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FAQ: Document Approval and Routing [ID 210488.1] Modified 05-APR-2011 Type FAQ Status PUBLISHED

In this Document Purpose Questions and Answers What does the status Pre-Approved mean, and how does a document reach this status? What is the difference between DIRECT and HIERARCHY forwarding methods? What is the significance of the Document Total and Account Range types on the Approval Groups form? What is the significance of using jobs or positions, and what effect will choosing one or the other have on the document approval routing? What is the difference between archiving on Approve versus Print? In Release 11.X and higher, every time attempting to approve a document it remains in the status of 'Incomplete' - why? How is it possible to approve a blanket release when the blanket purchase agreement is showing that the full amount has already been released? I am delegating the approval of a PO to someone who does not have access to open this PO. Would he be able to approve it? I have heard about something called AME for approvals in 11.5.10, what is it and can I use it on my earlier release? I have heard of POERROR for improved error handling. What is this feature? Is it possible to define position hierarchies, which span across multiple operating units? How is it possible to approve a blanket release when the blanket purchase agreement is showing that the full amount has already been released? What is global supervisor and how can I utilize that for approvals across business groups? I have end-dated a position but still have the employees assigned to this position. These employees continue to be able to approve the POs as before. Why? What type of document attachments can be emailed with Purchase Orders to Suppliers? Does Approvals Management Engine (AME) support parallel approvers - where notifications are sent out to multiple people simultaneously to speed up the approval process? Where can more information be obtained on AME? Still Have Questions? References

Applies to:
Oracle Purchasing - Version: 11.5.10 to 12.0.4 - Release: 11.5 to 12 Information in this document applies to any platform. ***Checked for relevance on 04-Jan-2010***

Purpose
This FAQ has the most common questions about PO document approval and routing. This article does not include bugs/patches or troubleshooting tips.

Questions and Answers What does the status Pre-Approved mean, and how does a document reach this status?

A: The status of Pre-Approved is the outcome of a person forwarding a document for approval even though the forwarding person has the necessary authority to approve it. The document may have been forwarded by mistake or for business reasons. It is not possible to perform a receipt against a document with a status of Pre-Approved. The approver to whom the document was forwarded must first approve it. Also Pre-Approved status can be achieved when using Encumbrance accounting and the document is authorized for approval but funds have not yet been reserved for it. Even if someone with sufficient approval authority approves the document, its status will still be Pre-Approved if funds were not able to be reserved at the time of approval. Once funds are reserved for the approved document, the document status changes to Approved. Another cause for Pre-Approved status is by importing 'Approved' requisitions with encumbrance on. The requisition import process will force status to 'Pre-Approved', requiring user to take the reserve action.

What is the difference between DIRECT and HIERARCHY forwarding methods?

A: The document forwarding method is selected in the Document Types form:

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Responsibility: Purchasing Super User Navigation: Setup -> Purchasing -> Document Types The two choices for the document forwarding method are Direct and Hierarchy; both options are always available regardless of whether Position Hierarchies (positions) or Employee-Supervisor Relationships (jobs) are being used. A. Direct Forwarding Method : Using this forwarding method, at the time which a document is submitted for approval, validation will occur up the approval chain until an approver is located that has the ability to approve the document in question. - If Position Hierarchies are being used, then the validation will occur against positions listed in the position hierarchy specified in the document approval window. Once a position that has approval authority has been located, the system will locate the employee assigned to this position and designate him as the Forward-To. The selection of the employee is based on alphabetical context. - If Employee/Supervisor Relationships are being used, then validation will occur against, first, the supervisor's job of the employee submitting the document for approval; then, if that supervisor does not have authority, the system will look to the supervisor's supervisor. The validation process will continue up this employee/supervisor chain until an approver with the proper authority is located. B. Hierarchy Forwarding Method Using this forwarding method, validation is not performed to locate the next possible approver with sufficient authority; the documents will simply route to each person in the approval chain. The document, once submitted for approval, will move to either the person assigned to the next position in the position hierarchy if positions are being used, or the employee's supervisor if employee/supervisor relationships are being used. The key difference between the two options is that Direct forwarding will move the document to the first person with authority to approve, whereas Hierarchy will simply move the document to the queue of the next employee in the approval chain, whether that person has the approval authority or not. For more detailed information on topic refer to the Purchasing Setup of Approval Hierarchies Troubleshooting Note:134947.1.

What is the significance of the Document Total and Account Range types on the Approval Groups form?
A: The Document Total type sets the maximum limit for any approval actions taken by the user whom the approval group applies to. If multiple Document Totals are specified, the restriction will be to the Document Total, which is the lowest. The Account Range also allows for a document total which is then tied to a specific range of accounts listed on the same line. It is possible to have different account ranges with different amount Limits. This allows the same user to have a different dollar/account limit. It is mandatory to have an account range specified in each approval group defined. By default, if there is not an account range defined, all accounts will then be excluded from the document approval process, which means that the documents will not have an ability to become approved. Note: Within the account ranges called out in the Approval Groups form the format and number of places within a segment must match the charge account segment structure. For example, the segment "0000" is not going to match segment "00000" as the number of places are not equal.

What is the significance of using jobs or positions, and what effect will choosing one or the other have on the document approval routing?
A: The choice of whether or not jobs or positions are going to be used is made at the operating unit level within the Financial Options form. Responsibility: Purchasing Super User : Navigation: Setup -> Organizations -> Financial Options select the Human Resources alternate region If the option Use Approval Hierarchies is checked, then positions and position hierarchies are going to be utilized for the operating unit in question; if left unchecked, employee/supervisor relationships will be used for the approval hierarchy routing path. Note: If positions are being used, then position hierarchies will need to be created as they are going to be the roadmap for document approvals. If jobs are being used, then the employee/supervisor relationship will serve as the roadmap.

What is the difference between archiving on Approve versus Print?

A: The archiving method determines at which point revision data will be written to the document archive tables. Archive on Approve designates an update to the Purchasing archive tables at the time of document approval; each time a revision is made to a document and the document enters a Requires Re-approval state, the new revision information will be archived at the time the document is approved again. Archive on Print designates an update to the document archive tables at the time the purchase order is printed. The following graph illustrates the difference between the two settings. The Archive Rev columns denote the highest revision of the purchase order currently residing in the purchase order archive tables. The Current Rev columns denote the current revision level of the purchase order, as seen in the header region of the Purchase Orders form.

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Step #

Action

Archive on Approve Archive Revision

Archive on Approve Current Revision 0 0 0 1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3

Archive on Print Archive Revision None None None None None 0 0 0 1 1 2 2

Archive on Print Current Revision 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 2 2 2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Create purchase order Change controlled information Approve Purchase order Change controlled information Approve Purchase order Print Purchase order Change controlled information Approve Purchase order Print Purchase order Change controlled information Print Purchase order Approve Purchase order

None None 0 0 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3

In Release 11.X and higher, every time attempting to approve a document it remains in the status of 'Incomplete' - why?
A: Sometimes, a document may still have a status of Incomplete after an attempt to approve the document has been made; this indicates a failure in the validation of the approval authority for the document creator, along with the inability to locate an employee with the proper authority to forward the document. See Troubleshooting Purchasing Document For Incomplete Approval Status Note:295153.1 .

How is it possible to approve a blanket release when the blanket purchase agreement is showing that the full amount has already been released?
A: The validation of a release dollar amount is not against the amount agreed on the header of the blanket purchase agreement; instead, it validates against the Amount Limit specified in the Terms and Conditions window of the Purchase Orders form. If this field is left blank, then the release can be for any amount. Therefore, it is imperative that the Amount Limit field be populated with the same dollar amount as the Amount Agreed field in the header region of the Purchase Orders form, depending on the business needs. It should also be noted that Release 11i also has introduced an Amount Limit field that can be defined at the line level of the blanket agreement.

I am delegating the approval of a PO to someone who does not have access to open this PO. Would he be able to approve it?
A: Since he has been 'delegated' the approval authority from you, his approval actions would be adjudged as if you were taking those actions on this document. However, the document would remain inaccessible to him. This is because by 'Delegating', you are only allowing him to act on approval decisions on your behalf, rather than also delegating him the access authority.

I have heard about something called AME for approvals in 11.5.10, what is it and can I use it on my earlier release?

A: In Oracle Applications 11.5.10 Procurement has integrated with another Oracle Product called Approvals Management Engine (AME) that can be used for Requisition Approvals. The functionality is available only when using Employee Supervisor method for routing documents and is only available for Purchasing Requisitions at this time and only for applications release 11.5.10. AME is a conditional and rules based system, where you define the rules and conditions on how a document approval routes to the next supervisor. For more information on AME and Oracle Procurement please refer to the following Metalink Notes and Documentation: 11.5.10 FAQ for Approvals Management (AME) Integration For iProcurement and Purchasing Note:293315.1

I have heard of POERROR for improved error handling. What is this feature?
A: Introduced in 11.5.6 POERROR setup can be used for improved document error handling. This feature automatically resubmits documents stuck in the status of 'in-process' and failing because of Document Management failures. The failures include Doc Mgr Error 1 (Document Approval Manager Timeout) or Doc Mgr Error 2 (Document Approval Manager Not Active). This does not handle Doc Mgr Error 3 failures (Exception in the Document Approval Manager code). See Oracle Purchasing POERROR Workflow Setup and Usage Guide White Paper Note:224028.1.

Is it possible to define position hierarchies, which span across multiple operating units?

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A: Not before 11.5.9 and also only for employee/supervisor based approval routing, position hierarchy based document approvals cannot go across operating units. See Position Hierarchy: Approvals Span Across Multiple Operating Units Note:280012.1 for more details.

How is it possible to approve a blanket release when the blanket purchase agreement is showing that the full amount has already been released?
A: The validation of a release dollar amount is not against the amount agreed on the header of the blanket purchase agreement; instead, it validates against the Amount Limit specified in the Terms and Conditions window of the Purchase Orders form. If this field is left blank, then the release can be for any amount. Therefore, it is imperative that the Amount Limit field be populated with the same dollar amount as the Amount Agreed field in the header region of the Purchase Orders form, depending on the business needs. It should also be noted that Release 11i also has introduced an Amount Limit field that can be defined at the line level of the blanket agreement.

What is global supervisor and how can I utilize that for approvals across business groups?
A: This feature allows the user to forward a document (PO or Req) to a supervisor in a different business group than the user. This is enabled when the profile 'HR:Cross Business Groups' is set to yes. The action history will also show the details including the name of the person from the different business group. This functionality is available on Procurement Family Pack F (11i.PRC_FP.F) and above. For more information please refer to: Purchase Requisition Approval Across Business Groups - Note 291046.1.

I have end-dated a position but still have the employees assigned to this position. These employees continue to be able to approve the POs as before. Why?
A: They would continue to be able to approve as long as they have valid assignments. When you are altering your organization structure by expiring a position, you MUST also make alternatives for the open assignments on this position. This should be a part of your organization structure migration process. Once you have migrated completely to the new Position Structure, including the proper employee-position assignments, run the Fill Employee Hierarchy program. This would affect the PO Approval accordingly.

What type of document attachments can be emailed with Purchase Orders to Suppliers?
A: In 11i10 and below only Notes to suppliers and Long/Short Text Attachments could be sent to the Suppliers. Now in Release 12 (R12) and higher files such as (MsWord, Drawing etc.) as well as URLs can be sent.

Does Approvals Management Engine (AME) support parallel approvers - where notifications are sent out to multiple people simultaneously to speed up the approval process?
A: Beginning in R12 AME supports parallel approvers for requisition approval.

Where can more information be obtained on AME?

A: The following notes contain more information about AME: Note 293315.1 11.5.10 FAQ for Approvals Management (AME) Integration For iProcurement and Purchasing Note 428552.1 How To Diagnose Issues With Approvals Management Engine (AME) In Procurement Note 396216.1 FAQ AME iProcurement In Release 12

Still Have Questions?

To discuss this information further with Oracle Experts and industry peers, we encourage you to review, join or start a discussion in the My Oracle Support Procurement Community.

References
NOTE:603232.1 - How to Diagnose Purchasing Document Approval Routing

Related

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Products

Oracle E-Business Suite > Procurement > Procurement > Oracle Purchasing

Keywords APPROVAL GROUPS; APPROVAL HIERARCHY; APPROVAL PROCESS; BUSINESS GROUPS; HIERARCHY; POAPPRV; POSITION HIERARCHY; REQAPPRV Errors ERROR HANDLING; ERROR 1; ERROR 2; ERROR 3

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