11 Common Applications Configuration: Define Approval Management for Human Capital Management

This chapter contains the following:

Approval Management: Highlights

Predefined Approval Rules for Oracle Fusion Global Human Resources Tasks: Explained

The Predefined Approval Flow for Oracle Fusion Global Human Resources: Explained

The Manager Hierarchy: How It Is Maintained

Approval Management Configuration Options for Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management: Explained

Approval Management: Highlights

Use approval management to determine the policies that apply to approval workflows for particular business objects such as expense reports. For example, you can specify levels of approval for expense reports over a particular amount, to reflect your own corporate policies. You also determine the groups of users who act on these workflow tasks, for example, the chain of approvers for expense reports.

Approval management is fully described in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Modeling and Implementation Guide for Oracle Business Process Management. Though the concepts described there apply also to Oracle Fusion Applications, the only setup relevant to Oracle Fusion Applications involves approval groups and task configuration. Customization of approval workflows themselves is described in the Oracle Fusion Applications Extensibility Guide.

Overview

Approval management is an extension of the human workflow services of Oracle SOA Suite. Refer to the Oracle Fusion Middleware Modeling and Implementation Guide for Oracle Business Process Management.
See: Introduction to Approval Management
See: Understanding Approval Management Concepts

Approval Groups and Task Configuration

An approval group consists of a name and a predefined set of users configured to act on a task in a certain pattern. Refer to the Oracle Fusion Middleware Modeling and Implementation Guide for Oracle Business Process Management.
See: Administering Approval Groups
Task configuration involves managing policies that control approval flows. Refer to the Oracle Fusion Middleware Modeling and Implementation Guide for Oracle Business Process Management.
See: Using Task Configuration

To configure a predefined approval policy, select the predefined rule set and click the Edit task icon button.
To disable a predefined rule set, select the Ignore this participant check box for that rule set.
To edit the rules within a predefined rule set, you can insert, update, or delete from the seeded rules as needed while in edit mode.
You can configure a specific rule to automatically approve without being sent to any approver. Modify the routing for that rule so that it is sent to the initiator (which means the requestor is the approver), set the Auto Action Enabled option to True, and enter APPROVE in the Auto Action field.

Customization

You can optionally customize predefined approval workflows, for example add post-approval activities or additional stages. Refer to the Oracle Fusion Applications Extensibility Guide.
See: Customizing and Extending SOA Components

Predefined Approval Rules for Oracle Fusion Global Human Resources Tasks: Explained

Predefined approval rules exist for many Oracle Fusion Global Human Resources tasks. In most cases, approval by the first-level and second-level managers of the person who submits the transaction is required; however, you can create different approval rules for any task.

This topic identifies Global Human Resources tasks that have predefined approval rules. It also identifies the attributes enabled for use in custom approval rules for Global Human Resources tasks. Attributes that occur in both employment terms and assignments are enabled in both.

Approval by First-Level and Second-Level Managers

For the following tasks, the predefined approval rules require approval by the transaction submitter's first-level and second-level managers. The attributes shown in the following table are enabled for use in custom approval rules; the predefined approval rules do not use them.

Task	Enabled Attributes
Transfer (Line Manager)	Action, Action Reason, Assignment Category, Business Unit, Department, Grade, Destination Legal Employer, Hourly Paid or Salaried, Job, Location, Position, Salary Amount, Salary Components, Worker Category, Working at Home
Promotion (Line Manager)	Action, Action Reason, Assignment Category, Business Unit, Department, Grade, Hourly Paid or Salaried, Job, Location, Position, Salary Amount, Salary Components, Worker Category, Working at Home
Change Manager	Action, Action Reason
Change Location	Action, Action Reason, Location
Change Working Hours	Action, Action Reason, Assignment Category, Hourly Paid or Salaried, Worker Category
Terminate Work Relationship	Termination Action, Termination Reason, Notification Date, Recommended for Rehire, Rehire Recommendation Reason, Termination Date
Hire an Employee	Hire Action, Hire Reason, Assignment Category, Business Unit, Citizenship Nationality, Citizenship To Date, Citizenship Status, Contract Type, Contract Duration, Department, Grade, Grade Ceiling Step, Grade Ladder, Grade Rate Value, Grade Step, Hourly Paid or Salaried, Job, Legislative Information (all attributes), Location, National ID Country, National ID Type, Notice Period, Passport Country, Passport Expiration Date, Passport Type, Payroll, Person Type, Position, Probation Period, Role Name, Salary Amount, Salary Basis, Salary Components, Visa or Permit Country, Visa or Permit Expiration Date, Visa or Permit Status, Visa or Permit Type, Worker Category, Working as a Manager, Working at Home, Working Hours, Working Hours Frequency
Add a Nonworker	Action, Action Reason, Assignment Category, Business Unit, Citizenship Nationality, Citizenship To Date, Citizenship Status, Contract Type, Contract Duration, Department, Grade, Grade Ceiling Step, Grade Ladder, Grade Rate Value, Grade Step, Hourly Paid or Salaried, Job, Legislative Information (all attributes), Location, National ID Country, National ID Type, Passport Country, Passport Expiration Date, Passport Type, Payroll, Person Type, Position, Role Name, Salary Amount, Salary Basis, Salary Components, Visa or Permit Country, Visa or Permit Expiration Date, Visa or Permit Status, Visa or Permit Type, Worker Category, Working as a Manager, Working at Home, Working Hours, Working Hours Frequency
Add a Contingent Worker	Placement Action, Placement Reason, Assignment Category, Business Unit, Citizenship Nationality, Citizenship To Date, Citizenship Status, Contract Type, Contract Duration, Department, Grade, Grade Ceiling Step, Grade Ladder, Grade Rate Value, Grade Step, Hourly Paid or Salaried, Job, Legislative Information (all attributes), Location, National ID Country, National ID Type, Passport Country, Passport Expiration Date, Passport Type, Payroll, Person Type, Position, Role Name, Salary Amount, Salary Basis, Salary Components, Visa or Permit Country, Visa or Permit Expiration Date, Visa or Permit Status, Visa or Permit Type, Worker Category, Working as a Manager, Working at Home, Working Hours, Working Hours Frequency
Add a Pending Worker	Action, Action Reason, Assignment Category, Business Unit, Citizenship Nationality, Citizenship To Date, Citizenship Status, Contract Type, Contract Duration, Department, Grade, Grade Ceiling Step, Grade Ladder, Grade Rate Value, Grade Step, Hourly Paid or Salaried, Job, Legislative Information (all attributes), Location, National ID Country, National ID Type, Notice Period, Passport Country, Passport Expiration Date, Passport Status, Passport Type, Person Type, Position, Probation Period, Role Name, Visa or Permit Country, Visa or Permit Expiration Date, Visa or Permit Status, Visa or Permit Type, Worker Category, Working as a Manager, Working at Home, Working Hours, Working Hours Frequency, Worker Type
Create Work Relationship (if redirected from an Add Person task)	Action, Action Reason, Assignment Category, Business Unit, Citizenship Nationality, Citizenship To Date, Citizenship Status, Contract Type, Contract Duration, Department, Grade, Grade Ceiling Step, Grade Ladder, Grade Rate Value, Grade Step, Hourly Paid or Salaried, Job, Legislative Information (all attributes), Location, National ID Country, National ID Type, Notice Period, Passport Country, Passport Expiration Date, Passport Status, Passport Type, Payroll, Person Type, Position, Probation Period, Role Name, Salary Amount, Salary Basis, Salary Components, Visa or Permit Country, Visa or Permit Expiration Date, Visa or Permit Status, Visa or Permit Type, Worker Category, Worker Type, Working as a Manager, Working at Home, Working Hours, Working Hours Frequency
Manage Work Schedule Assignment	None

Approval by First-Level Manager

For the following tasks, which include creation, deletion, and editing of the relevant objects, approval by the transaction submitter's first-level manager is required. The attributes shown in the following table are enabled for use in custom approval rules; the predefined approval rules do not use them.

Task	Enabled Attributes
Manage Absence Records	Actual Absence Start Date and Time, Actual Absence End Date and Time, Document Attachments, Document Country, Document Type, Duration, Projected Start Date and Time, Projected End Date and Time, Status
Manage Document Record	Document Category, Document Country, Document Type

Approval by Worker

For the Share Information task, approval by the worker whose information is shared is required if the task is performed by a manager or human resource specialist.

No Predefined Approval Rules

For the following tasks, no predefined approval rules exist. However, the attributes shown in the following table are enabled for use in custom approval rules.

Task	Enabled Attributes
Change Address	Address (all attributes), Phone Number (all attributes)
Change Marital Status	Address (all attributes), Marital Status, Phone Number (all attributes)
Create Employment Terms	Action, Action Reason, Assignment Category, Business Unit, Contract Type, Contract Duration, Department, Grade, Grade Ceiling Step, Grade Ladder, Grade Rate Value, Grade Step, Hourly Paid or Salaried, Job, Location, Notice Period, Payroll, Position, Probation Period, Salary Amount, Salary Basis, Salary Components, Person Type, Worker Category, Working as a Manager, Working at Home, Working Hours, Working Hours Frequency
Manage Employment	Action, Action Reason, Assignment Category, Business Unit, Contract Type, Contract Duration, Department, Grade, Grade Ceiling Step, Grade Ladder, Grade Rate Value, Grade Step, Hourly Paid or Salaried, Job, Location, Notice Period, Payroll, Position, Probation Period, Salary Amount, Salary Basis, Salary Components, Person Type, Worker Category, Working as a Manager, Working at Home, Working Hours, Working Hours Frequency
Manage Grades	Grade Code, Grade Name, Grade Status, Grade Step Name
Manage Grade Ladders	Grade Ladder Status, Grade Name, Step Rate Name, Step Rate Value
Manage Grade Rates	Grade Rate Name, Grade Rate Status, Grade Rate Type, Maximum Value, Midpoint Value, Minimum Value
Manage Jobs	Approval Level, Full Time or Part Time, Job Family, Job Function, Job Name, Management Level, Regular or Temporary, Status, Valid Grade
Manage Locations	Address (all attributes), Designated Receiver, Fax Number, Main Phone Number, Location Status, Ship-to-Site
Manage Organizations	Classification Code
Manage Person	All attributes of: Address, Citizenship, Communication Methods, Contact Relationship, Disability, Driver's License, E-Mail, Ethnicity, Legislative Information, National ID, Passport, Person Name, Phone Number, Religion, Visa, Work Permit
Manage Positions	Bargaining Unit, Business Unit, Department, Entry Grade, Hiring Status, Job, Location, Regular or Temporary, Seasonal, Security Clearance, Valid Grades

For other Global Human Resources tasks, such as Manage Absence Types, Manage Accrual Plans, and Manage Checklist Templates, no predefined approval rules exist and no attributes are enabled for custom approval rules. Transactions without approval rules or for which no approval task flows exist are approved automatically when approvals are enabled.

The Predefined Approval Flow for Oracle Fusion Global Human Resources: Explained

Oracle Fusion Global Human Resources has one predefined approval flow. Using Oracle JDeveloper, you can edit a copy of this flow and create additional approval flows for transactions that have different approval requirements.

The following figure shows the predefined approval flow.

When the transaction is submitted, it is routed automatically to the worklist of the submitter's first-level manager, who is the first approver.
If the submitter's first-level manager approves the transaction, it is routed automatically to the submitter's second-level manager, who is the second approver.
If the submitter's second-level manager approves the transaction, it is committed to the database tables.

The predefined approval flow for Oracle
Fusion Global Human Resources

Security permitting, either approver may edit the transaction. A link to edit the transaction is included in all notifications by default; however, the link can be hidden using personalization. The approval process continues unaltered after the transaction has been edited.

Approval Management Extensions (AMX) configuration options for Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management determine most of the actions that are available to the participants in the approval process. For example:

Either approver can reject the transaction. By default, the approval process stops when the transaction is rejected.
The second-level manager can push the transaction back to the first-level manager, who then has a second opportunity to review the transaction and either approve or reject it, as appropriate.
Ad hoc insertion of approvers in the approval list is permitted.
Approvers can delegate their approval responsibilities to other approvers.

If you change the default settings of the AMX configuration options, then different actions or action outcomes become available to this approval flow.

Notifications

The following table summarizes who is notified at each event during the predefined approval flow.

Transaction Event	Transaction Submitter	Approver: First-Level Manager	Approver: Second-Level Manager
Routed for approval		Yes	Yes
Rejected	Yes
Pushed back		Yes
Committed	Yes	Yes	Yes

In addition, either approver can request more information from the other approver, the transaction submitter, or both. Such requests do not affect control of the approval process, but the person from whom information is requested receives a worklist notification.

The Manager Hierarchy: How It Is Maintained

In many situations, a person's manager hierarchy must be readily available. For example, a person's line managers may need to be identified during an approval process, and business intelligence reports often retrieve data based on a manager hierarchy.

How the Manager Hierarchy Is Maintained

A person's manager hierarchy could be derived from live data tables, but the impact of that approach on performance is unpredictable. Therefore, the complete manager hierarchy for each person is extracted from live data tables and stored in a separate manager hierarchy table, known as the denormalized manager hierarchy; it ensures that a person's manager hierarchy is both easily accessible and up to date.

The Refresh Manager Hierarchy process populates the denormalized manager hierarchy table when person records are migrated from other applications. Otherwise, whenever a change is made to a person's manager hierarchy, the change is reflected automatically in the denormalized manager hierarchy table. However, by running the Refresh Manager Hierarchy process in addition to these automatic individual updates, you can ensure that the denormalized manager hierarchy is as accurate as possible. Refresh Manager Hierarchy processes all types of manager hierarchies.

The Refresh Manager Hierarchy process has no default schedule; however, you can run the process occasionally to perform a complete refresh of the denormalized manager hierarchy. Alternatively, you can specify a schedule to run the process at regular intervals.

Approval Management Configuration Options for Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management: Explained

The Approval Management Extensions (AMX) to the human workflow services of Oracle SOA Suite have the following default configuration options for all applications in the Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management family.

Configuration Option	Default Value	Effect of Default Value
Ad hoc insertion of approvers	True	Ad hoc insertion of approvers in the approval list is allowed. Users who add approvers may also modify or remove the approvers that they add.
Allow delegate	True	Approvers can delegate their approval responsibilities to other users. One approver replaces another, but the approver list is otherwise unaltered.
Allow pushback	True	An approver can push the transaction back to the previous approver, who thereby has a second opportunity to review the transaction.
Allow reassign	True	Any approver can reassign the approval to a different approver. The approval list is recalculated based on the new approver.
Allow request information	True	Approvers can request more information from another approver or the person who submitted the transaction.
Allow self-approval	False	The person who submits the transaction cannot approve it.
Allow withdraw	True	The requester or an administrator can withdraw a transaction while the approval process is incomplete. Approvers who have already approved are notified of the withdrawal. The transaction is removed from the worklists of approvers who have not yet approved.
On error notify	Human Resources Application Administrator	A Human Resources Application Administrator is notified automatically when an error occurs.
Period before task expires	None	Approval tasks do not expire.
Period before task escalates	None	Approval tasks are not escalated to other approvers.
Escalated approver	None	Approval tasks are not escalated to other approvers.
Repeated approver frequency	Once per approval	An approver receives one notification per transaction, even when the approver appears multiple times in the approver list.
Re-evaluate approver list	True	The approver list is regenerated after every response.
Rejection outcome	Stop all	When an approver rejects a transaction, the approval process stops and the transaction is canceled.