Switch From the Approval Routing Feature to Suiteflow for Expenses
If you already use the Approval Routing feature for expense reports, consider the following before you enable the preference to use SuiteFlow.
When the Expense Reports preference is enabled for approval routing, basic functions of the Approval Routing feature are immediately disabled for expense reports.
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Email notifications are no longer automatically sent when expense reports are awaiting an approval, are approved, or are rejected. To send such email, you must incorporate these steps into the approval workflow that you create.
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Expense transactions do not automatically show Approve and Reject buttons to process forms for approval in Employee Center. To show buttons on forms, you must incorporate them into the approval workflow that you create.
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There is no longer Supervisor or Approver hierarchy-based approval routing.
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The Supervisor Approval and Accounting Approval boxes no longer show in non-Employee Center roles.
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Expense reports that are unapproved or partially approved revert to a status of Pending Approval. You must use the Initiate Workflow Mass Update to start over in approval workflow
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You can later disable the preference and go back to using the Approval Routing feature.
To replace these former functions, you must incorporate them into an approval routing workflow you create. Now, you use SuiteFlow to process approvals for expense reports instead of the previous method associated with the Approval Routing feature.
Before you enable the preference, first set up your approval routing workflow. Then, set the workflow to Released when you enable the preference.
For details about setting up approval workflows, see Creating Your First Workflow.
After you enable the preference, the following changes take place in your account with regard to expense report approvals:
Initiate Workflow Mass Update
Expense reports existing in your account prior to using SuiteFlow that are unapproved or are partially approved will have their status set to Pending Approval. They must then be processed using workflow-based approval from the beginning.
In other words, approval steps you entered previously may need to be re-entered using SuiteFlow. You must run an Initiate Workflow mass update after you have set up your workflow.
When you run the mass update, note the following. Existing transactions that require additional approval steps are incorporated into the workflow at the appropriate stages, and are ready for remaining processing within the workflow.
For more information, see Mass Initiating Workflow Instances.
Approval Status Field
When you use SuiteFlow for expense report approvals, the forms now include an Approval Status field. The Approval Status field reflects the state of the transaction in the approval process.
Expense reports may have one of the following statuses:
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Pending Approval – The expense is in the approval queue.
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Approved – The expense has been given approval for processing.
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Rejected – The expense has not been approved and will not be processed.
Existing expense reports show the following in the new Approval Status field based on the transaction status:
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Previous Status |
New Status |
|---|---|
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Pending Supervisor Approval |
Pending Approval |
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Pending Receipt |
Approved |
|
Partially Received |
Approved |
|
Pending Bill |
Approved |
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Pending Billing/Partially Received |
Approved |
|
Fully Billed |
Approved |
|
Closed |
Approved |
|
Rejected by Supervisor |
Rejected |
Next Approver Field
When you use SuiteFlow for expense approvals, expense reports include a Next Approver field. This field is populated based on the associated workflow.
For example, in your workflow you may create a state of Pending Approval. In that state you create a formula to set the Next Approver as the employee's supervisor.