Using the Requester's Workbench

This section discusses how to use the Requester’s Workbench

Page Name

Definition Name

Usage

Requester's Workbench - Filter Options Page

REQ_RC_WB_SRCH

Search for requisitions.

Requester's Workbench Page

REQ_RC_WB

Use the Requester's Workbench to analyze, approve, disapprove, cancel, and close requisitions.

Requisitions Page

REQ_INQ_LOOKUP

View the information associated with the requisition.

Requester's Workbench Page

REQ DOC Status Page

PRCR_DOCSTAT_INQ

View the requisition document status inquiry.

Requester's Workbench Page

Requester's Workbench - Requisition Lines Page

REQ_RC_WB_LN

View requisition lines that are associated with the selected requisition.

Requester's Workbench - Requisition Schedules Page

REQ_RC_WB_SCHD

View requisition schedules that are associated with the selected requisition.

Requester's Workbench - Requisition Distributions Page

REQ_RC_WB_DISTRIB

View the distribution associated with the selected requisition.

Requester's Workbench Page

Requester's Workbench - Processing Results Page

REQ_RC_WB_RSLT

View processing results returned when you take an action on selected requisitions.

Requester's Workbench - Processing Log Page

REQ_RC_WB_MSG

View the message text stating why a requisition was not qualified for processing.

Requester's Workbench - Processing Results Page

Use the Requester's Workbench - Filter Options page (REQ_RC_WB_SRCH) to search for requisitions

Navigation:

Purchasing > Requisitions > Requester's Workbench > Requester's Workbench - Filter Options

This example illustrates the fields and controls on the Requester's Workbench - Filter Options Page. You can find definitions for the fields and controls later on this page.

Requesters Workbench - Filter Options Page

This example illustrates the fields and controls on the Requester's Workbench - Filter Options page (2 of 2). You can find definitions for the fields and controls later on this page.

'Requester's Workbench - Filter Options page (2 of 2)

You use this page to define the criteria that you want to use to retrieve requisitions. To save time and resources, consider entering selection criteria to reduce the number of records retrieved. This strategy is especially useful in a high-volume environment. In addition, keep in mind that the workbench can be saved, and the saved criteria is reusable.

Search Criteria

You can search for a specific requisition or use additional fields in this section to limit requisition filter values to a specific item or range of dates.

Field or Control

Description

Requester

Select the requester who created the requisitions. After you select the requester and if the requester uses procurement cards, the Card Number field becomes available.

Card Number

Select the procurement card number associated with the requisitions.

Status

Select the check boxes that correspond to status’ that you want the system to retrieve during the search. The check boxes limit the number of retrieved requisitions to only those you select. If you do not select a status, the system retrieve requisitions in all statuses that also meet other search criteria that you enter

Field or Control

Description

Pending Appr

Select this check box to select requisitions that are in a status of pending approved. You can cancel requisitions that are in a pending approved status.

When you select the Pending Appr checkbox an additional field becomes visible, which allows filtering of Requisitions based on number of days a requisition is pending for Approval. On entering value for this field, requisition’s which have been pending for approval with an Approver greater than the number of days entered is selected when you click the Search button.

Note: The Pending Approval checkbox and No of day’s field will be made available if AWE is enabled in Business unit option for the BU and the no of days field will be available when AWE is enabled and the Pending approval is checked. When Accessibility mode is enabled, the no of days will be always be available irrespective of the pending approval selection.

Sourcing

Field or Control

Description

Partially or Fully Sourced

Select this check box to view requisitions for which one or more lines on a requisition have been sourced to a purchase order.

Encumbrance

Field or Control

Description

Open Pre-encumbrances

If you are using commitment control, the Open Pre-encumbrances check box appears as a search parameter. This check box enables you to search for requisitions that are tied to purchase orders with an open balance.

When you use commitment control, the system deducts each type of financial obligation from the budget and tracks it according to obligation type. When you generate a requisition, a pre-encumbrance is created in your budget records by the budget-checking process. When a requisition is sourced to a purchase order, commitment control liquidates the pre-encumbrance from the requisition and establishes an encumbrance for the purchase order.

ChartFields

You can enter multiple ChartField combinations as search criteria. For example, you can search for requisitions in GL Unit US001 and Account 50000, as well as US005 and Account 1200.

Click Search to retrieve the selected information and have it appear on the Requester's Workbench page.

Use the Requester's Workbench page (REQ_RC_WB) to use the Requester's Workbench to analyze, approve, unapprove, cancel, and close requisitions.

Navigation:

Click the Search button on the Requester's Workbench - Filter Options page.

This example illustrates the fields and controls on the Requester's Workbench page. You can find definitions for the fields and controls later on this page.

Requesters Workbench page

You use the Requester's Workbench to maintain requisitions that were returned using the search criteria that you entered. You can select a single or multiple requisitions to maintain. After selecting the requisition, click an action to start processing the requisitions. The system displays the Processing Results page, where you can select to proceed with the action.

Field or Control

Description

Description

Enter a description for the workbench. The first time in the workbench, you must enter a description before you can save the workbench.

Requisition ID

Click a linked requisition ID to access the corresponding Requisitions inquiry page.

Doc Status

Click the Doc Status icon for the selected requisition to access the Requisition Document Status inquiry page for the requisition.

Change Order

Displays the change order batch number. Change order numbers identify the batches of changes that you make to a requisition. Select the Y value to access the Change History - Batch page. Using this page, you can view the change request or change order history for the requisition.

Lines button

Click the Lines icon for the selected requisition to access the Requester's Workbench - Requisition Lines page.

Click one of the following buttons to perform actions on the requisitions that you have selected for processing:

Field or Control

Description

Approve

Click to change the status of the selected requisitions to Approved.

Unapprove

Click to change the status of the selected requisitions to Open.

Cancel

Click to cancel the selected requisitions and all lines.

Note: When canceling requisitions, the system does not create change orders. If change order tracking is required for canceled requisitions, you must cancel requisitions individually through the Add/Update Requisitions component.

Field or Control

Description

Close

Click to close the selected requisitions from further processing. To override requisitions that are not qualified and make them available for closing, select the requisition IDs and click the Override button.

To give a user the authority to override nonqualified requisitions, click the Override Non-Qualified Requisitions for Close check box on the User Preferences - Procurement: Requisition Authorizations page.

Requisitions that are associated with purchase orders that have not yet been closed will not be qualified for override. If you are using commitment control, you will not be able to close requisitions that are associated to purchase orders unless the purchase orders are closed and have been successfully budget checked.

See User Preferences – Requisition Authorizations Page.

Save

Click to save the selected requisitions.

Field or Control

Description

Budget Check

Click to initiate the Commitment Control Budget Processor process for the selected requisitions. This button is available if commitment control is enabled for PeopleSoft Purchasing. When you click the Budget Check button, the Processing Results page appears, where you can review the selected requisitions and select to proceed with processing for the requisitions.

Field or Control

Description

Budget Pre-Check

Click to check the budget only. This button enables you to check whether a budget exists for a requisition before the amount is committed to the pre-encumbrance or encumbrance and makes it possible to validate documents in work-in-progress mode without affecting budget balances. When performing budget pre-check only processing, the Budget Processor performs all of its budget checking and edits but does so without committing changes to the ledger or other records. The statuses of Provisionally Valid and Error on the transaction pages indicate whether a budget is available. If you click the button and if the budget check is valid, then the system sets the budget header status for the requisition to Prov Valid. If the budget check is not valid, then the system sets the budget header status to Error with a link to the Exception page.

The button is visible only if the Purchasing check box is selected in the Enable Commitment Control section on the Installation Options - Products page and the Purchasing check box is selected in the Enable Budget Pre-check section on the Installation Options - Commitment Control page. The button is not visible if the budget status is Valid.

Field or Control

Description

Set filter options

Click this link to access the Requester's Workbench - Filter Options page, where you can enter selection criteria for a new subset of requisitions to review, modify, or act upon.

View Processing Results

Click this link to access the Requester's Workbench - Processing Results page, where you can view the results of the actions that you have performed.

Approval

Select the Approval tab.

Field or Control

Description

Requisition Status

Displays a Related action drop down for pending requisitions. The drop down will have the following values:

  • Send Reminder – Select to send reminders to all the Approvers with whom the Requisition is pending. Reminders will be sent in the form of email, worklist or both, depending on the set up in transaction configuration. This action displays when the Can Send Approval Reminder checkbox is selected in the User preference and the requisition status is Pending.

    Note: The Send Reminder option in the drop down is available when using PeopleTools 8.54. Select lines and click on the button Send Approval Reminder when drop down option is unavailable.

  • View Approval — Displays requisitions and approval workflow information. If the requisition is pending at line level, List of Lines Pending will also be shown in addition to Approver information. The user can select lines for which he wants to send reminder and click Send Approval Reminder in the Requisitions List page. This action displays when Approval Framework is enabled for the business unit and the requisition status is Pending or Approved.

No of Days Pending

Displays the number of days the Requisition has been pending with the current Approver. When the approval is pending at header level, the number of days pending will display. When multiple lines are pending approval and each line has the same number of days pending, the No of Days Pending will show the value. If any of the lines have a different number of days pending, (Multiple Values) will display.

Line 1 (Pending days)

Line 2 (Pending days)

Line 3 (Pending days)

No of days displayed in Req grid

4

4

4

4

3

10

14

(Multiple Values)

0

0

0

0

Field or Control

Description

Last Notified on

Displays when the last notification was issued to the user. In case of escalations the latest notified date time will be displayed either through NEM or through Requester’s workbench, whichever is recent.

If the last notified date is available, it will be displayed if Approvals are pending at the Header level. If notified date is not available, the field remains blank. In case if approval is pending at the Line level and last notified dates are not same, it will be displayed as (Multiple values). This field will be blank if no notification is sent for the lines.

Use the Requester's Workbench - Requisition Lines page (REQ_RC_WB_LN) to view requisition lines that are associated with the selected requisition.

Navigation:

Click the Lines button for a requisition on the Requester's Workbench page.

Use this page to select or clear requisition lines. You can also select Select All or Clear All to make updates. Click Return to Requester's Workbench to include the selected requisition lines in further processing.

This example illustrates the fields and controls on the Requester's Workbench - Requisition Lines page. You can find definitions for the fields and controls later on this page.

Requesters Workbench - Requisition Lines Page

List of Requisition Lines

Field or Control

Description

Line

Click the Line Number link to access the schedule for the line.

When the approval is pending at the line level, the user will have to select from the List of Requisition Lines, and then click Send Approval Reminder in Requester's Workbench page to send reminder approvals.

You can select or clear Requisition lines, and then select the Return to Requester's Workbench link to select requisition for further processing.

Use the Requester's Workbench - Requisition Schedules page (REQ_RC_WB_SCHD) to view requisition schedules that are associated with the selected requisition.

Navigation:

Click a Line number link on the Requester's Workbench - Lines page.

Field or Control

Description

Sched Num (schedule number)

Click a schedule line number to access the associated distribution.

Use the Requester's Workbench - Processing Results page (REQ_RC_WB_RSLT) to view processing results returned when you take an action on selected requisitions.

Navigation:

  • Click an Action button on the Requester's Workbench.

  • Click the View Processing Results link on the Requester's Workbench.

This example illustrates the fields and controls on the Requester's Workbench - Processing Results page. You can find definitions for the fields and controls later on this page.

'Requester's Workbench - Processing Results page

The system reviews the documents for the action taken on the Requester's Workbench page and determines whether the requisitions are qualified for that action.

Field or Control

Description

Override

When you close the requisition, click the Override button to move not qualified requisitions in the Not Qualified group box to be qualified for the action in the Qualified group box.

When closing the requisition, the system displays this button, which you can click to override the edits on selected lines that are not qualified if you have the authority to do so. This makes the lines available for closing and moves the lines to the qualified side.

To give a user authority to override nonqualified requisitions, click the Override Non-Qualified Requisitions for Close check box on the User Preferences - Procurement: Requisition Authorizations page.

Note: This button will only be available if the user has the authority to override nonqualified purchase orders for close.

See User Preferences – Requisition Authorizations Page.

Accounting Date for Action and Update Budget Date Equal to Accounting Date

Displays the accounting date for action, which is used to determine the open period or allowable open date range for budget checking a requisition when you are using commitment control. The system updates the accounting dates with this date for the requisitions being closed or canceled by using the Requester's Workbench.

Log button

Click the Log icon to access the Requester's Workbench - Processing Log page. This page is a log for the selected nonqualified requisition that states why the requisition was not qualified for the previous processing action.

Yes

Click this button to proceed with the processing of the qualified requisitions. The system prompts you to confirm this selection.

Delete

Click this button to cancel the processing.