Request - multiple manager approvals

[bonillac]

Hello Community, 

Our company is having the following issue. We recently implemented Concur Request. We have an expense type that if over $500 needs one manager approval, If over $500 it needs, 2 manager approvals, If over $1000, 3 manager approvals. Does anyone have a similar workflow or know if this is possible to set up and how?

Thank you.

[KevinD]

@bonillac I found two SAP Concur sites with your company name. One shows for Mexico, the other isn't. Which site should I look at? I ask because the site for Mexico is on a Standard configuration where the other site is not. Workflow options for Standard and Professional configurations are different to work with. 

[bonillac]

Hi Kevin,

We are DGC in the U.S. currently on the professional version (I believe).

thank you!

[KevinD]

@bonillac got it. Did you see my other question? Do the amounts you listed need to be approved by one specific person or are there multiple approvers that can approve over $500 and over $1000?

[KevinD]

@bonillac could you also clarify if the amounts you listed are approved by specific managers or is it just that the over $500 needs two approvals (doesn't need to be a certain second approver) and same with the over $1000. 

[bonillac]

Hi Kevin,

The $500 approval would be the employees manager. Up to $1000 would be manager and EVP. Over $1000 would be manager, EVP and CEO.

[KevinD]

@bonillac Okay, so I looked in your site and you currently have a workflow almost just like this setup. You have a manager approval step, an EVP step and a Cost Object Approver step. 

I think the workflow would just take a little bit of tweaking. First thing would be to change the Cost Object Approval step to be CEO Approval. 

Before I go any further, I need to know if you have the permissions to change your company's workflow. Most people do not have this permission because to get it you need to have completed our Advanced Configuration training. Now, if you do not have the permissions, do you know if someone at your company does? If no one does, then you need to submit your request to SAP Concur Support. 

I'll await your reply. 

[bonillac]

Hi Kevin,

I don't have the permission to change the workflow. I'm trying to gather information as we were told this workflow was not possible with multiple approvers and multiple workflows. Does the fact that the workflow is driven by Expense type affect the situation?

Thank you.

[KevinD]

@bonillac the Expense Type shouldn't affect the workflow since workflow conditions can be built around an expense type. 

Do you know if anyone at your company has permissions do change workflow? If not, SAP Concur would have to make any changes. Did someone from SAP Concur tell you that this workflow is not possible? 

[bonillac]

Hi Kevin,

No one at our company has configuration access. We are confused at the moment because we were under the impression that Concur could handle multiple workflows. We are not Concur experts, therefore not knowledgeable in what can or can't be configured.

We have received the following response from our current Concur Project manager:

• All expense types under 1K will route to manager approval only.
• If over 1K, first level approving manager will select approve and forward to route the request to a secondary approver (CEO level).
• Concur will only have EVP step (level 1) built in and will remove CEO step (level 2) hence the need for approve and forward for Government Officials expense types over 1K.
• it was agreed upon that a level 2 approver will not be automatically built in because of the requirements and they will utilize the approve and forward function when necessary.
• Configuration is designed for the most commonly occurring situation rather than the exception and the exception in this case was for Meeting Meals therefore, the workflow has been built
• An audit rule has been created to show the approver that Government Officials expense types should be forwarded for approval to the CEO.

[KevinD]

@bonillac So, SAP Concur can handle multiple workflows, but maybe not in the sense you are thinking. Multiple workflows would be used if different groups of employees needed to have different approval steps. Workflows are determined by Policies. A group gets assigned a Policy and the policy is assigned one workflow. A policy cannot have two workflows assigned to it.

However, a Group can be assigned two policies and each policy can have a different workflow, but when the report is submitted, it can only follow the workflow that is assigned to that policy. You can allow users to choose a policy when creating an expense report. The report would then follow the workflow assigned to the selected policy.

Here's an example, let's say in the U.S. employees would submit their expense report and it goes to their default approver only then to the processor for final approval. That is all the approvals needed based on U.S. business requirements. However, in Canada, because of different business requirements (i.e. GST, HST, et al), employees submit their report, it goes to their manager, then it goes to someone to review and approve reclaim taxes, then to processor. These would be two different workflows for the same company, but set up for the different groups, which in my scenario happen to be countries. 

I did discuss your scenario with a colleague and she mentioned that from what you had written, she thinks a workflow could be setup using authorized approvers that would accommodate your need. However, and this is a big caveat, we do not know all the business requirements your company has or needs. There may be a reason why your implementation project manager said it isn't possible since they have all the facts. I cannot really say for sure. 

I would simply go back to the project manager and ask why what you need is not possible. They should be able to give an explanation.