Understanding Line Level Approval

Line level approval enables approved time lines to flow to Project Costing when other time lines, for the same time report, are not approved.

Report level approval requires that all lines (of a time report) are approved prior to sending each time line to Project Costing. Using report level approval means that time lines for one project manager can be delayed because other project managers have not approved their time lines in a timely manner.

Using line level approvals for time reports allows individual time lines, which have been approved, to be processes to Project Costing faster. To enable this feature the Timesheet Line is Approved radio button is selected on the Business Unit 2 page (Set Up Financials/Supply Chain, Business Unit Related, Expense, Expenses Definition, Business Unit 2).

When using line level approval for time reports, an employee creates a time report that includes multiple lines for multiple projects. The time report lines are distributed to the approval manager of each project, and the approval managers can individually approve the time lines belonging to their projects. After a time line is approved, that line can be sent to Project Costing, while other time lines are waiting to be approved. This eliminates the process of holding the entire time report from proceeding to Project Costing while waiting for all approval managers to approve their individual time lines.

For example, an employee works on more than one project within a time report and enters multiple lines on their time report. Each line has a different project ID and each project is managed by a different project manager. Each project manager must approve the time report line for the projects for which they are responsible.

Keep these points in mind:

• If a line on a time report is approved, then that line is available to the system, to send to Project Costing.

• If there are three lines on a time report, one line is sent back and the other two are approved, and the employee corrects the line and resubmits the time report for approval. The system does not require the other two project managers to re-approve the other two lines, as long as no changes occurred to the lines for which they were responsible. Only the project manager for which the line was sent back needs to approve the corrections.

  Note:

  This scenario applies to expense reports, travel authorizations, and time reports.

• If a line on a time report has been approved or sent to Project Costing, then the line is not available for the employee to change.

Example

This is a step-by-step example of the approval workflow for a time report that has multiple project lines, when line-level approval is enabled for the business unit:

1. Time reports are approved by an HR Supervisor first, then Project Managers.

2. An employee submits a time report that has two lines, which are for project A and project B.

3. The HR Supervisor approves the time report.

4. The Project Manager approves the time line for project A.

   This line is eligible to send to Project costing.

5. The Project Manager sends the time line for project B back for revision.

6. The employee corrects the line for project B and resubmits it.

7. The time report is routed to the HR Supervisor again, who approves the time report.

8. The time report is not routed to the Project Manager for project A because they have already approved it and no changes were made to this time line.

9. The time report is routed to the Project Manager for project B, who approves the time report line.

Project Manager Self Approval

If a project manager adds time to their own time report and the Self Approval check box is selected on the Approval Step Definition page (Enterprise Components, Approvals, Approvals, Approval Process Setup. In the Steps section, click the Details icon), then the system automatically changes the status of the time report to approved.