See Overview of Oracle Approvals Management.
A surrogate approver is an approver who is normally not in the line of an approval chain, but in certain conditions can be designated as an approver. The Surrogate Approver features uses the Approvals Management Engine (AME) surrogate approval capabilities, which include the ability to:
Define rules to designate surrogate or alternate approvers based on different business conditions.
Designate a surrogate approver from approver types such as an HR employee, an Oracle Applications user (FND User), or a specific HR Position.
In conjunction with the Timeout Duration feature, you can:
Configure business transaction routing rules to address notification timeouts.
Configure timeout rules for surrogate approvers to ensure that notifications are processed (approved, rejected, or returned for resubmission) in a timely manner.
Set a specific timeout duration for up to 20 levels of approvers.
For example, for the predefined Oracle Self Service Human Resources transaction type, you can direct transactions to a surrogate approver based on business conditions in the event there are notification timeouts.
After your system administrator implements the Surrogate Approver feature, you can use the following application components to create, update, and view surrogate approver rules.
This tab is the entry point from which you manage surrogate approver rules.
Navigation to the Surrogate Approver tab:
Approvals Management Business Analyst responsibility > Business Analyst Dashboard > Transaction Types > click Setup for a transaction type > Surrogate Approver tab. The Surrogate Approver Rules page appears.
This page displays active surrogate rules for the selected transaction type. You can search for a rule using the name of the rule or the start date of the rule. For each rule, you can view or update as required. This page provides a Create Rule button to create surrogate approver rules.
Use this page to create rules for surrogate approvers. See Creating a Surrogate Approver Rule.
Use this page to update existing rules for surrogate approvers. For a rule on the Surrogate Approver Rules page, click the Update icon to navigate to the Update Surrogate Approver Rules page.
See Updating a Surrogate Approver Rule.
You can click the View icon on the Surrogate Approver Rules page to navigate to the Rule Summary page. This page displays the rule details such as name, rule type, effective from, effective to, approver type, approver, and dynamic procedure. The page also displays the conditions associated with the rule.
See Overview of Oracle Approvals Management.
For a transaction type, use the Timeout Configuration page to set a specific timeout duration at each approver level for up to 20 levels of approvers.
In conjunction with the Surrogate Approver feature, you can define rules to designate surrogate or alternate approvers and designate a surrogate approver to process notifications. See Surrogate Approver Overview.
Important: The Timeout Duration feature is designed for HRSSA transactions of EBS HCM only. The function parameter "pTimeoutRule", delivered for this feature is used only in HRSSA. To use this feature in any other product, you must modify the product's corresponding transaction type Workflow WFT, write, and implement the logic accordingly.
Navigation to the Timeout Duration tab
Approvals Management Business Analyst responsibility > Business Analyst Dashboard > Transaction Types > click Setup for a transaction type > Timeout Duration tab
Use the Timeout Configuration page to configure the timeout interval for approval of transactions. You can define up to 20 approver levels. The default timeout duration must be a valid value in minutes. If the timeout duration at any approver level is zero (0) minutes, then the default timeout will be applicable.
Initially, the default configuration has the Default value as 525600 (1 year in minutes). All other levels will have zero (0), which indicates that the default value will be considered for these levels.
The following validation rules apply:
Timeout value cannot be zero (0) or negative for Default.
Timeout value cannot be negative or in decimals for approver levels 1-20.
See Surrogate Approver Overview and Timeout Duration.
Use the Create Surrogate Approver Rules page to create a surrogate approver rule by entering details such as rule name, effective from and to dates, selecting the rule type, and specifying conditions. You can navigate to this page from the Surrogate Approver tab, Surrogate Approver Rules page.
Creating a Surrogate Approver Rule
Use the Create Surrogate Approver Rules page to enter the following information for a surrogate approver rule.
Enter a rule name.
Specify the effective from and to dates.
For a rule type, the following options are available:
Static: If you select this option, then the Approver Type and Approver fields are enabled. In the Approver Type field, select from the following options:
HR People: HR employees with FND User
FND Users: Oracle Applications users
HR Positions: HR positions in the HR position hierarchy
Then, select the approver. AME identifies the above entities as the surrogate approver to route business transactions for approval on timeout.
Dynamic: If you select Dynamic, then the text field "Dynamic Procedure" is displayed. Enter custom package.procedure that contains the logic to get the surrogate approver. See Implementing Surrogate Approver and Timeout Duration for information about creating custom package procedure.
In the Conditions Filter region, search for the conditions that you want to add based on the attribute. The search results display a list of conditions that are defined for the entered attribute for that AME transaction type. Add the required conditions and click Next.
Use the Surrogate Rules Review page review the details of the new rule. After your review is complete, click Submit to create the rule.
Updating a Surrogate Approver Rule
To update a surrogate approver rule, you can navigate to the Update Surrogate Approver Rules page from the Update icon on the Surrogate Approver Rules page.
Use the Update Surrogate Approver Rules page to update an existing rule's Effective To and Rule Type fields. You can update the Rule Type. Based on the Rule Type, for a Static rule type, you can update the Approver Type and the Approver. For the Dynamic rule type, you can update the Dynamic Procedure. Existing conditions can be removed, and new conditions can be added.