In this lesson, you’ll learn about the approval process and how to set it up in the Approval Process Settings.
An approval process can be set up for sales, purchasing, and inventory documents. For example, in an organization, there is a requirement to approve internal purchases and expenses over a certain limit. The purchase requests or purchase orders for these expenses must then be approved by a manager before they can be added.
Approval procedures can also be used in the sales process, in outgoing payment processing, in inventory receipt and transfers, and in stock counting.
The basic approval process is as follows:
- Originator adds a document: In the approval process, a user who is subject to an approval procedure is known as the originator. When the originator adds a document that meets predefined approval conditions, the originator is notified, and the document is saved as a draft. The document has the status of Draft - Pending. The originator will not see this draft document when browsing through records, but they can access it from the Docs in Approval Process list view.
- Request sent to authorizer: The draft document must be approved before it can be generated as a document. An internal request is sent to the pre-defined approvers. This request appears in the Notifications popup window, and the approver can select the notification to view the draft document. If the Send Approval Process Notification via Email setting is enabled, approvals requests will be sent via email as well.
- Approved by authorizer?: This is the decision by the authorizer whether to approve or reject the document.
- Rejection: If the approver rejects the document, a notification goes back to the originator. The originator can open the draft by selecting the notification, then modify the draft. If the approval condition is no longer met, the draft can be added to the system as a normal document. If the approval condition is still met, another approval procedure will begin.
- Approval: If the draft is approved at the first approval stage, an approval request is sent to the next approval stage (if applicable). If the draft is approved at the final approval stage, the originator is notified, and they can enter the draft by selecting the notification. The originator can now add the draft as a regular document. After a document has been approved, it has the status of Approved in the title.