Reviewing Tasks with Workflows

• Rules configured in tasks to automatically assign approvers/reviewers based on certain conditions.
• Use the Approval Rule Editor within a task to create or edit custom approval rules that can include both parallel and serial approval flows.
• Create conditions for approvers or approval lookup tables.
• Advanced Approval rules can contain a combination of both parallel and serial approvers.
• Simple Approval is set on the task, no Approval Rule Editor.

Approval Rules allow template administrators to assign approvers to Approval Tasks based on certain factors. These approval rules can be simple approval rules which simply require placing a user into the Approver/Reviewer field when setting up a Review or Approval task. They can be made more complicated by using the Approval Rule Editor to add a combination of serial and parallel approval flows, conditions, references to conditions, approval lookup tables, and more.

By adding conditions, you can use one approval/review task to capture multiple approvals when needed. For example, you might have a Contract Workspace that requires approval from different areas of your business, depending on the Contract Amount. If the Contract Amount is over $500,000.00, you need to get approval from a Vice President. You can set a condition so that an approval node is added to the approval task when the Contract Amount is over $500,000.00. If the Contract Amount is less, then the VP approval isn’t needed and is not added to the approval flow of the task and instead, Finance is added to the approval flow.

Approval Rules to capture all required approvals and automate the process for end users. If you have an approval rule on Contract Amount, the tasks in a project created by an end user will be tasks that are needed for this particular project. This helps to ensure no user forgets to obtain a certain necessary approval and also cuts down on the user’s effort needed to set up their project with the tasks they need as they will already be added by the template.

• Without using the Approval Rules Editor, template creators can add reviewers/approvers in simple parallel or serial flows by creating the task
• Approval Flows created this way can only contain Serial or Parallel Approvers, only custom flow type can combine flow types
• You cannot add any watchers to the flow directly from the Approver/Reviewer field on the create/edit task screen
• You cannot specify any conditions for the approvers
• You cannot use approval rule lookup tables
• Order of approvers cannot be changed

Simple Approval flows are helpful when there is not a lot of logic that needs to be built into the approval. For example, you have an approver that needs to be added to a project for all projects. In this case, you could simply select the reviewer/approver that needs to approve and submit the task. You could also create a simple serial flow by using the Approver/Reviewer field when setting up the task and selecting Serial as the Approval Rule Flow Type. When you are selecting multiple reviewers for a serial approval and using the simple approval flow by populating the Reviewer/Approver field, be sure to add the approvers in order from last to first so that the last reviewer you specify will be the first person to review/approve in the flow.

Using this method of populating approver/reviewers also does not allow you to expand any system groups to all the members within the group. If you add a group in this way, the system will automatically add the group as a single approving unit and only one user from the group will need to approve/review. In order to require everyone in the group to approve, you must use the approval rule editor which will be described in more detail later in this module.

By adding approvers this way, the system also does not allow you to provide a reason as to why the approver is approving so adding approvers in this method is intended for simple approvals/reviews.

• Tasks assigned to approvers from left to right
• Assigned once the previous approver has approved

When selecting the Approval Rule Flow type, you can select from Serial, Parallel, or Custom. Serial, as shown in the above slide, consists of a series of approvers that must approve one at a time. For example, when an Approval Task with a serial approval rule flow type is submitted, notifications are only sent to Approver 1. Approver 2 does not receive a notification to approve until Approver 1 has submitted their approval.

Selecting this option is helpful when creating simple approval flows where nothing other than adding the approvers will happen. If you do not need any conditions or the ability to use any of the options in the Approval Rule Editor, then select this option for the Approval Rule Flow Type.

• Parallel approvers are assigned tasks at the same time.

Similar to the serial rule, parallel rules have the same basic concepts except all of the approvers get notification of the task and can approve the task simultaneously.

In other words, Approver 2 does not have to wait for Approver 1 to approve.

• Combination of Serial and Parallel Flow types
• Add logic to add approvers through conditions
• Add watchers to the approval flow
• Provide a reason when users are added to the approval flow
• Specify project groups, system groups, or use approver lookup tables
• Use the Approval Rule Editor and Approval Process Diagram

Instead of specifying approvers in the Approver/Reviewer field, you can use the Approval Rule Editor to create more advanced rules that include a mix of parallel and serial rules and add conditions to certain approval nodes. You just learned that simple approval rules allow you to specify the reviewers and approvers and whether or not they will be added to the flow in serial or parallel, but now you will learn that Advanced Approval Rules will allow you to use the Approval Rule Editor and the Approval Process Diagram to create more advanced approval rules that might help to address some of the more complicated parts of your business process.

You can access the Approval Rule Editor by selecting Custom for the Approval Rule Flow type and clicking on the graphic. This graphic will open the Approval Rule Editor where you will have the capabilities listed above which will be explained in more detail.

The Approval Process Diagram is a graphical representation of the approval rules you will build using a Custom Approval Rule Flow type. In the diagram, you can see that there is an approval node for US Approvers. This was created by providing a rule title and other actions within the Approval Rule Editor which is detailed on the next slide.

If this is your first time creating a custom approval flow, click Add Initial Approver to begin creating your first approval rule. You can add additional approval rules (or nodes) by clicking the blue arrow either before or after the existing approval node. If you click the arrow before the box, you can add a serial or parallel approver. If you click the arrow behind the box, you can only add a serial approver. Once you create an approval node, you can then use the Approval Rule Editor to specify what the system does for this particular approver or group of approvers.

You can also edit existing approval rules from the Process Diagram by clicking on the box or approval node. The setup of the rules will then display below in the Approval Rules Editor and can be modified as needed.

When you use the Approval Rule Editor, you will see the screen in the screenshot above. The fields are as follows:

Rule Title: Specify rule title and description.

Rule Description: Provide a description of what this rule will do. For example, the slide above shows the reason as Adds the US Approvers group when the region field on the project is set to USA.

Condition: Specify a condition for the approver group. Example: All Are True – Regions is equal to USA. The IS true as shown in the screenshot above in indicative of the fact that you must select from a list of already existing conditions. As a best practice, create conditions before creating the approval rules. This way, when you are completing the details of the Approval Rules Editor, you’ll be able to specify the condition if a condition will apply. You cannot create new conditions in the Approval Rule Editor.

Action: The action section contains settings on what the system will do for this particular approval node. The rules available within this section are as follows:

• Type – Specify the type of action. The options are: Add Approvers and Groups and Use Approver Lookup Table. Depending on the option you choose, you will have different options available. The slide above shows the options for adding a system group to the approval flow for this approval node. Approver Lookup Tables will be covered later in this module.

• Custom approvers are a combination of parallel and serial

A custom approval flow is shown here as it contains a combination of parallel and serial approvals. When the task owner submits a task with an approval flow as depicted above, Approver 1 and 2 will receive notification to approve the task. Once they both approve, Approver 3 will receive notification that it is time for him/her to approve.

For example, Approver 1 and 2 might be members of the Legal department while Approver 3 is their supervisor. This allows for the team to approve first and then once the team approves, it goes off for a final approval from their supervisor.

• A condition in an approval rule always contains at least one subcondition. In its simplest form, an approval rule condition consists of a subcondition that contains a references to a template condition.

This condition expression consists of All are True subcondition and the field match Regions is equal to USA.

You already learned in the last module that you can add conditions to approval nodes so that they are added only when that condition is met. The condition must be created on the Conditions tab of the template prior to assigning it to an approval rule. In the slide above, the options you have to add a condition to an approval rule are only references to conditions and subconditions, there is no option to create a new condition. You learned about subconditions and references to conditions in the Conditions module of this course. The slide above provides a refresher on what each of those are.

• Click the action triangle buttons to add or move nodes.
• Click the "X" button to delete an approval rule.

You can edit approval rules by clicking on one of the existing nodes in the approval flow. After clicking on the node in the Approval Process Diagram, the rule logic will appear on the screen below, allowing you to modify the values that have been set for that particular rule. This may occur when Approver 1 leaves the organization or moves into a different role. To edit this, click on the box for the Approval Node you want to edit and scroll to the bottom of the approval rule editor. In the parameters section, locate the setting for the User and update this value to the new user. It is a best practice to use groups instead of individual users so when someone changes roles or leaves the company, you simply need to update the groups they are assigned to rather than updating the rules within the template.

• When groups are added to an approval flow, the system can either:
  • Add all users in the group as individual approvers in a parallel flow and sends a notification to each user and all users in the approval flow will need to approve
  • Add the group as a single unit rather than expanding to each user. This adds one approval node in the flow and only one user from the group needs to approve even though all users will receive notification

Based on the method you use to add a group to the approval flow, the system behaves differently:

If you choose to add a group to the approval flow, the system will behave differently depending on where the group was added and the options that were selected. It is possible to add groups to the approval flow directly to the Approver/Reviewer field on the create and edit task screens. When you do this, it creates a simple approval rule as mentioned previously. If you select a group, the system will not expand the group and add each user in the group to the approval flow. It will instead add the group as a single approving entity which means any user from the group can approve and that will satisfy the requirement for that approval node. When this happens, the system will show something like John Smith (Contract Approvers) indicating that John approved the task and he was able to do so because he is a part of the Contract Approver group.

• Automatically adds the supervisor of a selected user as an approver
• Supports chain rules that repeatedly add supervisors as approvers
• Supports financial approval limits

Rules will only work if:

• All users must have a supervisor associated with their user profile
• "Import User Financial Limits" file has been imported (specifies the approval limits for certain users)

Supervisor chain rules allow you to create a series of rules that will automatically add the supervisor of a user as long as the condition to do so is met. In order to enable Supervisor Rules, there are additional pieces of information that need to be configured, including Import User Financial Limit in the Data Import/Export area of the system. This file allows you to specify the approval limits for certain users. For example, John Smith is an approver for Contracts, but he only has the authority to approve Contracts that are less than $500,000.00. Once the value of the Contract is over $500,000.00, the Financial Limit will have been reached and John’s supervisor will automatically be added into the approval flow for a Contract greater than $500,000.00.

These rules will only work if all users added have a supervisor associated with their user profile and the Import User Financial Limits file has been imported with values for each of the users added. You may also want to request the creation of a new field as the only field available by default is the Owner field. As an example, you might create a field called Contract Approver and you can select a user in that field when creating a project. Once that user is selected, the supervisor rule will reference that field and apply the approval limits for that user.

To create a supervisor rule, you can do the following:

1. Configure the import task for User Financial Limits as well as set supervisors on each user involved.
2. Add a new approval rule in parallel or serial.
3. Give the rule a title. For example, Sourcing Project Supervisor Rule.
4. Optionally add a condition. For example, you might only need supervisor rules when the Department is set to Legal.
5. Go to the Action area.
6. Select Add Approvers and Groups.
7. For the Action drop down menu, select Add Supervisor.
8. In the Parameters, select the appropriate field for the Add Supervisor of field. This is the field on the project specifies the user whose supervisor will be added and may be a custom field you request be created. You can select additional fields by clicking the select link and choosing an available field.
9. The supervisor’s approval will be required by default but you can choose to make it not required by unchecking the Approval Required box.
10. You can also specify a reason such as ‘You have been added to the approval flow because you are the supervisor of the user in the project field’.
11. You have completed the process if you do not want to create a chain supervisor rule. Click Done to complete the rule.
12. To chain the approval rule, click Action → Chain this rule.
13. A Base Rule and Chain Rule tab will appear.
14. On the Chain Rule, specify a condition when this chain rule will apply. If left blank, supervisors will be added until a user with no supervisor is added to the approval flow.

• Use Project Fields to add approvers
• System matches project fields to lookup file
• Can support ranges and multiple values

The option to use an Approver Lookup Table allows you to configure an approver lookup file that will reference fields on the project. You already learned that you can use conditions to add approvers based on certain conditions, but the Approver Lookup Table achieves essentially the same result, but it’s easier to update and maintain the Approver Lookup Tables than to manage the conditions, especially if your business process changes frequently. Approver Lookup Table files can be complicated, so it’s recommended that if you choose use them, be sure that you are familiar with Microsoft Excel and its functionalities.

For example, you can create rule in the Approver Lookup File that would assign jsmith as the approver when the Supplier field is set to ABC Corp. You can also use them for Contract Workspaces so if the Contract amount is between $50,000 and $100,000, add the legal department. By adding this to the lookup table, the system will automatically check the lookup file and compare it to the project fields and add approvers wherever the fields match the lookup file.

Approver Lookup Table with Commodity Code

In this example, John Smith is added to the approval flow if the Commodity field for the project is 12, which maps to commodities. The apostrophe before the 12 is used to force Microsoft Excel to store the data as text.

Approver Lookup Table file with Multiple Field Values

In this example, John Smith will be added when the region is set to EMEA-Spain and Susan Johnson will be the approver for all other EMEA regions. The Approver Lookup Table evaluates the rules in the file in order and will add the approver that matches the first rule. The system will check the Regions field. If it is set to Spain, it will add John. If it’s just set to EMEA, the system will continue reading the rules until it stops with Susan. As a best practice, it is recommended to add more specific entries first and get less specific as you move down the list.