Understanding Dynamic Approval Authorizations

PeopleSoft applications can define Approval Framework paths to be either static or dynamic. Static path approvals define every approval in step-by-step fashion. Dynamic approvals enable you to create a single step that systematically identifies every potential approver, searches to find out if that approver has enough authority to complete the approval, and creates a visual path for users to view of all necessary approvers in the process. You can configure a dynamic path allowing supervisor roles to approve or deny a transaction, and stop the approval path when the system has determined that all criteria has been satisfied. The administrator creates a user list that the system uses to select the appropriate supervisory approvers for a transaction and then checks for authorization. The dynamic path takes the prior approver into consideration.

To configure the dynamic approval authorization, the administrator must:

• Define user lists.

• Create an approver authorization.

• Define a dynamic approval path.

Two keys to creating approval authorizations for dynamic paths are the system’s ability to:

• Check authorizations.

• Skip unauthorized users.

The system looks at the user list and the approval authorization to determine which users are required to complete the authorization. The system displays the non-required users as a skipped step instead of a pending step in the event that Skip Unauthorized is selected.

This diagram illustrates an example of a workflow routing setup for the standard method and a workflow routing that skips unauthorized users:

In the example, the criteria for the workflow approval path is set up for Chris Baker to have approval authority for less than 1,000.00 USD, Patrick Sanchez to have authority for less than 5,000.00 USD, VP to have approval for less than 25,000.00 USD, and CEO to have approval for a requisition equal to or more than 25,000.00 USD.

Kelly Jones creates a requisition for 10,000.00 USD.

If the system is not set up to skip unauthorized users, the system displays Chris Baker, Patrick Sanchez, and the VP as pending steps in the approval path.

If the system is set up to skip unauthorized users, the system displays the approval path with the VP as the only listed approver, and will display Chris Baker and Patrick Sanchez as skipped.