Approval Table: Concepts

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The following sections explain the settings used to enter new records in the Approval table and describe how the system applies these records. An additional section, Copying Approval Table Records, addresses how the Action Bar's Copy item can be used to either copy information from one record to another or create a new record based by copying an existing one.

Approval Table Settings

When you add a requisition, purchase order, or change order, the Approval record assigned determines the approval group and rules required for approving the transaction. For each approval group in the table, you define the following settings for requisitions, requisition bid items, purchase orders, and change orders:

• Number of approval levels that apply and the number of levels required.
• Valid approvers at each level, one primary approver and up to two alternates.
• Low and high dollar amounts for each approval level.

Requisition, Purchase Order, and Change Order Approval

For a requisition to be fully approved, the following conditions must be met for all line items:

• A valid approver needs to approve items for every required level defined in the corresponding Approval Table record.
• If an approval level has low and high amounts defined and the requisition's total cost does not fall within this range, the approval level is not required.
• If a requisition item is marked as a bid item, the system checks the Approval Table record for levels where the Vendor Bid checkbox is selected. If it is selected for a level and the requisition's total amount is within the level's low/high amount range, then the bid item requires approval at that level.
• If a requisition item has a distribution account within an account range defined in the Account Approval table, then account-based approval is also required. For more information, refer to Account Approval Table.
• A requisition item is considered denied if it has been denied by an approver at any approval group level, regardless of whether the level is required.
• Purchase order approval follows the same rules as requisitions except for bid items. Purchase orders do not go through additional bid processing.
• Change order approval follows the same rules as purchase orders. However, if a change order is entered that reduces the total amount of the purchase order, the change order will not require approval unless account-based approval is used.

Using the Action Bar's Copy Item

The Copy item on the Approval Information page's Action Bar has two functions:

• If you click the button before generating a list of records, you can copy approval information to your Approval records from either Requisitions or Purchase Orders.
• If you click the button after generating a list of records, you can create new Approval records by copying information an existing record.

Copying Approval Information to Approval Record

If your organization has set up approval groups, and defines approval requirements for change orders, the Copy item is available when you first display the Approval Information page.
 
Clicking the item displays the Copy Selection window, which includes the following buttons:

Creating Approval Records by Copying Existing Records

After you generate a list of records in the Approval Information page, you can use the Action Bar's Copy item to create new approval records from an existing record.

Clicking the button displays the Copy Information page, which includes Current and New sections. The Current section displays the record to copy from, while the New section identifies the new record.

All of the approval information in the record being copied will be added to the new record. However, if needed, you can modify the new record after you create it by following the standard update procedure.

Creating a new Approval record from an existing record

1. Select Purchasing > Reference Tables > Reference Tables > Approvals to display the Approval Information page.
2. In the Search Criteria section, enter criteria identifying the records to list, and then click Find. To run an advanced search, use the Advanced button.
3. Select the record you want to copy information from.
4. Click Copy on the Action Bar.
5. In the New section, enter a code in the APPROVAL field to identity the record you are creating, and then enter a Description.
6. Click OK
7. To add another record, repeat Steps 4-6.
8. Click Back to return to the homepage.

Note

The title of the APPROVAL field in the New section is user defined in the Fund Accounting Profile's Group Title field. As a result, the title used in your system may be different.