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Siebel eFinance Guide > Validation, Approval, and Disclosure Business Services > Administrator Procedures >

Automating Approval Processing

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In Siebel eFinance, administrators can define a number of approval levels without the need for programming, scripting, or configuring. You can define both basic or multiple step approval processing levels based on the needs of your organization. You can invoke approval processing from a workflow or a runtime event.

Automating an approval process involves the following steps:

• Administrator defines approval items and approval stages. For more information, see Defining Approval Items and Approval Stages.
• Administrator invokes approval processing. For more information, see Invoking FINS Approval Item Service from a Workflow.
• End users approve or decline an approval stage. For more information, see Approving or Declining an Approval Stage.

Defining Approval Items and Approval Stages

An administrator defines the approval process by creating approval items and approval stages in the Approval Administration view.

To define approval items and stages

1. From the application-level menu, choose View > Site Map >Application Administration > Approval Administration.
2. In the Approval Item list, add a record and enter a name in the Approval Item field.
3. In the Approval Flow Type field, select one of the following:
   • Sequential. Indicates this Approval Item will be distributed to approvers one after another in the sequence specified in the Approval Stage. The application will route the Approval Item to the next approver only if the current approver approves the request. If any one approver in the approval chain declines the request, the Approval Item is rejected and no further routing will be conducted.
   • Parallel. Indicates this Approval Item will be distributed to all approvers simultaneously for approval. The Approval Item is rejected if at least one approver declines the approval request.

     Once you've defined an Approval Item, the next step is to define the appropriate approval stages. The Approval Item and Approval Stage lists have a parent-child relationship.

4. In the Approval Stage list, add a record for each approval stage and complete the necessary fields.

   Some fields are described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   Sequence #	Identifies the numeric sequence of this Approval Stage in the current Approval Item. The application executes Approval Stages in numerical order based on this number.
   Approval Type	Specifies whether the approver is a position or an employee.
   Owner Login Name	Indicates the login name tied to this Approval Stage. Relevant only if Approval Type is Employee.
   Owner Position	Indicates the position tied to this Approval Stage. Relevant only if Approval Type is Position.

   NOTE:  Each approval stage can be tied to either a position or an employee login name, but not both.

End users use the My Approval Inbox view to approve an approval item. For more information, see Approving or Declining an Approval Stage.

Invoking FINS Approval Item Service from a Workflow

To invoke FINS Approval Item Service from a workflow, you must create a workflow containing the following steps:

• Start. Initiates the process instance. When the conditions have been met, the application initiates the process instance.
• Business Service. A step in a process in which an automated call is made to the FINS Approval Item Service. A workflow process definition can have one or more business service steps.
• End. A step in a process that specifies when a process instance is finished.

In order for your workflow to execute correctly, the Start and Business Service steps must meet the minimum requirements described in the following procedures. For more information on workflows, see Siebel Business Process Designer Administration Guide for Financial Services.

To configure the Start step in your workflow

1. From the application level menu, choose View > Site Map > Business Process Administration > Workflow Processes.
2. In the Workflow Process list, select the workflow you wish to configure.
3. Click the Process Designer view tab.
4. In the Process Designer, double-click the Start step.
5. In the Next Steps list, complete the necessary fields.

   Some fields are described in the following table.

   Field	Comments	Example
   Event	The specific event that happens to the object. The set of available events is different for different object types.	Use the WriteRecord business component event if you want to trigger the approval process after the record is written to the database. Use the WriteRecordNew business component event if you want to trigger the approval process after a new record is written to the database.
   Event Object	The name of the application, business component, or applet to which the event occurs.	Contact
   Event Object Type	The type of object to which the event occurs. This can be an application, business component, or applet.	BusComp
   Name	The name of the Next step branch. The name of the branch must be unique or you will not be able to import or export the workflow process.
   Next Step	The name of the step that follows when conditions are met.	Picklist of existing process steps.
   Type	The type of branch.	The value can be one of the following: Condition. This value indicates that a condition is defined for the branch. Default. This value indicates that if nothing else is satisfied, this branch will be followed. Additionally, if this value is used, any conditions defined for the branch are ignored.

6. Click Return to Designer.

To configure the Business Service step in your workflow

1. From the application level menu, choose View > Site Map > Business Process Administration > Workflow Processes.
2. In the Workflow Process list, select the workflow you wish to configure.
3. In the Process Designer workflow, double-click the Business Service step.

   The Business Service form appears. Use this view specify the business object, the business service (FINS Approval Item Service), and the Method (Create Approval Stage).

4. In the Business Service form, complete the fields described in the following table.

   Field	Value
   Business Service	FINS Approval Item Service
   Method	Create Approval Stage

5. In the Input Arguments list, establish your Input Arguments as described in the following table.

   Input Argument	Property Name	Comments
   Approval Identifier	Object Id	Row Id of the object (for example, a Service Request) that needs approval processing.
   Approval Item Name	Approval Item Name	Name of the Approval Item defined in the Approval Administration view.
   Requesting Buscomp	Requesting Buscomp	Name of the buscomp object (for example, a Service Request) that needs approval processing.

6. Click Return to Designer.
7. Click the All Processes view tab.
8. To activate the workflow, click Activate.

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