Approving Work Orders

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to describe the Work Order approval process.

Work Order Approvals

Like a job posting, work orders can follow an approval process prescribed by a buyer organization. A buyer may configure specific approval processes on their job postings that will differ based upon multiple variables, statuses, and associated users that they have defined for their company. Buyers can configure a process that requires no approvals at all, so the work order goes straight to the supplier, or they can configure a tiered approval process across multiple user roles.

A rules-based approval process can also be configured that reflects additional logic based on cost factors or other specific rules for their operational business.

Approval Rules

SAP Fieldglass allows for two possible methods of triggering a work order, based on rules set during tenant configuration:

Use approval group if found for Work Order: This will trigger the system to follow the approval group found on the work order, regardless of budget. This is based on factors such as business unit and currency, however, we will get into this in detail later.
Use approval group only if Work Order exceeds Job Posting Estimated Spend: If selected, the system will only route the work order for approval if the estimated budget on the work order exceeds the budget on the associated job posting. If the work order is the same, or less, than the estimated budget on the Job Posting, the work order will bypass approvals and move into the next status.

Reviewing a Work Order in SAP Fieldglass

Let's follow the approval process within SAP Fieldglass itself.

A Work Order displaying the Approvals/Audit Trail tab, which displays the approver users in the order they will approve. Each approver who has approved the work order is displayed in green with a green check mark next to the name. To the right is the Audit Trail, which lists the users who have already acted upon the work order.

1	The status of this work order is listed as Pending Review. This indicates that the work order does indeed follow an approval process. Work orders, like job postings, can indicate several statuses. A list of the work order statutes and their definitions is provided in the Resources section at the end of this lesson.
2	The next step of the process is to Review, which means it is currently following the approval chain configured for that work order and is being reviewed by whomever is required to approve it.
3	Selecting the Audit Trail tab provides further information on the history of the work order and its place within the approval workflow.
4	The Approve section details the users who are in the approval chain…
5	…while the Audit Trail indicates the history of the work order. As illustrated here, it indicates that the work order was created and submitted by Mateo Manajez, a member of the program office for the buyer organization.

Supplier Accepts the Work Order

Once a work order is created, edited, and approved from the buyer side, it is sent back to the supplier. The supplier must either accept or decline the work order.

During the acceptance process, the supplier is prompted to enter an email address for the worker. This email address is where the SAP Fieldglass worker registration email will ultimately be sent. The email address can be changed at a later date if needed.

If the supplier declines the work order, the buyer will need to make the suggested changes, or negotiate with the supplier, before it can be resubmitted.

Suppliers use the action buttons in the header section of the work order to either accept or reject it.

A supplier's view of a work order with the work orders listed to the left and the details of a selected work order to the right. The work order itself lists the details of the position, including the accounting details. Accept and Decline buttons are at the top right of the work order.

Resources

Work Order Statuses

Accepted	Supplier accepted work order and it is pending activation by buyer
Activated	Buyer activated work order. An invitation is sent to job seeker to register and begin using SAP Fieldglass. Work order will stay in activated status until worker registers
Approval Paused	User roles or system roles defined in approval group have no users assigned or the user assigned does not have appropriate permissions to act on work item. The buyer must assign users to these roles and restart the approval process
Closed	Work order is closed by buyer or marked No Show by buyer
Confirmed	Worker registered and can enter time sheets
Confirmed (Worker Closed)	Registered worker is closed
	Work order was fully approved and submitted to suppliers for review
Declined	Supplier declined the work order
Deleted	Work order was deleted. This action can only be completed by SAP Fieldglass Support Team
Draft	Work order was started, then saved by buyer to be completed at a later date
No Show	Activated job seeker did not show up for work and was marked No Show by buyer
Pending Approval	Work order is pending approval by buyer
Pending Review	Work order was created by user who is not a coordinator or distributor, therefore a coordinator or distributor must review and edit, if necessary, before the work order routes for approval.
Rejected	Buyer rejected the work order

Summary

Buyers can configure approval processes for work orders, ranging from no approvals to tiered and rules-based approvals.

Key Points:

Approval Rules: Two methods for triggering work order approval are using the approval group found on the work order or only if the work order exceeds the job posting's estimated spend.
Reviewing Work Orders: Work orders in SAP Fieldglass show statuses like "Pending Further Review" and can be tracked via the audit trail and approval chain.
Approval Chain Details: Completed steps in the approval process are shown in blue, while pending steps are in green, indicating the users responsible for each step.
Supplier Acceptance: Once approved, the work order is sent to the supplier for acceptance or decline. Suppliers must provide a worker's email for SAP Fieldglass registration.

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