Assigning Approval Groups to an Approval Unit Hierarchy

You can assign existing approval groups to the hierarchy and set their order on the Assign Approval Groups tab. You can also create approval groups from the Assign Approval Groups tab if no approval groups exist.

You can assign up to 20 approval groups to an approval unit hierarchy.

Note:

The options described in this topic are for assigning approval groups to an approval unit hierarchy. For complete details about all of the options on the Approvals Dimension tab including options for defining primary and secondary dimension members, see Setting Approval Unit Hierarchy Name, Scope, and Template.

To assign approval groups to an approval unit hierarchy:

1. Create an approval unit hierarchy. See Creating Approval Unit Hierarchies.
2. Click the Navigator icon , and then under Workflow, click Approval Unit.
3. Complete the Approvals Dimension tab details:

   • For Extended Approval Flow, select Approval Group.

   • To apply the Approval Group option to all levels in the approval unit hierarchy, select Extended Approval Flow Apply at All Levels.

   • To require the approval workflow to be submitted in phases based on the order of entries you define on the Assign Approval Groups tab, select Phase Dependency.

     Phase dependency means the first entry in the list on the Assign Approval Groups tab must be promoted before the second entry. Note that both entries can be at the same level, but the second entry cannot be promoted before the first entry. Hence the order of the entries is important. You can rearrange the order using the up and down arrows. See step 4.

4. Assign approval groups to the hierarchy and set their order on the Assign Approval Groups tab:
   1. Create approval groups or select existing approval groups:

      • To create an approval group, click , and then see Defining Approval Groups.

      • To select an existing approval group, click , and then either select the approval groups you want to add, or click All.

   2. To reorder the approval groups in the list, select a group and click or . If the Phase Dependency option was selected on the previous tab, you must arrange the groups in the order you want to promote them.
5. Select approval unit hierarchy members on the Select Primary Members tab. See Selecting Approval Unit Hierarchy Members.
6. Assign approval unit ownership on the Assign Owners tab. See Assigning Approval Unit Owners and Reviewers.

   Note:

   On the Assign Owners tab, the approval groups that are selected will display next to the Entity name; for example, Sales East: Revenue Accounts (where Sales East is the Entity and Revenue Accounts is the name of the approval group that was created).

7. Assign approval unit hierarchies to the scenario and version combinations included in the budget process. See Assigning Approval Unit Hierarchy Scenario and Version Combinations.

Note:

If you've entered information in the Assign Approval Groups tab and then you change the Extended Approval Flow option to something other than the Approval Group option, the Assign Approval Groups tab will be hidden. However, the system won't discard the information that was entered until you click Save or Cancel.

For example, if you add Group A, Group B, and Group C information to the Assign Approval Groups tab, and then change the Extended Approval Flow option from Approval Group to None, if you click Save or Cancel, the system will discard the approval group information.

However, if you change the Extended Approval Flow option from Approval Group to None and then subsequently select Approval Group again before saving, then the information that was entered in the Assign Approval Groups tab is retained so that you need not start all over again. Clicking Save or Cancel discards any information that is not applicable.