Approval Maps

Form ID: (EP205015)

You can use this form to create and edit approval maps for expense claims, expense receipts, journal transactions, time cards, projects, pro forma invoices, project quotes, change orders, change requests, cost projections, daily field reports, engineering change orders, engineering change requests, progress worksheets, cash purchases, cash returns, cash transactions, sales orders, sales quotes, subcontracts, purchase orders, requests, requisitions, accounts payable bills, accounts receivable invoices, accounts payable checks, and accounts receivable payments.

For the entity type you select, you can create any number of steps, each of which may include any number of rules. Steps may be executed in a sequential, parallel, or sequential-parallel fashion.

For more information about how you can manage approval maps, see Approval Configuration: Approval Maps.

Summary Area

You use the elements in this area to create a new approval map or to select an existing map to view its details.


Element	Description
Map	The identifier of the approval map. For a new approval map, the <NEW> string is displayed, indicating that a new identifier will be generated.
Name	The name of the approval map.
Entity Type	The type of entity that should be assigned for approval. The entity type can be one of the following: Bills and Adjustments for the approval of AP documents created on the Bills and Adjustments (AP301000) form Cash Purchases for the approval of documents created on the Cash Purchases (AP304000) form Cash Sales for the approval of documents created on the Cash Sales (AR304000) form Cash Transactions for the approval of cash transactions created on the Cash Transactions (CA304000) form Change Orders for the approval of change orders created on the Change Orders (PM308000) form Change Requests for the approval of change requests created on the Change Requests (PM308500) form Checks and Payments for the approval of documents created on the Checks and Payments (AP302000) form Cost Projection for the approval of cost projections created on the Cost Projection (PM305000) form Daily Field Report for the approval of daily field reports created on the Daily Field Report (PJ304000) form Employee Time Cards for the approval of time cards created on the Employee Time Cards (EP406000) form Engineering Change Order for the approval of change orders created on the Engineering Change Order (AM215000) form Engineering Change Request for the approval of change requests created on the Engineering Change Request (AM210000) form Equipment Time Cards for the approval of time cards created on the Equipment Time Cards (EP407000) form Expense Claim for the approval of expense claims created on the Expense Claim (EP301000) form Expense Receipt for the approval of expense receipts created on the Expense Receipt (EP301020) form Invoices for the approval of sales invoices created on the Invoices (SO303000) form Invoices and Memos for the approval of AR documents created on the Invoices and Memos (AR301000) form Journal Transactions for the approval of batches of GL transactions created on the Journal Transactions (GL301000) form Payments and Applications for the approval of AR documents created on the Payments and Applications (AR302000) form Pro Forma Invoices for the approval of pro forma invoices created on the Pro Forma Invoices (PM307000) form Progress Worksheets for the approval of progress worksheets created on the Progress Worksheets (PM303000) form Project Quotes for the approval of project quotes created on the Project Quotes (PM304500) form Projects for the approval of projects created on the Projects (PM301000) form Purchase Orders for the approval of purchase orders created on the Purchase Orders (PO301000) form Reconciliation Statements for the approval of reconciliation statements created on the Reconciliation Statements (CA302000) form Requests for the approval of requests created on the Requests (RQ301000) form Requisitions for the approval of requisitions created on the Create Requisitions (RQ504000) form Sales Orders for the approval of sales orders created on the Sales Orders (SO301000) form Sales Quotes for the approval of sales quotes created on the Sales Quotes (CR304500) form Subcontracts for the approval of subcontracts created on the Subcontracts (SC301000) form The specific entities available depend on your license and the set of features enabled on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form.

Steps Pane

This pane displays a list of the steps and rules that the approval map consists of. A deactivated step or rule is marked with the (Inactive) prefix.

The pane toolbar buttons are listed in the table below.


Button	Description
Add Step	Adds a new step, which appears at the bottom of the list.
Add Rule	Adds a new rule to the bottom of the list of rules within the selected step.
Move Node Up	Moves the selected node one position up in the list.
Move Node Down	Moves the selected node one position down in the list.
Delete Node	Deletes the selected node.
Show Steps Pane/Hide Steps Pane	Shows or hides the Steps pane.

Right Pane

This pane contains tabs and elements that you can use to specify, review, or edit the settings of the step or rule selected in the Steps pane.

Table 1. Pane Summary Elements
Element	Description
Description	The description of the step or rule, depending on which is selected in the Steps pane.
Active	A check box that indicates (if selected) that the step or rule, depending on which is selected in the Steps pane, is active and the system executes it in accordance with the specified conditions. You clear this check box to deactivate the step or rule, which is then marked with the (Inactive) prefix in the Steps pane.

Conditions Tab

You use this tab to specify the conditions that must be met to execute the rule or to complete the step.

Table 2. Summary Elements
Element	Description
If No Approver Found	The directions for the system to execute if no approver has been assigned at this step. The following options are available: Reject Document: The document or record is rejected. Approve Document: The document or record is approved. Go to Next Step: The system proceeds to the next step in the approval map. If the system has reached the last step in the map and no conditions have been met to assign an approver yet, no approver is assigned to the document or record.
Execute Step	An extra condition for executing the step. The following options are available: Always (default): The step is executed regardless of whether the conditions in any previous step have been met and an approver has been assigned to the record. If No Approvers Found at Previous Steps: The step is executed only if all the conditions in all the previous steps have not been met and no approvers have been assigned to the record. If at least one approver has been assigned to approve the record after all the previous steps in the map have been executed, the system does not execute this step.

Table 3. Table Buttons
Button	Description
Insert	Inserts a new row above the selected row.
Move Up	Moves the selected row one position up in the list.
Move Down	Moves the selected row one position down in the list.

Table 4. Table Columns
Column	Description
Active	A check box that indicates (if selected) that the condition is active and the system meets this condition when executing the rule. You clear this check box to deactivate the condition.
Brackets	The opening bracket or brackets for enclosing a logical expression. Brackets are used to designate the order of operations.
Entity	The entity the approval map is associated with.
Field Name	The name of a field (element) that stores a property of the entity. The property in this field will be compared to the specified value to determine whether the condition is true or false.
Condition	The logical operation to apply to the value of the chosen data field. The following options are available: Equals, Does Not Equal, Is Greater Than, Is Greater Than or Equal To, Is Less Than, Is Less Than or Equal To, Contains, Starts With, Ends With, Does Not Contain, Is Between, Is Empty, and Is Not Empty.
Value	The condition's first value to be compared with the data field value. Most of the conditions require only one value, while Is Between requires two values.
Value 2	The second value, if required by the selected condition.
Brackets	The closing bracket or brackets for enclosing a logical expression.
Operator	The logical operator to be used to connect logical expressions of separate lines. Brackets are used to designate the order of operations.

Rule Actions Tab

This tab contains settings that determine how the system assigns an approver to a record of the specified type, how the approval process proceeds, and whether an approver has to enter a comment when approving or rejecting a record of the type.

If you create multiple rules that are configured in such a way that the same approver could be assigned multiple times to approve one record, the system will create at most one approval request per record for this approver.

Table 5. Approval Settings Section
Element	Description
Approver	The source of the employee or employees to whom the record or document should be assigned for approval. The following options are available: Employee: Gives you the ability to use the Employee table, in which you can specify any number of employees to review the record or document. Employee from Document: Gives you the ability to use the Employee box, which has a selector tool for drilling down to any level of detail of the underlying document and selecting the system entity and field that contains the employee to approve the record or document. Employees by Filter: Gives you the ability to use the Employee Filter table, in which you can specify the conditions for selecting one employee or multiple employees. Attention: If multiple employees are selected based on the conditions in the Employee Filter table, the system will require approval from all the listed employees, regardless of the value specified in the Operator column of the filter table.
Employee	A box in which you can click the + button and then select a system entity and a field within that entity that contains an employee. This box appears only if Employee from Document is selected in the Approver box.
Workgroup	The workgroup to which the entity should be assigned for approval. The system determines which employees can approve a record based on the configuration of the Employee table, the Employee Filter table, or the Employee box. If none of these settings are specified—no employees are added to the Employee table, no conditions are specified in the Employee Filter table, and no system entity and field are selected in the Employee box—any employee from the specified workgroup or a higher-level workgroup in the company hierarchy can approve the record. However, if any of these settings are configured, the system further filters the list of employees selected based on these settings to include only those belonging to the specified workgroup.
Allow Reassignment of Approvals	A check box that indicates (if selected) that the approver assigned by the system based on this rule can be changed. If the check box is cleared (which is its default state), the system does not allow a user to change the approver that has been assigned in accordance with the rule.
Decision Wait Time	The time period within which the assigned approver should approve or reject the record. A zero wait time would mean that the record may await approval for an indefinite period of time.
On Approval	The directions for the system to execute after the approver assigned by this rule has taken an action. The following options are available: Collect All Approvals from This Step: After one approver approves the record, the system waits until other appointed approvers (if any) also approve the record. Complete Step: After one approver approves the record, the system proceeds to the next step without following the remaining rules in this step (if any). Attention: If multiple employees are selected based on the conditions in the Employee Filter table, the system will require approval from all the listed employees regardless of the value specified in the Operator column of the filter table. Approve Document: The document or record becomes approved after one approver approves it; the remaining rules and steps are ignored by the system. Attention: If multiple employees are selected based on the conditions in the Employee Filter table, the system will require approval from all the listed employees regardless of the value specified in the Operator column of the filter table.

Table 6. Reason Settings Section
Element	Description
Reason for Approval	Defines whether an approver has to enter a comment when approving a record of the specified type. The following options are available: Is Not Prompted: The system does not require the approver to enter a comment about the approval of the record; it also does not display the Enter Reason dialog box to prompt the approver to enter this comment. Is Optional: If the approver attempts to approve a record on the entry form, the system displays the Enter Reason dialog box, in which the approver can leave a comment about their decision. The approver can instead click Cancel at the bottom of the dialog box to proceed without leaving any comment. Is Required: Each time the approver attempts to approve a record on the entry form, the system displays the Enter Reason dialog box, and the approver has to leave a comment about their decision in order to proceed with the approval procedure. If the approver clicks Cancel at the bottom of the dialog box, the dialog box closes, and the document retains the Pending Approval status. An approver can use only the corresponding entry form to approve a record for which a comment must be entered upon approval; these records cannot be approved on the Approvals (EP503010) form.
Reason for Rejection	Defines whether an approver has to enter a comment while rejecting a record of the specified type. The following options are available: Is Not Prompted: The system does not require the approver to enter a comment about why the record is being rejected; it also does not display the Enter Reason dialog box to prompt the approver to enter this comment. Is Optional: If the approver attempts to reject a record on its entry form, the system displays the Enter Reason dialog box, in which the approver can leave a comment about their decision. The approver can instead click Cancel at the bottom of the dialog box to proceed without leaving any comment. Is Required: Each time an approver attempts to reject a record on its entry form, the system displays the Enter Reason dialog box, and the approver has to leave a comment about his or her decision in order to proceed with the procedure. If the approver clicks Cancel at the bottom of the dialog box, the dialog box closes, and the record retains the Pending Approval status. An approver can use only the corresponding entry form to reject a record for which a comment must be entered upon rejection; these records cannot be rejected on the Approvals (EP503010) form. If a reason is specified during the rejection process and then the record is returned for editing, that rejection will be saved on the entry form of the record, and all other rejections and approvals will be removed.