Setup Steps for PeopleSoft Approval Framework

Before you can send documents for review:

1. Define approvers for use with clause and document approvals.

   To define approvers:

   • Define roles and permission lists.

     Permission lists provide security authorizations for users. Roles are intermediate objects that exist between permission lists and user profiles.

     See Understanding Supplier Contract Sample Permission Lists, Roles, and Users.

   • Assign users to roles.

     After users have assigned user IDs, you can assign the user IDs to the PeopleSoft Supplier Contract Management roles for approvals.

   • Create approval types, assign approving roles to them, and define clause update authorities.

     The system uses the approving role name to determine the group of users that it uses in the approval cycle for a clause or document. To access the page, select Supplier Contracts, and then Supplier Contracts Setup, and then Clause Approval Types

     The system provides the CLASS01 clause class and the HIGHRISK, MEDRISK, and LOWRISK sample clause approval types. These approval types represent levels of risk to the organization and place an importance on the approval of the clause or document. You can use this sample data as a starting point for developing approval types and clause classes.

   • Set installation options for supplier contracts to require approvals for clauses and documents.

     To access the options, select Supplier Contracts, and then Supplier Contracts Setup, and then Installation Options. If clauses and documents do not require approvals, the system doesn't launch an approval process when you create the clause or document.

2. Define user preferences that control authorizations for document administrators. These are users who can create and submit documents.

   To access the authorizations, select Supplier Contracts, and then Supplier Contracts Setup, and then User Preferences.

3. Define user lists for use with steps in the contract approval process.

   User lists define how the system determines sources for routing clause and internal document approvals. Options include roles, structured query language definitions, queries, and application classes. System-supplied data includes sample user lists, such as SupplierContractSign1 that enable you to define the approval process for digital signatures using a document's user list.

4. Define how the system notifies approvers during the approval process.

   You use the Generic Template Definition page to setup notifications for each type of notification the system needs to send to administrators and approvers.

5. Set up the transaction registry.

   The approval transaction registry is the interface application developers use to register an application with PeopleSoft Approval Framework.

6. Set up the approval process definitions.

   The approval process definition determines the routing of the clause or document approval. The two definitions required are Document for document approval and Clause for clause approvals. The flow includes setting up approval framework for:

   • Stages.

     This is a part of an approval transaction that can contain multiple paths but must be at the same record level.

   • Paths.

     A path is a sequence of steps. Within a stage, paths execute in parallel, with each path inheriting its header or line-level from the stage.

   • Steps.

     A step represents one or more approvers or reviewers. The system processes steps in a path in sequence as separate criteria for each step determines whether or not that step is processed.

   • Criteria.

     You can define field criteria along with monetary and application class criteria using most records and fields in the database. The system uses this criteria for paths and steps and for self approvals.

7. Authorize approvers.

   This step defines approvers and their approval authorization criteria for use in an approval process.

8. Set up events and escalations.

   Create a notification event and specify the conditions for which the event should check and the actions that the system should take when the notification conditions are met. You can also define rules for sending notifications, such as when a clause or document approval has gone beyond the time defined for responses.

9. Manage the approval through its life cycle.

   After you set up approval framework and generate clauses or documents, the system uses the setup information to process documents. This is when approvers and reviewers perform approval tasks that apply the setup features you defined.

   For additional information about approving document, see Understanding Document Approvals.