Applications Specialist/ Trainer Approval Chains Bryce Ellis Applications Specialist/ Trainer

Approval Chains Use Approval Chains to Approve: Purchase Orders Budget Requests/ Transfers Payroll Salary Changes Payments Bids Warehouse Orders Advanced Purchases P-Cards

Prerequisites for Approval Chains Planning Identify how you want your chain to function 3 ways to set up Location Account User

Approval Chain by Location Plan your approval chain User defined codes, levels, and dollar minimums Requisitioner Fiscal Activities Clerk Principal Purchasing Over $50,000? -- Location name and Number is defined in the Location Master Unique Name for the Approval chain that will be set up in the approval chain form Approval level that will be set up in the approval chain form Names, codes, and dollar minimums that will be set up in the approval code master form YES Superintendent NO Approved PO

Create Approval Codes – FMAPP01A.FMX Once chains are planned, key data into Alio First step is to define approval codes & descriptions – are user defined Include dollar amount minimum

Create User Approvers – FMAPP02A.FMX Assign user approval codes to Alio users Note: do not assign a User ID to Approval Code PO

Create Approval Chains Approval Level indicates order in which transaction is approved Leave room for detours Final level MUST be Approval Code PO PO Level indicates the transaction is fully approved and ready for edit

Copy Approval Chains – FMAPP03A.FMX Select the approval chain you want to copy Create a new name for the chain Can create new or overwrite existing Existing approval chain being overwritten – selected AUTO in the TO box

Copy Approval Chains – FMAPP03A.FMX Create new approval chain Allows new user defined approval chain name in “To” field Created new here – this

Copy Approval Chains – FMAPP03A.FMX After re-query, approval chain is copied with new name

Approval Chain by Location – Location Master FMLOC01A.FMX Enter the approval chain in the Location Master You can key different approval chains depending on the transaction type

Approval Chain by Location When 8800 Location is used in the requisition, it will follow this approval chain

Approval Chain by Location When the requisition is finished, the approval chain will show the status of the requisition in the approval process

Approval Chain by User Chain used for all transactions keyed by user Overrides a location chain Merges with an account chain Torchy’s High School - TRCHYHS Fiscal Activities Clerk PURC 10 Torchy’s Principal TRCP 20 Purchasing 2 PUR2 30 Superintendent SUPT 40 $50,000 Ready for Print PO 99 Bryce Ellis ELLISBRD (Used in Example on following slide) Amy Neal ANEAL Cindy Zediker CINDYZ You can key different approval chains depending on the transaction type

Approval Chain by User User ELLISBRD enters requisition Will follow TRCHYHS for all requisitions You can key different approval chains depending on the transaction type

Approval Chain by Account Account approval chain is typically a detour in the chain Location or user chains are generated – this detours to a different department Example: Technology is involved in the requisition process when technology-specific accounts are involved

Approval Chain by Account Requisitioner Fiscal Activities Clerk YES Technology IT Director NO Principal Purchasing Over $50,000? YES Example of how Approval chain would look with technology director involved in it Superintendent NO Approved PO

Approval Chain by Account Technology detour needed for this account

Approval Chain by Account Account number has Technology (TECH) for its approval chain – REQ keyed by user at 8800 location Account in requisition

Approval Chain by Account Technology is now involved in this approval chain for this requisition based on the location keyed for the requisition and the detour for this account approval chain Technology was inserted into this process

Multiple Account Chains Enter two approval chains in chart of accounts Alio merges the two chains with the location chain (if location chain exists) “TEXTBOOKS” is the account used here

Multiple Account Chains Location without approval chain entered

Multiple Account Chains Transaction is entered using “Textbook” Account

Multiple Account Chains Approval chains have merged together based on their levels 20 & 30 Level 25 Level

Auto Approval Chain Approval chain that automatically approves transactions – uses PO Approval Code Will not auto approve if the transaction uses an account with a chain

Mass Load Approval Chains – FMACT13A.FMX Mass load approval chains into accounts using account masks

Mass Approval – SSAPP01A.FMX Mass Approval Screen to see all requisitions, budget transfers, etc.

Mass Approval – SSAPP01A.FMX Clicking on “Details” brings up linked approval screen

Organization Master Settings Approve Stipend Vendors Typically vendor 99999 or vendor you intend to use once Requires user to approve as stipend or approve as vendor before transaction begins approval process Approve Each Level Requires each approval code to approve transaction in sequential order Cannot approve at a higher level to auto approve lower levels Approve Each Level – Example: Finance enters requisition – it will then go back to secretary, principal (each level even though they’re behind in the chain) for approval

Approve Stipend Vendors In the Users screen, check the box “Req. Stipend App.” to designate the Alio user as a Stipend Vendor approver

Stipend Vendor Approval If a vendor is a stipend vendor, enter ST as the vendor category in the vendor master This is drive by the Vendor Types – ST is listed as a stipend vendor

Stipend Vendor Approval When entering a requisition, choose the stipend vendor from the Vendor Master

Stipend Vendor Approval Requisition enterer will see the status as “Needs Approval by Stipend”

Stipend Vendor Approval When submitted, the approver (Req. Stipend App.) will first have to approve this as a stipend vendor before it goes through the approval process

Stipend Vendor Approval Be careful: If your stipend approver is not first in your approval chain or they are a higher approval level than some of the current links, AND “Approve Each Level” is not turned on in the organization master, some links will be skipped in the process

Notification Emails Organization Master – Set up SMTP port for email notifications Select which items you want approvers to receive notifications for

Notification Emails Employee No. in Users must be linked to employee number in the Employee Master – will send to email address on file

Resources Resource ID 4566 in InfoLink Guide to Requisitions and Purchasing (Chapter 2)