Sheet-based Approval Workflows

Sheet-based approval workflows are used to direct an employee’s submitted time or expense sheet, as a whole, 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. Sheet-based approval workflows are one of 2 types of possible approval workflows.

 

 

Prerequisite:

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

To create a sheet-based approval workflow:

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

  2. Select the Approval Workflow tab.

  3. Select All Projects from the Projects drop-down list. The term ‘All Projects’ is used to identify the workflow as one that applies to all time (or expenses) regardless of which project the entries are associated with. The term “Sheet-based” is used throughout these instructions when All Projects is selected since the entire sheet is sent to the manager in the workflow.

  4. Click the NewWorkflow button to launch the Workflows pop-up window.

  5. Enter a unique workflow name (up to 100 characters).

  6. Select the approval type (i.e. Timesheet or Expense). Note that the approval type cannot be modified after the workflow is created.

  7. (Optional) Enter a description (up to 250 characters).
     

The list of Available Employees in the top left corner is divided into two areas:

    • Unassigned: lists employees not currently assigned to any ‘All Projects’ type workflow.

    • Assigned: lists employees already assigned to an ‘All Projects’ type workflow. The name of the workflow is appended to the employee’s name.
       

Notes:

  • An employee can only be assigned to one ‘All Projects’ workflow for time and one ‘All Projects’ workflow for expenses.

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

  • A workflow cannot be deleted while sheets actively awaiting approval are linked to a workflow.

 

  1. Select and move the employees whose submitted entries will be forwarded to approving managers using the arrow buttons located between the lists. Selecting an employee already assigned to another workflow will move that employee to the new workflow.
     

  1. From the list of Available Managers in the bottom left corner, select and transfer the managers that need to approve the time or expense entries to the Approving Managers list on the right. The Managers available list box includes all employees with access to administrative views (assigned to Manager, Team Lead or Administrator in the employee properties Security Level field). 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. Click Done.

 

The approval workflow is now setup, assigned and active.

 

 

Tip: There are 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.