To Set Up Approval of Purchase Orders

For many businesses, approval of purchase orders is essential for effective procurement. For more information on approvals, see Purchase Order Approval. You can set up approval for purchase orders by using the Purchase Orders Preferences (PO101000) form.

Before You Proceed

Before you can set up approval of purchase orders, make sure the following steps are completed:

  1. Make sure the Approval Workflow feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form.
  2. Review the organization's hierarchy of workgroups on the Company Tree (EP204061) form, and add new workgroups whose members are authorized to approve purchase orders if needed. Select the employee who will be the default owner—the member of the group to whom by default the documents will be assigned for approval. A group may include only one default owner.
  3. By using the Assignment and Approval Maps (EP205500) form, for each type of purchase order, create the approval maps that will be used to determine the employee who should approve an order of this type with specific properties. For details on configuring maps, see To Create Approval Maps for Parallel Approvals and To Create an Approval Map for Multistage Approvals.
    Note: For each type of purchase order for which approval is required, you should configure at least one approval map. If multiple parallel approvals are required, create an approval map for each required parallel approval for orders of the type.
  4. For each order type, create the email templates for notifications about orders pending approval. These templates will be used to generate emails that will be sent to employees authorized to approve purchase orders. You can create email templates by using the Email Templates (SM204003) form.

To Set Up Approval

  1. Open the Purchase Orders Preferences (PO101000) form.
  2. On the Approvals tab of this form, select the Require Approval check box.
  3. If you have configured a single approval map for each order type with approval, add them as follows:
    1. In the PO Type column, select the type of purchase orders that require approval.
    2. In the Approval Map column, select the approval map to be used for orders of the selected type.
      CAUTION: If no map is selected for the specified order type, all new orders of this type will be automatically approved.
    3. In the Pending Approval Notification column, select the email template you created for generating emails about orders of this type pending approval.
  4. If multiple parallel approvals are required for orders of the specific type, repeat the three previous substeps to add each of the approval maps.
  5. Click Save on the form toolbar.