Approval Workflow Process

When a submitter adds, edits or deletes a business object (for example, an account) that belongs to an approval workflow group, the system checks whether approval workflow is activated for the approval workflow group. If the approval workflow is activated for the group, the system creates an approval workflow request. Every approval workflow request is uniquely identified in the system through the Approval Transaction ID.

The system identifies the approval workflow chain that must be used for approval depending on the pre-configured conditions or criteria. Based on the number of levels defined in the approval workflow chain, the request is sent to the approver at each level in the chain or hierarchy for approval. When the approver at the first level approves the request, a notification is sent to the approver at the second level for approval. This process continues till the approval is received from all levels in the hierarchy. Once the approvers at all levels approve the request, the changes are committed to the database.

However, if an approver at any level in the hierarchy rejects the request, a notification is sent to the submitter who has made the changes. The submitter then makes the required corrections based on the approver's comments and resubmits the changes for approval. In this case, the approval process starts once again from the beginning and not from the level at which the request was rejected.

The submitter also has the facility to modify the request before the approver at the first level in the hierarchy approves or rejects the request. Once the changes are made, the submitter submits the request for approval. The submitter also has the facility to cancel the request.

The following figure indicates the flow of the approval workflow process:


The figure indicates different steps involved in the approval workflow process.

To implement the approval workflow process, you need to define the following:

For price list, price item and price assignment, the approval workflow configuration is shipped with ORMB. The following groups are available in the system:

  • C1PRODUCT - Contains the C1_​PRICEITEM_​BO business object

  • C1PRICELST - Contains the C1_​F_​ADDPLBO business object

  • C1PRICEASG - Contains the C1_​PRICECOMP and C1_​PRICEASGN_​BO business objects

After creating the approval workflow chains, you need to link these groups to the corresponding approval workflow chains. To setup the approval workflow process for price assignment, you need to do the following:

For Price Item

  1. If a Determine BO algorithm is not specified for the C1_​PRICEITEM maintenance object, create a Determine BO algorithm using the F1-MOBO algorithm type and specify C1_​PRICEITEM_​BO as the business object on this algorithm.

  2. Attach this algorithm on the Determine BO algorithm spot of the C1_​PRICEITEM MO.

  3. Link the C1PRODUCT group to the appropriate approval workflow chain.

  4. Activate the approval workflow for the C1PRODUCT group by setting the Active flag corresponding to the group in the Approval Workflow Settings screen to Y.
For Price List

  1. If a Determine BO algorithm is not specified for the C1_​PRICELIST maintenance object, create a Determine BO algorithm using the F1-MOBO algorithm type and specify C1_​F_​ADDPLBO as the business object on this algorithm.

  2. Attach this algorithm on the Determine BO algorithm spot of the C1_​PRICELIST MO.

  3. Link the C1PRICELST group to the appropriate approval workflow chain.

  4. Activate the approval workflow for the C1PRICELST group by setting the Active flag corresponding to the group in the Approval Workflow Settings screen to Y.
For Price Assignments

  1. If a Determine BO algorithm is not specified for the C1_​PRICECOMP maintenance object, create a Determine BO algorithm using the F1-MOBO algorithm type and specify C1_​PRICECOMP as the business object on this algorithm.

  2. Attach this algorithm on the Determine BO algorithm spot of the C1_​PRICECOMP MO.

  3. If a Determine BO algorithm is not specified for the C1_​PRICEASGN maintenance object, create a Determine BO algorithm using the F1-MOBO algorithm type and specify C1_​PRICEASGN_​BO as the business object on this algorithm.

  4. Attach this algorithm on the Determine BO algorithm spot of the C1_​PRICEASGN MO.

  5. Link the C1PRICEASG group to the appropriate approval workflow chain.

  6. Activate the approval workflow for the C1PRICEASG group by setting the Active flag corresponding to the group in the Approval Workflow Settings screen to Y.

Similarly, for invoicing group, the approval workflow configuration is shipped with ORMB. The following groups are available in the system:

  • C1IGADD

  • C1IGUPD

After creating the approval workflow chains, you need to link these groups to the corresponding approval workflow chains, and activate the approval workflow for these groups by setting the following in the Approval Workflow Settings screen:

  • Set Active flag to Yes

  • Set Prevalidation flag to Yes

Note: You must set the Active flag to No for both the groups in case you do not want to activate the approval workflow for invoicing group. If you set the Active flag to Yes for either of the groups, approval workflow is triggered when you add and/or edit an invoicing group.