The Held Orders (F4209) file will have the following ** records:

RPER / AN8 / ASTS
Originator Address Book Number / Originator Address Book Number / O
First Level Approver's Address Book Number / Originator Address Book Number / 2A
Second Level Approver's Address Book Number / Originator Address Book Number / 2N

The Second Approver approves the Order

The Held Orders (F4209) file will have the following ** records:

This indicates that both approvers have approved the order and a message has been sent to the originator stating that the Order has been approved.

The Originator Removes the Message from the Orders Awaiting Approval (P43081)

When the Originator removes the message using the Delete Messages Row Exit, the Held Orders (F4209) file will be updated and the line with the 3N status will be removed. All other entries will remain.

Back to Top

Purchase Order Entered Below the Approval Limit

Setup

Activate Approvals behind the Purchase Order Entry (P4310) program. See Assign Approval Route.

Enter Purchase Order (P4310)

Enter Purchase Order for multiple lines, but the order total should not exceed the approval amount on the Approval Route.

Note: When the Purchase Order is entered the Order Activity Rules will be used. If the order is under the amount of the First Level Approver, the order will automatically be approved. TheNext Status Codes (NXTR) on the lines will be written to the Purchase Order Detail (F4311) record based on the setup in the Approval tab of the Purchase Order Entry (P4310) program.

Example: Using the Order Activity Rules in demo data, the Purchase Order detail line will be at status 230/280. This is because the Approval process has bumped the status to be approved (280). The flow of status was 220/230 then changed to 230/280. The Approval Process has handled this. If writing to the Purchasing Ledger (F43199) at each step in the process, two records will be written to the ledger in this scenario.

The Held Orders (F4209) file will have the following entries:

RPER / AN8 / ASTS
Originator Address Book Number / Originator Address Book Number / O
Originator Address Book Number / 0 – zero / 3N

This indicates that the Purchase Order has been automatically approved.

The Originator Removes the Message from the Orders Awaiting Approval (P43081)

When the Originator removes the message, the Held Orders (F4209) file will be updated and the line with the 3N code will be removed. Only the first 'O' ASTS record will remain.

Back to Top

Purchase Order is Rejected, Amended, then Approved

Setup

Activate Approvals behind the Purchase Order Entry (P4310) program. See Assign Approval Route.

Enter Purchase Order (P4310)

Enter Purchase Order for multiple lines and exceed the approval amount.

The First Approver Rejects the order line 1

When the approver rejects a line, the approver is able to add a Remark to the line. The line being rejected will be indicated by having the Line Number highlight RED.

The Held Orders (F4209) file will have the following entries:

RPER / AN8 / ASTS
Originator Address Book Number / Originator Address Book Number / O
First Level Approvers Address Book Number / Originator Address Book Number / 2R
Originator Address Book Number / Originator Address Book Number / 3N

The Status Codes for LINE 1 will be updated to 230/220, but LINE 2 will remain 220/230.The next status for the rejected line is derived from the Orders Awaiting Approval (P43081) processing option. The Purchase Order Detail (F4311) file is updated for the rejected line with an “R” in the Line Status (STTS) field to indicate that the line was rejected.

The Originator cancels the line Rejected.

Line 1 is updated to 980/999 and Line 2 remains 220/230.

The Held Orders (F4209) file will have the following entries:

Title: Approval Processing in Enterpriseone