SuiteApprovals Approval Workflow States

When SuiteApprovals is set up, the workflow for routing approvals of supported record types runs in your system.

Approval validation starts when a record is created or resubmitted through the NetSuite user interface.

Note:

Transaction records created through the following methods are not routed for approval:

• CSV import

• Script

• Web service

• RESTlet

The record goes through the following states depending on the result of amount validation, approver validation, or approver actions:

• Entry

• Pending Approval

• Approved

• Rejected

• Resubmitted

• Cancelled

Entry

The record goes through the Entry state upon creation or resubmission. If there is no active rule found for the record, the record exits the SuiteApprovals workflow. If an active rule is found, the SuiteApprovals workflow is initiated.

Pending Approval

Records that require initial or further approval are routed to the Pending Approval state. The following approvers receive an email notification about the record for review and action:

• Current or next approver

• Delegate approver (if any)

Only the current approver can approve or reject the record. The Approve or Reject buttons on the record are only enabled for the current approver.

Only rejected records can be edited. For more information, see the Rejected section in the SuiteApprovals Approval Workflow States help topic. To resubmit a record, see Resubmitting Records for Approval.

Approved

SuiteApprovals sets the record types to the Approved state depending on the approval rules and the following conditions:

Note:

You can also refer to Automatic Approvals for additional conditions.

• The transaction amount is less than or equal to the Record Amount Limit specified in the approval rule.

• The transaction amount is less than or equal to the employee’s entry limit for the following transactions:

  • Journal Entry

  • Expense Report

  • Purchase Order

  • Sales Order

  • Vendor Bill

• The transaction is approved by the final supervisor (employee hierarchy) or record approver, Final Approver, or the approver with the required approval limit (when skip approval is used).

• The transaction is approved by all approvers (custom approval matrix).

• For engineering change orders (ECOs), the ECO record is approved by the final supervisor (employee hierarchy), or Final Approver.

• For requisitions, the record is approved for processing by the submitter’s supervisor, specified approver, or all approvers.

Note:

In approval rules that use custom approval matrix with the same employee listed as approver of two or more approver types, that approver’s higher approval limit applies. For example, Employee A is both Supervisor and Department Approver. Therefore, the record is routed back to the employee as Department Approver after approving as Supervisor.

Rejected

Disapproved records are routed to the Rejected state. The submitter is notified through email and the Approval Status on the record is changed to Rejected.

Depending on the approval rule running against record types, records are transferred to the Rejected state due to any of the following conditions:

• The employee who submits the journal entry, purchase order, vendor bill, or sales order is the first or next approver in the chain.

• For engineering change orders, the ECO record is rejected by the current approver based on the approval routing setting (employee hierarchy or approval matrix) or Final Approver.

• For requisitions, the record is rejected by the submitter’s supervisor or current approver.

• The employee supervisor is selected in the approval chain, but the employee or submitter has no supervisor on record.

• A department approver is selected in the approval chain but at least one of the following conditions is true:

  • There is no department approver set up or the specified department approver is inactive or has no login access.

  • No department is specified on the journal.

• No valid approver is available. For example, the approver type Role (Any) or Role (All) is selected in the approval chain but at least one of the following conditions is true:

  • The employee or employees with the selected role are inactive.

  • The employee who created the journal entry is the only employee with the selected role.

  • The selected role is inactive.

  • No employee with the selected role has access to the transaction.

• The approver type Group (Any) or Group (All) is selected in the approval chain, but the specified group has no valid members.

• Invalid members include the employee who created the journal entry and employees who are either Inactive, without login access, or from different subsidiaries.

• The transaction is rejected by the current approver, Journal Entry Approver, Final Approver, or the approver with the required approval limit (when Skip approval is used).

• No one in the approval hierarchy has sufficient approval limits to approve the transaction.

Resubmitted

Records iwith a Rejected status can be edited and resubmitted for approval.

The Resubmit button is enabled on the record in View mode. Any user with access to the record can edit and resubmit it for approval.

For more information, see Resubmitting Records for Approval.

Note:

For ECO records, refer to Resubmitting Engineering Change Orders for Approval.

Cancelled

Cancelled sales order records automatically exit the workflow.

Effects of Enabled Features on the Approval Workflow

The following effects can occur on the approval workflow when certain features are enabled:

• Enabling the Email Approval capability does not change approval validation through workflow stages. The SuiteApp, however, may use email approval log rules to add layers of validation for actions sent through email. The system allows gatekeeping of email replies by which an approver can review the email reply before implementing the approver action to the reference record. For more information, see Email Approvals.

• In the SuiteApprovals workflow and workflow action scripts, the Execute As Admin property is enabled, which allows it to execute with administrator role privileges. Currently, the SuiteApprovals workflow allows approvers without the Override Period Restriction permission to approve vendor bills and post them on locked periods because of the enabled property. For more information about this workflow property, see Execute As Admin.

  As a workaround for this known issue, you can set up a script that detects posting of approved vendor bills on locked period and automatically moves it to the next open accounting period. For more information, see Resolve Vendor Bills Posted on Locked Period.

Related Topics

SuiteApprovals SuiteApp

SuiteApprovals Terminology

Prerequisites for SuiteApprovals

Installing the SuiteApprovals SuiteApp

Setting Up SuiteApprovals

Defining Approval Rules

SuiteApprovals Portlets

Tracking Email Notifications for SuiteApprovals

Automatic Approvals

Project-Based Approvals

Managing Approvals with SuiteApprovals

Email Approvals

General Notices