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Approval Routes

Approval routes are made up of one or more employees in your organization who have been set up as approvers: people authorized to handle requests for document approval. When you set up an approval route, you identify the approvers who review certain types of documents, such as work requests or purchase orders, and stipulate the maximum value these employees are authorized to approve.

One approver on the approval route must have an approval limit that is high enough to accommodate the approval requests sent to the route.

You can give each approval route a unique name. When users send documents for approval, they are presented with a list of routes from which to select. A descriptive name can help the user select the appropriate approval route. For example, the name for an approval route used for approving purchases in the castor department might be “Castor department purchases” or “Purchases Castor department”.

Approval Route’s Site

The approval route’s site is set as the current site when the route is created (that is, the site from which you have created the route) and cannot be changed. The approval route’s site affects which employees, GL accounts, assets, and currencies are used on the route, as well as the documents that the route can approve.

•	Employee: Only employees in the approval route’s site and its ancestor sites can be identified as approvers on the route.

•	GL Accounts: All GL accounts are owned at the enterprise level (top site). Therefore, all GL accounts are available for use on an approval route on any site.

•	Assets: Only assets at the approval route’s site and its descendant sites can be identified as being approved by the route.

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Currency: A route’s maximum approval limit is recorded in the currency used by the route’s site. The limit is also converted to the enterprise currency (using the exchange rate defined in the enterprise’s international settings). Similarly, approval requests are recorded in both site and enterprise currencies. If an approval request originates in another site (with a different currency) APM compares amounts using the enterprise currency to filter the list of available routes and to route the request to the appropriate approvers.

Note: Approval routes must be set up at a site type that owns the object. For example, if projects are owned at only the “Corporate” site type, then approval routes for projects must be set up at the “Corporate” site.

Automatic Approvals

You can specify that low-value requests be automatically approved. Any request that is equal to or less than a specified threshold amount is automatically approved when it is sent to the route for approval. The route’s approvers do not have to review and approve it. Alternatively, you can set the route so that all requests must be reviewed by an approver, regardless of the amount of the request.

Note: Approval requests with a zero or no value estimate are not eligible to be automatically approved. Zero or no value requests are always routed for approval.

The approval route’s threshold amount is recorded in the site currency and automatically converted to the enterprise currency. If an approval request comes from another site (with a different currency), APM uses the enterprise currency to compare the request and threshold amounts.

You can define PM work orders (created from standard jobs) so that they are automatically approved. You can do this in one of two ways:

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Create separate work types to be used only for PM work orders. In the approval settings for the site, do not include your PM work types in the list of work types that require approval. With this approach, all of the work orders created with a PM work type have an approval status of “Approval not required.”

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On the standard job, pre-select the approval route to be used to approve the work order. To have the work order automatically approved, select an approval route with an automatic approval threshold value that is higher than the standard job’s planned cost. When the work order is sent for approval, as long as the estimated cost is not above the route’s threshold value, the work order’s approval status is automatically set to “Approved.”

You can also define PM work orders so that the work order is automatically approved, but the purchase requirements require approval. To do this, use the two-step work order approval process and the approval route’s automatic approval feature:

•	On the site’s approval settings, indicate that the “PM” work type requires approval and select the two-step approval process for work orders.

•	Define an approval route for the “PM” work type. On this route, enter an automatic approval threshold that is high enough to accommodate all (or most) of your standard jobs.

•	Add at least one approver to the route with an approval limit that is higher than the threshold amount. The approver is a safety net used to catch any work orders that happen to exceed the approval threshold.

•	When the PM work order is sent for approval, the work order is automatically approved unless the estimated value is higher than the threshold value. However, the purchase requirements is still sent for individual approval.

You can also use this approach with other types of work orders that do not normally require approval. For example, you could use the same approach for emergency work.

GL Accounts

If you use an approval route to approve purchasing documents (requisitions, requisition lines, or purchase orders), you must identify one or more GL account numbers for which the route is authorized to approve purchases. When you send a purchasing document for approval, the route can only be used if the GL account being charged is listed on the route. For example, if you send a requisition for approval, the system filters the list of available routes so that only routes that list the GL account charged on the requisition can be selected.

Only whole GL accounts, not segments, can be associated with an approval route.

If a purchasing document is created for an account that is not listed on any route, the default purchasing route for the site is selected. If there is no default purchasing route for the site, any route that approves that type of purchasing document can be selected.

Note: For purchase orders, depending on the setting for your site, approval may be based on buyers rather than on GL accounts.

Buyers

By default, all buyers are available for an approval route when that route is created. However, if a route is used to approve purchase orders, contracts, or invoice lines, you can restrict the route to a specific buyer or buyers. Adding a buyer to an approval route means that only purchase orders, contracts, or invoice lines that are the responsibility of that buyer can be sent to the route. Objects assigned to other buyers cannot be sent to the route.

When you send a purchase order, contract, or invoice line for approval, the system filters the list of available approval routes so that only appropriate routes can be selected. For purchase orders and invoice lines, the system can be set to choose routes based on either the buyer responsible or on the GL account being charged. If the site has been set up for approvals based on the GL account, selecting buyers on the approval route does not affect the route selected by the system.

In other words, if the site is using GL account approval routing for purchase orders and invoice lines, selecting buyers on an approval route only affects route selection for contracts.

Maintenance and Inspection Work

You can create an approval route to approve work management documents (work orders and work requests) or inspection management (checksheets and inspection reports) for a specific asset and its descendants. When you add assets to an approval route, the route can only be used if the document is linked to the assets listed on the route. For example, if you send a work order for approval, the system filters the list of available routes so that only routes that are linked to the work order’s asset to work on or the asset to charge can be selected.

If a route does not exist for an asset, the system looks up the hierarchy for routes on parent assets. If no route is found on a parent asset, the default maintenance route for the site is selected. If there is no default maintenance route for the site, any route that approves that type of document can be selected.

You can associate more than one approval route with the same GL account or asset. For example, you could create two approval routes and associate both of them with the same asset; either of the routes could be used to approve a work request or work order for the asset.

Projects

Your site’s approval settings determine if projects require approval. When a project is sent for approval, the route selected is based on the project that is being approved. Each approval route for projects can identify the project or projects it can be used with. Alternatively, on the project itself, you can add the project to a new or existing route. Approval route selection is not based on the project’s GL account segment.

For approval purposes, the value of the project is determined as follows:

•	If the project does not have planned costs, the project’s estimated cost is used. The estimated cost includes the cost of the project’s sub-projects

•	If the project has planned costs, the project’s total planned cost is used. The planned costs used include the sub-projects’ planned costs

The system uses the project hierarchy to push the project’s approval status down to the sub-projects. When a project’s approval status changes to “sent for approval”, “approved”, “rejected”, or “redrafted”, the status is also applied to all of the project’s sub-projects. The project’s approval status is not applied to sub-projects that are being approved separately.

Project statuses are flexible. Depending on your site settings, certain actions (such as editing) might or might not be allowed when a project is waiting for approval, approved, or rejected.

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