PowerSchool ERP System Administration
PowerSchool ERP System Administration
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Workflow Designer - Approval Routes

Use the Designer tab of the Workflow Designer to define the approval routes for Employee Leave Requests in addition to determining who should receive notifications during various stages of the approval process.

Define your Groups, Roles, and Templates before you create Workflow Activities.

From the System Administration menu, select Workflow. From the Workflow menu, select Workflow Designer.

Add a New Workflow Activity

  1. Open the Workflow Designer page.

  2. Click Add.

  3. Complete the fields in the General Information and Notification Settings sections as needed. For details, refer to the Fields and Descriptions section of this page.

  4. Click Save.

  5. In the Workflow section, click Add Activity.

  6. Complete the fields as needed, then click Save. Repeat this step to add additional activities.

  7. Click Save.

Update a Workflow Activity

  1. Open the Workflow Designer page.

  2. In the Search Criteria section, enter criteria identifying the records to list, and then click Load Records.

  3. In the Search Results list, select the desired title.

  4. Update the fields in the General Information and Notification Settings sections.

  5. Click Save.

  6. In the Workflow section, click Edit Activity on the title card of the Activity.

  7. In the Activity Detail page, update the various fields as needed.

  8. Click Save. Repeat the steps as needed to complete the updates.

  9. Click Save.

Copy a Workflow Activity

  1. Open the Workflow Designer page.

  2. In the Search Criteria section, enter criteria identifying the records to list, and then click Load Records.

  3. In the Search Results list, select the desired title.

  4. Click Copy to copy the workflow. Copy of is inserted in front of the title to indicate that this is a copy. Edit the title as needed.

  5. Update the fields in the General Information and Notification Settings sections as needed.

  6. Click Save.

Delete a Workflow

  1. Open the Workflow Designer page.

  2. In the Search Criteria section, enter criteria identifying the records to list, and then click Load Records.

  3. In the Search Results list, select each checkbox under the Delete icon in the appropriate row. The checkbox will not display in the column for any Workflows that have unprocessed requests, regardless of whether that Workflow is active or inactive. So, to delete those Workflows, you must complete all outstanding requests. Once that is complete, then it can be deleted.

  4. Click Save.

  5. In the Delete Confirmation, click Yes.

Fields and Descriptions

Workflow Designer Details page

General Information

Field

Description

Status

Status of the workflow. While adding a workflow activity, the field will default to I - Inactive. There can only be one active workflow for a Data Set.

Select:

  • A - Active

  • I - Inactive

Title

Unique title for the workflow.

The limit is 50 characters.

Description

Detail description for the workflow.

The limit is 225 characters.

Initiated By

The way the workflow is started. The only choice is e-Form. Display only.

Data Set

Type of data for the workflow. The only choice is Employee Leave Request. Display only.

Expiration Days

Number of days that a workflow can be idle before the workflow engine expires it. Must be between 1 and 60 days.

Note

Expired Workflows can be resumed or restarted using the Workflow Administration option.

Allow Cancel

Checkbox indicating whether the requester can cancel a Leave Request. Select the box to allow the requester to cancel, otherwise leave blank. When this is selected, the Cancel field of the Notifications Settings section is required.

Notification Settings

Field

Description

Final Approval

The setting to determine who should receive notification when an employee leave request is approved by all workflow approval levels.

Select:

  • Only the Requester

  • Requester and All Approvers Who Have Approved the Item

  • Requester and All Approvers That Have Received Approval Notification

  • Do Not Notify

With any setting other than Do Not Notify, select a template in the adjacent field to be used for the Final Approval notification.

Cancel

Setting to determine who should receive notification when an employee leave request has been canceled. This is only available if the Allow Cancel field in the General Information section is selected.

Select:

  • Only the Requester

  • Requester and All Approvers Who Have Approved the Item

  • Requester and All Approvers That Have Received Approval Notification

  • Do No Notify

With any setting other than Do Not Notify, select a template in the adjacent field to be used for the Cancel notification.

Needs Correction Reminder

Setting to determine who should receive notification when an employee leave request has been flagged as needing correction and the correction has not occurred yet.

Select:

  • Only the Requester

  • Do No Notify

With a setting other than Do Not Notify, select a template in the adjacent field to be used for the Needs Correction Reminder notification.

Reminder Interval

Interval to send the Needs Correction Reminder Notification. The first field is a numeric field. The second field is a dropdown selection of frequency.

Select:

  • Days

  • Hours

  • Minutes

For example, if the reminder should occur daily, then enter 1 in the first field and select Days in the second field. The notification will be sent once daily based on the time the leave request was flagged as needing correction.

Workflow Activity Detail

Field

Description

Title

Title for the approval step of the workflow.

The limit is 50 characters.

Required

Checkbox indicating if approvals are required for this approval step. If selected, when a requester attempts to submit a leave request and they do not fall into a workflow group listed in the Approval Settings, the notification will be sent to the approvers listed in the Default Approver field. If blank, when a requester attempts to submit a leave request and they do not fall into a workflow group listed in the Approval Settings section, the leave request will be automatically approved.

Type

Type of step for this workflow. The default is Approval. Display Only.

Default Approver

The role responsible for approving a leave request when the requester does not fall into a workflow group listed in the Approval Settings section.

Notification Settings

Field

Description

Approvers

Setting to determine if the primary approver for a role should receive notification when an employee leave request has been initiated.

Select:

  • Notify Primary Approvers Only

  • Do No Notify

With any setting other than Do Not Notify, select a template in the adjacent field to be used for the Approvers notification.

Alternates

The setting to determine when or if alternate approvers for a role should receive notification when an employee leave request has been initiated.

Select:

  • Whenever the Approver is Notified

  • Only After No Action is Taken

  • Do No Notify

With any setting other than Do Not Notify, select a template in the adjacent field to be used for the Alternates notification.

Send Reminders

Checkbox to determine whether or not to send approval notification reminders and what time interval to send them. Select if the Approvers and/or Alternates should receive reminder notifications. The first adjacent field is a numeric field. The next field is a dropdown selection of frequency.

Select:

  • Days

  • Hours

  • Minutes

For example, if the reminder should occur daily, then enter 1 in the first field and select Days in the second field. The notification will be sent once daily based on the time the leave request was initiated. Note that these fields are only available if your organization chooses to notify Approvers and/or Alternates.

With the checkbox selected, select a template in the last field to be used in the Sent Reminders notification.

Denied

The setting to determine who should receive notification when an employee leave request has been denied.

Select:

  • Only the Requester

  • Requester and All Approvers Who Have Approved the Item

  • Requester and All Approvers That Have Received Approval Notification

  • Do No Notify

With any setting other than Do Not Notify, select a template in the adjacent field to be used for the Denied notification.

Needs Correction

The setting to determine who should receive notification when an employee leave request has been flagged as needing correction.

Select:

  • Only the Requester

  • Requester and All Approvers Who Have Approved the Item

  • Requester and All Approvers That Have Received Approval Notification

  • Do No Notify

With a setting other than Do Not Notify, select a template in the field to the right to be used for the Needs Correction notification.

Approval Settings

To delete an Approver and Workflow Group, select the checkbox under the Delete icon, then click Save.

Field

Description

Approvers

The roles associated with the approval step. Choices in this dropdown are defined in the Roles tab of the Workflow Designer.

Workflow Groups

The groups associated with the approval step for the selected role. Choices are defined in the Groups tab of the Workflow Designer.