Configuring Workflow Approval Routing

Overview

The Organization Workflow module allows administrators to define, configure, and maintain approval routing paths for various organizational units (such as locations or departments). Each workflow can be tailored independently, and different document types—including Purchase Orders, Invoices, Sales Orders, Budgets, and Timesheets—can share a uniform routing path or maintain entirely unique configurations.

Routing is structured hierarchically across levels (up to a maximum of 96 levels), utilizing General categories, Alternate approvers, monetary thresholds, value-based conditional rules, and combo box User-Defined Field (UDF) criteria.

ADMINISTRATOR NOTE: Workflow creation and modification are restricted administrative functions requiring explicit security permissions for Organization Workflow. Access to this page should be strictly limited to authorized personnel. Improper configuration or modifications by users unfamiliar with approval routing can disrupt document lifecycles, misroute financial transactions, and stall organizational approvals.

Key Concepts & Architecture

• Workflows & Document Types: Workflows operate independently by entity/location. Within each workflow, you can select the specific Document Type to configure distinct routing rules.

• Level 0 (Requesters): Level 0 is universally reserved for document initiators. The Approver field for Level 0 must be set to Requester, with the Category set to General. However, category rules can also be setup at level 0 if needed.

• Approver Levels (1–90): Subsequent rows define the approval chain using numerical levels (e.g., 1-Manager, 1.5 Director, 10-Accounting).

• General Category: Each approval level must include a primary row assigned to the General category, which is reserved for the primary approver for that level.

• Alternate Approvers: You can configure up to a maximum of 9 alternate approvers (Alternate-1 through Alternate-9) per approval level if permanent backups are needed. If not, primary approvers have the option to set substitute approvers on demand when taking leave.

• Concurrency & Locking: Primary and alternate approvers review concurrently. However, if a document is currently open or locked by one approver in that tier, the second person cannot approve it simultaneously to prevent record corruption.

• Routing Rules (Goto / Else / Less Equal): Levels can include conditional rules based on monetary values (Less Equal) or other categories that based on Account coding or User-Defined Fields (UDFs) to dynamically route documents to specific target levels (Goto) or fallback paths (Else).

Step-by-Step Configuration Guide

Step 1: Access Organization Workflow

• Navigate to Organization Workflow from your application Maintenance menu. 
• In the SELECT A WORKFLOW dropdown at the top, choose the specific organizational unit or department workflow you want to configure.

Step 2: Select the Document Type

• Locate the Approvers tab and select the appropriate DOCUMENT TYPE
• Select the target document type you are configuring (e.g., Purchase Order, Invoice, Timesheet, or Budget).

Step 3: Establish Level 0 (Requesters)

• Click the Add (+) icon on the left side of the routing grid to create your starting row.
• Set Level to 0-Requester.
• Set Approver to Requester.
• Set Category to General.
• Set your Goto and Else targets to point to your first actual review tier (e.g., 1-Manager).

Step 4: Configure Approver Levels & Alternates (Levels 1–96)

• Click the Add (+) icon to add your approval tiers.
• Define the Level name (e.g., 1-Manager, 10-Accounting).
• Assign the specific user or role in the Approver column for the primary General category row.

• Adding Permanent Alternates (Optional): If permanent backup reviewers are required for the level, add additional rows for the same level number, set the Category to Alternate-1 through Alternate-9, and assign the alternate user's name. 

  Note: Alternates review concurrently, but record-locking rules ensure only one user can submit an approval action at a time.
• Set your Less Equal monetary thresholds and the corresponding Goto (if criteria are met) and Else (if thresholds are exceeded) destinations. If no monetary rules, leave the value at 0

Step 5: Configure Category Routing Rules (UDFs & Account Code)

If your workflow requires conditional routing based on document attributes:

• Click the Category Routing button on the top application toolbar.
• Configure UDF Rules: Select a pre-defined combo box User-Defined Field. Map specific pre-defined values to dictate automatic routing based on selected values (e.g., selecting a specific project type or asset category routes the document directly to a specialized review level).
• Configure Segment Rules: Define conditional logic checking for specific account segments (such as Fund codes 1 through 5) to dynamically route documents to designated Goto levels, bypassing standard linear chains.

Step 6: Review and Save

• Verify that all checkboxes such as HTML Approver are properly flagged for users who require interactive HTML email approval capabilities.
• Confirm that all levels correctly link to subsequent steps without circular loops.
• Save your configuration changes before exiting the page.