To help you design workflows tailored to your business needs, this article includes some common use-case scenarios. You can create as many workflows as necessary, remembering that each document can only be routed to one approval workflow.

For more information on setting up the new workflow engine, see New Workflow Approval - Beta.

Selecting a Workflow Process

Each workflow can be designed using one of three processes that can be enabled in the Approval Settings:

• Purchase Order: If a PO must be approved directly but the resulting PI can be auto-approved, create a workflow using the Purchase Order process. You can require that the resulting PI be an exact match using the Approval Settings. Alternatively, set tolerance limits while creating the workflow. (See Example 2, 5)
• PO Invoice: If a PO and the resulting PI must be approved separately for extra control, create one workflow using the Purchase Order process and another using the PO Invoice process. (See Example 1, 3)
• Non PO Invoice: If you do not use POs, create workflows using the Non PO Invoice process. (See Example 4)

Note that all the scenarios described in this article can be employed using any of the processes.

Designing Approval Steps

Workflows can have as many steps as fit your needs. Approval steps are created by selecting approvers and assigning lower and upper approval limits to them. Documents can skip steps if they do not meet the requirements of a step but meet those of the following step.  

Approvers: Steps can have one approver or multiple. In the case of multiple, the step can be approved by all or one approver. The same approver can appear in multiple steps and can approve all their steps simultaneously or just their current step. Alternatively, a step can be set for manual approval.

Setting Limits: Approval limits can be exclusive of each other or overlap. For example, approvers can have the same lower limits but different upper limits. This way an approver with a higher upper limit will receive the same documents those below them did. 

Conditions: Each step can include or exclude one or multiple conditions including BI Code, Dimension Code, GL Code, and Supplier. For each of these conditions, you can select one or multiple codes. The scenarios in this article contain the following conditions:

• Example 1: Dimension Code
• Example 2: Dimension Code and Supplier
• Example 3: GL Code
• Example 4: Supplier
• Example 5: BI Code
• Example 6: Include BI Code, Exclude Supplier
• Example 7: Supplier and GL Code 

Document to be approved: Multi-line for one department

In this common scenario, an entity issues a PO and receives a matching PI relating to a specific department. Therefore, approval can be set up for that department. Examples include corporations with departments such as marketing or customer success that each receive documents specific to them and must approve these documents before they reach the finance department.

In the example below, the biology department of a university must cover an invoice for lab equipment. Other departments likewise receive invoices they must cover. As the Biology department's invoices are coded to the Dimension BI-Biology, their approval workflow can be based on this. 

Dimension Code based Approval

To approve on a departmental basis build one workflow for each department. 

Remember, if you are building multiple similar workflows, save time by using the Copy function in the Workflow grid and then edit the details as needed.

Here we have created a workflow for the department of biology. In this case, the PO Invoice process was selected. This gives a secondary level of control as the originating PO will also have its own workflow. As auto-approval is not enabled, all relevant PIs will go through approval regardless of value.

There are two approval steps, the first for the biology department , and the second for finance.

Within the Biology Department Approval step, we have two approvers, one with a limit of 200 GBP and the other unlimited. In this case, all must approve if limits apply. 

The approval is based on Dimension Code as the BI-Biology is unique to this department and found on all relevant documents. For more on managing BI Codes, see Using Extended Business Analysis.

In the case of the document below, as the value is 2900 GBP, only Carol will approve as Matt's limits are too low.

Document to be approved: Multi-line for multiple departments

In this scenario, an entity issues a PO and receives a matching PI with lines relevant to multiple departments. Examples include ordering from a taxi or events management company for a company as a whole. 

In the example below, a corporation orders internet services from a single supplier to be used by both the marketing and IT departments. Each order line is coded with the relevant department Dimension Code. The impacted departments must approve the relevant invoice lines before the invoice goes on to be approved by finance. 

Supplier and Dimension Code based Approval

For this scenario, create one workflow for the whole company. In this case, the Purchase Order process is selected meaning that once the PO is approved, the resulting PI will be automatically approved based on tolerance limits. Auto-approval is not selected here meaning that all POs will need approval regardless of value.

The workflow contains two steps, one for multiple department approval, and the second for finance approval. 

Approval is based on both Supplier and Dimension Codes. Using Dimension Codes means that each department approver will only have to approve their own lines from this supplier. 

Here the Marketing and IT approvers are set with the same limits, and all must approve if limits apply.

In the case of the document below, as the value is 3900 GBP, both Sally and Larry must approve.

Document to be approved: Multi-line linked to a GL Account

In the example below, an entity issues a PO and receives a matching PI for computer equipment. As these fixed assets relate to a specific GL account, this can be used as the basis of a workflow.

GL based Approval

In this case, the PO Invoice process was selected. This gives a secondary level of control as the originating PO will also have its own workflow. As auto-approval is not enabled, all relevant PIs will go through approval regardless of value.

Here we have created a workflow containing two steps.

This workflow is based on GL Code 10025-Computer Equipment. All invoice lines tagged to this account will go to the approvers based on their limits. The approvers in the first level have identical limits so will both see the document. 

The second approval level has an increased upper approval limit. As Andrew's lower limit is 0 GBP, he will see all documents from this workflow.

In the case of the document below, as the value is 24,900 GBP, it will be approved by all approvers. 

Document to be approved: Multi-line from a set Supplier

In this scenario, an entity issues a PO and receives a matching PI from a supplier for ongoing expenses such as maintenance and rental/lease fees. Approval can therefore be set up based on the supplier. 

The example below deals with rental fees from a landlord.

Supplier based Approval

In this case, the workflow can be built for documents received from this supplier. The example here uses the Non PO Invoice process, suitable if you do not use purchase ordering. As auto-approval is not enabled, all relevant PIs will go through approval regardless of value.

In this example, there are two approval steps.

Approval is based on Supplier, meaning all documents relating to the Supplier Code PRO01 will go through this workflow. 

The second approval level has an increased approval limit.

In the case of the document below, as the value is 6900 GBP, all approvers will need to approve.

Document to be approved: Multi-line linked to a Business Area

In this scenario, an entity issues a PO and receives a matching PI with lines relating to a business area. In the example below, a company orders goods for their warehouse tagged with the BI Code WA-Warehouse. Therefore, they can use this code to create an approval workflow based on business area.

BI Code based Approval

This company can build one company-wide workflow based on the BI Code. 

In this case, the PO Invoice process was selected. This gives a secondary level of control as the originating PO will also have its own workflow.  As auto-approval is not enabled, all relevant PIs will go through approval regardless of value.

As approval is based on BI Code, all documents coded to WA-Warehouse will be routed to this workflow. 

Here two approvers have different limits, and both must approve within their limits. Bob must approve all documents already approved by Anne as both their limits start at 0.

The second approval level has an increased approval limit.

In the case of the document below, as the value is 30,450 GBP, it will skip Bob, and be approved Anne, and Charles.

Managing potential workflow conflicts

If you have multiple workflows, they must not conflict with each other. Creating workflows with multiple approval conditions allows invoices that share coding to be routed to the correct approval workflow.

In this example a transportation company receives invoices relating to their warehouse. Invoice A is for overheads in general, including the warehouse. Invoice B relates to goods received in the warehouse. The company wants one workflow for only the overheads in Invoice A and another for goods received in the warehouse in Invoice B. As both invoices contain the BI Code WA-Warehouse, they must be designed to avoid any potential conflicts.

Invoice A is for overheads in general, including the warehouse:

Invoice B relates to goods received in the warehouse:

Approval Workflow Setup

First, as all overheads related invoices (like Invoice A) come from a single supplier, this company can simply create a supplier based workflow as covered in Example 4 above. 

Next, they need to create a workflow for warehouse goods (like Invoice B), ensuring that it does not conflict with the overheads workflow due to shared coding. 

The example here uses the Non PO Invoice process, suitable if you do not use purchase ordering. As auto-approval is not enabled, all relevant PIs will go through approval regardless of value. The reapproval tolerance is 2% meaning if an invoice is edited, it does not need to go for re-approval if there is less than a 2% difference in value.

This workflow contains three steps, each with an increased approval limit. 

Approval is based on both BI Code and Supplier. Using the BI Code WA-Warehouse alone would mean that they receive all required invoices for goods but also those relating to overheads. To filter out the overhead invoices, they can use the supplier but select the Exclude condition. 

As the invoice here is for 18,000 GBP, it will skip the Andrew and be approved by Agata and Anne.

Documents to be Approved: Multi-line linked to Supplier and GL Codes

In this example, a company issues a PO and receives a matching PI related to warehouse capital expenditure. The company wants to approve fixed assets purchases separately from other items from this supplier. To do this they can create an approval workflow using both the GL and Supplier Codes.

GL and Supplier based Approval

In this case, the PO Invoice process was selected. This gives a secondary level of control as the originating PO will also have its own workflow.  As auto-approval is not enabled, all relevant PIs will go through approval regardless of value.

This workflow has two approval steps, one for the department and the second for the head of finance.

The first step includes two approvers with different upper limits. All documents coded to this supplier and the GL Account 10000 will go to these approvers if the limits apply.

The second level of approval has an unlimited upper limit. As the lower limit is 0 GBP, Andrew will have to approve all documents that are routed to this workflow.

In the case of this invoice, as it is 6500 GBP, it will skip the first approval step as it is above their limits and go straight to Andrew.