Workflow in PeopleSoft Supplier Contract Management

Workflow is the process of routing clauses or documents for approval or collaboration. During the process, a set of approvers and reviewers carry out tasks that are related to a document or clause.

The PeopleSoft Supplier Contract Management application uses two workflow types and user preferences for processing different approval and review phases of a document and its components. The use of workflow is controlled using installation options. One type of workflow is the standard workflow feature that is common to many PeopleSoft applications. The system uses this standard workflow feature for collaboration. Collaboration provides basic simultaneous workflow notifications when collaboration is initiated by an administrator, as well as notifications back to the administrator when collaboration is complete. Collaboration workflow is best used when you route the document to various individuals during contract document development. Digital signatures can also take advantage of this standard workflow notification to capture sequential internal signatures of documents before or after they are signed as part of a formal approval framework process.

See the product documentation for PeopleTools: Workflow Technology

The second type of workflow is PeopleSoft Approval Framework. The approval framework requires the setup of an approval workflow process. The approval framework process is the framework that enables three levels of users, from technical to end users, to develop and configure approvals that meet their organizational requirements. You can use approval framework to approve new clauses in the library, and for final approval routing of the contract document that can also include signatures. Normally, this is a rubber-stamp type approval, because the collaboration feature is better used to develop the contract. For example, the process of creating a new clause in the library and approving it requires defining who should approve the clause, the order in which that person approves it, and how it is routed to approvers. When the approval process is complete, the clause is available for use in a document.

Approval framework also provides a way to dynamically define authorized approvers for an approval workflow process of the contract document. A sample approval process definition called Document is provided as an example of how you can set up the document approval to do a final content clause approval, business approval for commodity and fiscal review, and a final owner approval. The example approval is set up for transactional purchase order contract-related documents; however, approval framework setup enables you to configure the approval for document approval definition by specifying record and field criteria to evaluate.

Collaboration is a contract process that you use with standard PeopleSoft workflow. During collaboration, you review and negotiate the terms of a clause, contract, or ad hoc document. You use the standard PeopleSoft workflow to finalize the document. After collaboration, you can use the PeopleSoft Approval Framework process to gain approval for the contract or ad hoc document.

This table provides an overview of how workflow is used in Supplier Contract Management, along with how various elements are approved:

Formal Approvals (Approval Framework)	Collaboration (PeopleSoft Standard Workflow Notifications)	Signature Routings	User Preferences and Authorizations Related to Approvals
You can enable the following approvals as installation options. If enabled, and after the approval process is complete and the last person in the approval instance approves, the clause or document is marked as Approved. Clause approvals. Document approvals.	Use with collaboration on contract or ad hoc documents. Collaboration is optional and if is enabled, you complete it prior to any formal approval processing. You can collaborate multiple times on a document. The system provides an initial default list of collaborators based on the users defined in the My Collaborators/View Access component (CS_OPR_PREFERENCE). You can add ad hoc collaborators throughout the process. You can also repeat the collaboration process. When routing a document for internal collaboration, the document link is sent to all collaborators at the same time so that the first user available can edit or review the document change. If you are using the supplier portal to route documents for external collaboration, the document is routed for edit access only to the primary document owner defined on the external contacts for the document. Other external users can have view access to the document, but for a given collaboration round the primary external document owner must manually route and return any consolidated changes through the portal.	When you are using digital signatures, you can use a workflow similar to collaboration's to route the prepared document internally. Depending on the setup, you can select to capture internal signatures before, during, or after workflow approvals if they are in use. The signature routing for internal signatures is different from collaboration in that the prepared signature document is always routed to individual users sequentially based on the sign order that you define for the document. If signatures are missing on the document you can route the document again for signatures, or, as an administrator, capture the signature offline and upload a new signed document on behalf of a signer. You can obtain external signatures using the Send to Contacts or Dispatch features. If the supply-side portal is enabled for signatures there is an option to capture digital signatures online as part of the Send to Contacts or Dispatch features. Use the Send to Contacts feature to obtain signatures if you need them before routing for signatures internally.	The Bypass Approval check box on the User Preferences page for Supplier Contract Management is a power-user type feature that enables an administrator to bypass and expedite the workflow approval and to manually set the status of a document to Approved. This is normally an exception. Users who are enabled to change the status (not workflow controlled) of sections and document configurators can manually mark them as Approved. You use a combination of a configurable approval authority that is defined using user preferences and an Approval check box on the definition page for process section and template approvals. The definitions are approved only once by an authorized user. When using digital signature capability, you can also capture electronic signatures during the approval process. See Understanding Digital Signatures. When doing so approval users listed as signers also have the capability to sign a prepared document during the time they review or approve the step. Depending on how you configure approval framework, you can select to drive the approval process based on the signature list itself, or not. But, if not, then each signer must still be listed in the internal signer list to be enabled to sign the document during that user's approval step.

Formal Approvals (Approval Framework)

Collaboration (PeopleSoft Standard Workflow Notifications)

Signature Routings

User Preferences and Authorizations Related to Approvals

You can enable the following approvals as installation options. If enabled, and after the approval process is complete and the last person in the approval instance approves, the clause or document is marked as Approved.

Clause approvals.
Document approvals.

Use with collaboration on contract or ad hoc documents. Collaboration is optional and if is enabled, you complete it prior to any formal approval processing. You can collaborate multiple times on a document.

The system provides an initial default list of collaborators based on the users defined in the My Collaborators/View Access component (CS_OPR_PREFERENCE). You can add ad hoc collaborators throughout the process. You can also repeat the collaboration process. When routing a document for internal collaboration, the document link is sent to all collaborators at the same time so that the first user available can edit or review the document change.

If you are using the supplier portal to route documents for external collaboration, the document is routed for edit access only to the primary document owner defined on the external contacts for the document. Other external users can have view access to the document, but for a given collaboration round the primary external document owner must manually route and return any consolidated changes through the portal.

When you are using digital signatures, you can use a workflow similar to collaboration's to route the prepared document internally. Depending on the setup, you can select to capture internal signatures before, during, or after workflow approvals if they are in use.

The signature routing for internal signatures is different from collaboration in that the prepared signature document is always routed to individual users sequentially based on the sign order that you define for the document.

If signatures are missing on the document you can route the document again for signatures, or, as an administrator, capture the signature offline and upload a new signed document on behalf of a signer.

You can obtain external signatures using the Send to Contacts or Dispatch features. If the supply-side portal is enabled for signatures there is an option to capture digital signatures online as part of the Send to Contacts or Dispatch features. Use the Send to Contacts feature to obtain signatures if you need them before routing for signatures internally.

The Bypass Approval check box on the User Preferences page for Supplier Contract Management is a power-user type feature that enables an administrator to bypass and expedite the workflow approval and to manually set the status of a document to Approved. This is normally an exception.

Users who are enabled to change the status (not workflow controlled) of sections and document configurators can manually mark them as Approved.

You use a combination of a configurable approval authority that is defined using user preferences and an Approval check box on the definition page for process section and template approvals.

The definitions are approved only once by an authorized user.

When using digital signature capability, you can also capture electronic signatures during the approval process.

See Understanding Digital Signatures.

When doing so approval users listed as signers also have the capability to sign a prepared document during the time they review or approve the step. Depending on how you configure approval framework, you can select to drive the approval process based on the signature list itself, or not. But, if not, then each signer must still be listed in the internal signer list to be enabled to sign the document during that user's approval step.