Position Based Approval Hierarchy in Purchasing

8/3/2019 Position Based Approval Hierarchy in Purchasing

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Position Based Approval Hierarchy in

Purchasing

Articles, Financials, Purchasing Add comments

Approval hierarchies let you automatically route documents for approval. There are two kinds of approvalhierarchies in Purchasing: position hierarchy and employee/supervisor relationships.

If an employee/supervisor relationship is used, the approval routing structures are defined as you enteremployees using the Enter Person window. In this case, positions are not required to be setup.

If you choose to use position hierarchies, you must set up positions. Even though the position hierarchiesrequire more initial effort to set up, they are easy to maintain and allow you to define approval routingstructures that remain stable regardless of how frequently individual employees leave your organizationor relocate within it.

Setups required for Position hierarchy in detail:

Say we want to implement the below position hierarchy for the Requisition Document approval routing inPurchasing (Each rectangle represents a Position), below are the setups required:

1) Enable the check box Use Approval Hierarchies

Navigation:

Purchasing Responsibility > Setup > Organizations > Financial Options


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Click Human Resources tab. to use positions and position hierarchies to determine approval paths foryour documents within Purchasing. (Disable this option if you want approval paths based on thesupervisor structure)

2) Create Positions S20, MGR, DIR based on the above hierarchy in HR.

Navigation:

Human Resources responsibility > Work Structures > Position > Description

Click on New Button and enter the required fields.


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Similarly create MGR and DIR positions.


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3) Assign the positions created to the Employees who fall under the portfolio. Each position can beassigned to more than one employee.

Navigation:

Human Resources responsibility > People > Enter and Maintain

Query for the Employee Name. Click on Find Button.

Click on Assignment button


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Enter the desired value in the Position field.


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Save the work.

4) Create the Position hierarchy

Navigation:

Human Resources Responsibility > Work Structures > Position > Hierarchy

y Enter Hierarchy Name Savey Enter the From Date Savey Click in the POSITION field and query the position you would like to be your Top position. In our

example you would query for DIR.y After the Position is selected Press the Down Key. Your cursor will now be in the subordinate

region, choose the position MGR to go under DIR position.y Again hit the Blue Down Arrow. You will now see the Subordinate position shift to where the Top

Position was located. Add a new Position S20.y Save the work.


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5) Create Approval groups for each Position.

Approval Groups window lets you define the Approval limits for a particular group which will be assignedto a position.

As per our example, we will create three Approval Groups S20, MGR, DIR and define the limits.

Navigation:

Purchasing Responsibility > Setup > Approvals > Approval Groups

Enter the Name of the approval group

Select Enabled to permit the approval group to be assigned to a position in the Approval Assignmentswindow.


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Choose one of the following Objects:

Account Range (Required) You enter the accounting flexfields for the Low and High

Values.

Document Total (Required) The document total refers to the monetary limit on an individualdocument.

Item Category Range You enter the purchasing category flexfields for the Low and High Values.

Item Range For this option, you enter the item flexfields for the Low and High Values. Location The location refers to the deliver-to location on a requisition as well as the ship-to location onpurchase orders and releases.

Select the rule Type: Include or Exclude indicates whether to allow objects that fall within the selectedrange.

Enter the Amount Limit. This is the maximum amount that a control group can authorize for a particularobject range.

Enter the Low Value. This is the lowest flexfield (accounting, purchasing category, or item) in the rangepertinent to this rule. When the object is Location, enter the location. You cannot enter this field when theobject is Document Total.

Enter the High Value. This is the highest flexfield (accounting, purchasing category, or item) in the rangepertinent to this rule. You cannot enter this field when the object is Location or Document Total.

Save your work.


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6) Assign the Approval groups to the Position

Navigation:

Purchasing Responsibility > Setup > Approvals > Approval Assignments

Query the Position for which you want to assign the Approval group.


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Similarly assign the Approval groups MGR and S20 to the positions MGR and S20 respectively for thedocument type Approve Purchase Requisition.

7) Assign the Position hierarchy created to the desired Document Type.

Document Types window can be used to define access, security, and control specifications for allPurchasing documents.

Navigation:

Purchasing Responsibility > Setup > Purchasing > Document Types

Find Document Types window appears. Select the document type Requisition .


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y Enter your Document Name for the document. The description must be unique for the givendocument type.

y Check OwnerCan Approve to indicate that document preparers can approve their owndocuments.

y Check ApproverCan Modify to indicate that document approvers can modify documents. CheckCan Change Forward-To to indicate that users can change the person the document is forwardedto.

y Check Can Change Forward-From to indicate that users can change the name of the documentcreator. This field is applicable only when the Document Type is Requisition.

y Check Can Change Approval Hierarchy to indicate that approvers can change the approval

hierarchy in the Approve Documents window. This field is not applicable when the DocumentType is Quotationor RFQ.

y Check Disable to disable a document type.y For Purchase requisitions only, select Use Contract Agreements for Auto Sourcing to require the

requisition creation autosourcing logic to include approved contract purchase agreements.y Include Non-Catalog Requests For Oracle iProcurement only, this checkbox is used in

conjunction with the Use Contract Agreements for Auto Sourcing. Select this checkbox to enablethe use of contract purchase agreements when autosourcing non-catalog requisitions.

y Choose one of the following options:

Hierarchy Only the document owner and users above the owner in the defined purchasingsecurity hierarchy may access these documents.

Private Only the document owner may access these documents.

Public Any user may access these documents.

Purchasing Only the document owner and users listed as buyers in the Define Buyers


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window may access these documents.

y Choose one of the following Access Level options:

Full Users can view, modify, cancel, and final close documents.

Modify Users can only view and modify documents.

View Only Users can only view documents.

y Choose one of the following options:

Direct The default approver is the first person in the preparers approval path that has

sufficient approval authority.

Hierarchy The default approver is the next person in the preparers approval path

regardless of authority. (Each person in the approval path must take approval action until

the person with sufficient approval authority is reached.)

y Choose the Position Hierarchy that we have created previously Purchasing Approval Test asthe Default Hierarchy field.


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Run the Fill Employee Hierarchy Request

Navigation:

Purchasing Responsibility > View Requests

Click on Submit a New Request button and select Single Request.


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Approval routing explanation based on the example hierarchy:

1. Say the S20 position creates a Purchase Order for $4,000 and submits for Approval.

2. The system will look at which Approval Hierarchy to be used from the Document

Types window. Since in our example OwnerCan Approve is not checked, it will try

to determine what the Approval group is for the position MGR as MGR is the next Position in

our hierarchy.

3. Once the Approval Group is located, the rules will then be considered one at a time, from first

to last.

4. If all rules are satisfied, the Purchase Order will be forwarded to the Manager for

Approval.

If a rule cannot be satisfied, the Purchase Order will be forwarded to the next position (DIR) in


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the Hierarchy. Whoever is assigned to that position will then need to take action on the

Purchase Order.

In release 11.0, when attempting to Approve a Purchase Order, if the system doesnt find any of thepositions defined in the hierarchy to have the authority to Approve, then the Document will remainIncomplete without any warnings instead of In Process.