Authorised Approvers - User submitting claim sits in their own Authorised Approver List

[Snell]

Hi,  I'm still grappling with the Authorisation workflow setup.  I will get it one day I'm sure.  :-).

Just designing a workflow for this customer.

We are heading towards an Authorizer setup using the feature hierarchy. It will be a 3 tiered list, Company-->Department--->Division

However, the question has been asked..

If user submits their own expense claims but sits in the Company--->Department-->Division where they are an authoriser, what happens to the expense claim authorisation workflow steps? Will it go to them for their own claims to authorise (which obviously it shouldn't) or will it just skip them and go to the next level ?

Do I need to add a skip rule for this and if so what would it be ?  Thanks for any help.

[Snell]

@KevinD - any help would be appreciated 🙂

[KevinD]

@Snell question for you...will the assigned default approver of this employee also be an authorized approver for that Company--->Department-->Division and/or will there be other authorized approvers for this Company>Department>Division?

I need to confirm this with a colleague, but if the answer is yes, then when this employee submits, it will go to their default approver which will be an authorized approver, so it should be just fine. If their default approver isn't an authorized approver, then as long as you have others designated as authorized approvers for the Company>Department>Division, it would go to one of them after the default approver approves it. Again, I'll confirm this and let you know.

Now, if this employee's default approver will not be an authorized approver and there won't be any other authorized approvers for this Company>Department>Division, then is very likely the report will be stuck.

I'll await your reply and hopefully I will have spoken to my colleague by then.

[Snell]

Thanks Kevin,

User X  (They belong to Company X --> Dept. Y --> Division S

The workflow authorisation steps and those living in the 'Division S' folder are...

Level 1 - User A  £xxx

Level 2 - User X £xxx

Level 3 - User C £xxx

Level 4 - User D £xxx

Level 5 - User E £xxx

User X could in fact be at Level 2, but they might be at Level 1 instead or even Level 3.

Do I need to add the Manager Approval step before the Authorisation steps ?  Their Manager might be the next Level up from them, i.e. Level 3 - User C.

It sounds like your suggesting adding in the Manager Approval step and ensuring the manager is Level - 3 in the same folder, then it will skip straight into Level 4 ?

Craig.

[KevinD · Accepted solution]

@Snell I would add in the manager approval step before the Authorized Approver step and make sure that user X's manager is one level higher than they are in the Authorized Approval set up. That should allow for user X to submit and have their report both manager and authorized approver approval in one step.

If the manager is Level 3, that step wouldn't be skipped. Approval steps aren't skipped unless you write in a skip step condition. All reports will need Manager approval before anything else. That is if you add Manager Approval before the Authorized Approval step.

Also, be mindful of not having too many approvers with the same level for the same Division. Are you using levels or amounts for the Authorized Approver step?

[Snell]

Kevin, I've tried to simplify this and actually applied a different approach.

I made the workflow use Levels and values and put some rules in so that if User X has signing authority in their own 'Company X --> Dept. Y --> Division S' then it will skip levels lower than them and to go the user above them in the levels.  So in the above example User X's claim would go straight to Level 3.  This seems to work no matter where they are in the Levels.  

many thanks for your advice and help.