Project-based Approval Workflows

Project-based approval workflows are used to direct submitted time or expenses that are tracked against a specific project to one or more approving managers. When more than one manager needs to approve a sheet, the workflow also controls which manager approves first, second, and so on. Project-based approval workflows are one of 2 types of available approval workflows.

 

 

The following describes how to (1) create a Project-based Approval workflow and how to (2) create and (3) edit a Project Approval template.

 

Prerequisites:

  • The managers (employees) designated to approve time and expenses should be established.

  • All employee and task assignments for the selected project should be completed.

To create a project-based approval workflow:

  1. Select Workflows from the navigation bar (Approvals > Workflows).

  2. Select the Approval Workflow tab.

  3. From the Projects drop-down list, select the project for which this approval workflow will apply.

  4. Click the NewWorkflow button.

  5. Enter a unique name for this project’s approval workflow (up to 100 characters). It’s a good idea to also include the project name in this field or in the description field (step 8).

  6. Select the type of workflow (Timesheet or Expense) from the drop-down list. Note that the approval type cannot be modified after the workflow is created.

  7. (Optional) Enter a description for this project’s approval workflow (up to 250 characters).

  8. (Optional) Select a template from the drop-down list. If the exact same list of employees and managers is going to be used for multiple projects, then it’s a good idea to first create an approval template or use an existing one. When the Connect to Template box displays YES, any future changes made to the template can be transferred to the workflows created from it.

  1. From the list of Available Employees, select and transfer employees to the Assigned Employees list using the arrow buttons located between the lists.

 

Notes:

  • The Available Employees list displays all employees that are assigned to this project.

  • You can review an employee's assigned Approval Workflows by clicking the Show Approval workflow button in that employee's profile.

  • Employees can only be assigned to one Timesheet workflow and one Expense workflow per project.

 

  1. From the list of Available Managers, select and transfer the managers that need to approve the time or expense entries to the Approving Managers list. The Available Managers list includes all employees with access to administrative functions (must have a Security Level of Team Lead, Manager or Administrator). To approve time and expenses, employees listed as a manager should also have a security level giving them access to the Time & Expense Approval view (normally Team Lead or above).

  2. The order of the managers displayed in the Approving Managers list represents the approving order. The first manager shown will need to approve the time or expenses before the second manager listed (if any) can approve the time or expenses, and so on. To change the order of an approving manager, select the manager and click the up or down arrow button.

  3. (Optional) The ‘Combine this workflow with All Projects workflow’ box is used to join this project specific workflow with existing ‘All Projects’ (Sheet-based) workflows.
     

Checked: Submitted entries that are identified for project approvals are first extracted and sent to the project approving manager before they are forwarded to the approving manager for the All Projects (Sheet-based) workflow. Entries not associated with project specific approvals are immediately forwarded to the All Projects workflow approving manager. See diagram below.

Unchecked: Submitted entries associated with Project-based Approvals bypass any All Projects (Sheet-based) approval workflows.
 

Sample scenario:

All of Jack’s time entries must be approved by his division’s supervisor (Ralph) and as such, Jack is assigned to an All Projects workflow (sheet-based workflow) where Ralph is the approving manager. Jack is also working on a project where that project’s manager (Jane) wants to approve Jack’s time for her project and does not need to review Jack’s other time entries.

This workflow scenario is achieved by creating a Project specific workflow where Jane is the Approving Manager for her project and then checking the ‘Combine this workflow…’ checkbox near the bottom of the Workflow pop-up window.

 

Workflow when 'Combine' option is checked

 

 

 

Workflow when 'Combine' option is un-checked

  1. Click Done.
     

The project approval workflow is now setup, assigned and active.

 

Tip: There are a few options to notify managers via e-mail when they have time or expenses awaiting their approval.

 

Note:  

  • A red icon (Alert Center) is placed in the upper right corner whenever an approving manager has time or expenses awaiting approval.

 

 

Project Approval Templates

Project Approval Templates are primarily used to reduce the work involved in creating a new project approval workflow. A project approval template is most useful when the same list of employees and managers is going to be used for multiple project-based approval workflows.

To create a project approval template:

  1. Select the Approval Template tab. All existing approval templates are displayed.

  2. Click the New Workflow button.

  3. Enter a unique name for this Approval Template (up to 100 characters).

  4. Select the type of workflow (Timesheet or Expense) from the drop-down list.

  5. (Optional) Un-check the Public box to make this template available only to you. When checked, the template is available to any user creating project-based approval workflow. This option cannot be modified after the template is saved.

  6. (Optional) Enter a description for the Approval Template (up to 250 characters).

  7. From the list of Available Employees, select and transfer employees to the Assigned Employees list using the arrow buttons located between the lists.

Note: Approval templates are not project specific (unlike project-based approval workflows). Therefore, the Available Employees for an approval template includes all employees.

  1. From the list of Available Managers, select and transfer the managers that need to approve the time or expense entries to the Assigned Managers list. Use the Up and Down arrow buttons to adjust the approval order for a manager. The Approving Managers list includes all employees with access to administrative functions (must have a Security Level of Team Lead, Manager or Administrator).

  2. Click Done.

    This approval template is now ready to use whenever a project-based approval workflow is created.

To edit a project approval template:

  1. Select the Project Approval Template from the list in the Approval Template tab.

  2. Double click on the template to edit it.

  3. Make changes to employees or managers as required.

  4. Click Done.