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TRANSCRIPT
Expense Approval Workflows for
Vision and Touch T&E
VI-11
Brent Johnson, Product Director
Agenda
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Approval Workflows Overview
Configuring Expense Approvals
Expense Report Approvals
Expense Line Approval
Touch Expense Approvals
Common Approval Workflow Behaviors
Upgrade Notes
Questions
Approval Workflows Overview
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Approval Workflows are user designed workflows for specific applications in Vision. The workflow
defines the approval process, approvers, allowable actions, and alerts for a record. Approval
workflows can be as simple or as complex as you need them to be.
Benefits:
– Flexible Configuration
– Multi step approvals
– Conditional approvals
– Delegations
– Error validations
Applications using approval workflow:
Purchase Requisitions (7.4) Absence Requests (7.5)
Request for Price Quotes (7.4) AP Invoice Approvals (7.5)
Purchase Orders (7.4) General Ledger Budgets (7.5)
Inventory Item Requests (7.4)
Expense Reports and Expense Line Approvals (7.6)
Configuring Expense Approvals
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Configuration
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Before your employees can begin creating, submitting, and approving employee expenses you must:
– Configure company expense settings
– Configure and enable an approval workflow for employee expenses
Organization General Setup (optional)
Individual Organization Setup (optional)
Approvals Configuration
User Initiated Workflows (informational – no configuration necessary)
Scheduled Workflow (informational – no configuration necessary)
Company Expense Report Configuration
Role Security
Organization General SetupConfiguration > Organization > General
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Use Organization General Setup to create approval roles and assign employees to the roles to be
used by the approval engine. Organization approval roles are a handy way to make approval
assignments to employees who have approval responsibilities at an organizational level. The engine
uses a project’s or employee’s organization to identify the employee that should receive the approval
assignment.
Individual Organization SetupConfiguration > Organization > Individual
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Use Individual Organization Setup to assign,
change, or delete approval roles and assigned
employees.
Tip: You can assign multiple employees to the
same approval role.
Changing an employee assigned to an approval
role impacts new approval assignments only
Approvals Configuration – General TabConfiguration > Workflow > Approval Workflows
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Approval workflows are configured at the
system level. Once configured they can be
used by any company in the database.
Approvals Configuration – General Tab
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Only active approval workflows can
be used for employee expenses
Used to schedule past due and
supervisor escalation alerts
Used for project based assignments
at WBS1 or lowest level
Has workflow edit rights, can always
reassign approvals, and is notified
of workflow failures
Add or move assignments
Final approved, but not yet posted
For use when approving multiple
records via List View
Automatically approve subsequent
assignments
Approvals Configuration – General Tab
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Expense reports can be unsubmitted if there have not been any approvals
Workflows can be configured for expense reports, expense lines, or both
– Controls whether expense report and expense line approval steps must be completed subsequently or
concurrently
• Expense report approval supersedes expense line approvals
Approvals Configuration – Workflow TabConfiguration > Workflow > Approval Workflows
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The workflow tab is used to design the approval process
Approval Steps
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The grid is always sorted by the Step column
The assignment type is new for expense approvals. It defines whether
the step is a report or line approval.
The Description column is user defined and can be used to help users
quickly understand why the approval is on that step of the workflow.
Approval Steps
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The Workflow State column determines if the record is read-only or editable on that step.
– In Approval – Read-only. The approver can only approve/reject.
– In Progress – Editing allowed. The approver can edit and then approve/reject.
– In Review – Editing allowed. The approver can edit, and then only select Review.
The Review Action is used when the workflow state for the step is set to In review,
otherwise it is disabled.
– Approve – The record advances to the next step
– Restart Approval – The record returns to step 1
The Reject Action controls whether the approver is allowed to reject an expense.
– Assign to Submitter – Approver can reject. If rejected, the record will return to the
employee that owns the expense report
– None – No reject action is provided for the approver.
Assignments
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Assigned To – The approval role that will receive the assignment
– Standard & User Defined Employee fields in the employee info center
– Standard & User Defined Employee fields in the project info center
– Organization Approval Role fields
Specific Employees – You can assign an approval step to a specific
employee in addition to or instead of using the Assigned To field.
Who Must Complete
– Any – Only one approval is required to advance to the next step
– All – All must approve before the record can advance to the next step
Days Allotted is used to determine the due date for the step. This field
determines when past due and supervisor escalation alerts are sent. Tip:
This is different that the date configured on the general tab.
Assignment Tips
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Approval roles such as the requester’s supervisor and
expense group admins are intended for expense report
assignments.
Approval roles such as project roles are intended for
expense line assignments.
The employee’s org will be used to determine the correct org
approver for expense report assignments.
The project’s org will be used to determine the correct org
approver for expense line assignments
Advancing the Workflow to the Next Step
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There are two ways to advance the workflow to subsequent steps
1. The assignee approves their step assignment
2. The step uses conditions, and the condition is not met
Approval Assignment Conditions
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Conditions are always evaluated at the beginning of the step.
– If the condition is true, the step will be set and the approval assignment will be made.
– If the condition is false, then the Action if Condition Not Met will be taken
Conditions can be
based on expense
report fields,
employee fields,
project fields, and
user defined
employee and
project fields.
Action if Condition Not Met
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Action if Conditions Not Met
– Skip to Next Step – Ignores step and skips to next step
• Cannot be used for last step of the approval workflow
– Approve Step – Step is automatically approved (logged as Approval Admin)
– Assign to Administrator – Step is set and assignment is made to the Approval Admin instead of the Assigned To approval role or specific employee.
– Mark as Final Approved – Remaining steps are ignored and final approval is made by the system (logged as Approval admin)
Completing the Workflow
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There are two ways to complete the approval workflow
1. All steps are approved by the assigned approvers
2. A condition is not met, and the action if condition not met is Approve Step or Mark as Final
Approved
The expense report cannot be posted until the approval workflow is complete.
Completed expense approval workflows can be reopened so long as the expense report has not yet
been posted.
Actions
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The Actions grid is a child grid of the Steps grid. Each step can have several actions, but only some
may be triggered. For example, a Rejection notification is only triggered if the record is rejected on that
step.
Inserting Actions
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Each action includes information regarding when it will be sent
Email and Dashboard Alerts are inserted as separate actions
You can edit the content of the alert by clicking the hyperlink. Each alert has default text.
Actions – Alert Content
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Each action is defaulted to be sent to the currently assigned approver, but this can be changed.
Tip: If the reject
action of the step is
configured to “assign
to submitter”, then
also send the alert to
the submitter.
Validate Error Action
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You can use validate errors at the start of the workflow (submit) and at the end of each step (approve) to enforce your business rules.
Validate error messages are only displayed to the user if the validate error conditions are true for that step. Use the Description column of the step action to define the error message.
Note: If the step is skipped because the step condition is not met, then the validate error condition will be skipped as well.
Copy an Approval Step to Save Time
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If you copy a step, all of the actions will be copied as well.
Tip: If you add
step #
information to
your alerts, then
double check
the alert content
of the copied
alerts to ensure
the right step #
is being
referenced.
User Initiated WorkflowConfiguration > Workflow > User Initiated Workflow
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Approvals Configuration writes all of the necessary data to the existing workflow engine. The data is
available to view for trouble shooting purposes.
Advanced Tip: It is possible to insert your own actions for each approval step, but the additional
actions will not be displayed in Approval Workflows configuration.
Scheduled WorkflowConfiguration > Workflow > Scheduled Workflow
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Approvals Configuration writes all of the scheduled actions to the “Assignment” scheduled workflow.
The data is available to view for trouble shooting purposes.
The description column concatenates the Approval Name, Step, and Step Description
Enabling Expense ApprovalsConfiguration > Time & Expense > Company Expense
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Once an employee expense approval workflow has been configured you enable the workflow in
Company Expense Configuration for each company.
Select which approval workflow should be used.
Each company can use a different approval workflow.
All companies can use the same approval workflow.
Expense line approvals are no longer configured system wide.
Sample Expense Approval Workflows
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Three sample approval workflows are included with Vision 7.6
Expense report sample workflows are assigned to the expense group administrators.
– Tip: To avoid workflow failures set the expense administration level to staff for terminated employees.
Expense line sample workflows are assigned to the project managers, principals and project supervisors.
Expense SecurityConfiguration > Security > Roles
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Don’t forget to provide your users with
security role access to the expense
applications.
Who Can Access Expenses
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There are three types of record access for employee expenses
1. Approvers
• Approvers can view the expense reports and expense
lines for which they have or have had an approval
assignment.
2. Supervisors
• Supervisors can view the expense reports for their
employees.
3. Group/Company/System Expense Administrators
• Administrators can view any expense report that
belongs to an employee within their administration
group(s).
• The administration edit rights only apply to an
expense report that has not been submitted. Once an
expense report has been submitted the workflow
controls who and whether or not it can be edited.
Expense Report Approvals
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Expense ReportsTime & Expense > Expense Reports
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Expense Reports is an application which allows your employees to log personal and company paid
expenses.
New Expense Report
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Select Expense Report from the navigation menu and then select New from the dialog.
Select new from the main toolbar at the top of the application.
Enter Report Name and Date
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An employee cannot have two reports with the same report name and date.
Enter Expenses or Import from Credit Card
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The credit card feature must be enabled in order to import credit card charges
Save & Submit the Expense Report
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Save and Submit the expense report when it is ready for approval.
Employees can unsubmit their expense report if the approval workflow allows it.
Approvals Button
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Once the expense report has been submitted the Submit button will disappear and be replaced with the Approvals button.
Employees can unsubmit
Specifically assigned
users can reopen
Assigned approvers
can Approve or Reject
Approval admins and
assigned approvers can
reassign.
Approve/Reject Comments
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Clicking approve launches the Approve dialog. The comment is optional.
Clicking reject launches the Reject dialog. The comment is required.
Completing the Expense Report
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The workflow is completed when the expense report is final approved.
The expense report cannot be posted until the workflow is complete.
The Progress Tab
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The progress tab tracks all assignments, comments, approvals, and the history of the expense report.
The data on this tab is read-only and useful to understand how the expense report record progressed
through the approval workflow.
Finding an Expense Report
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Use the Search Lookup to find expense reports for the selected employee
User the Open dialog to find other employees
List View
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Expense Reports provides a select employees dialog which doubles as a List View mode for users to
review many records
at once.
When in List View
mode the user can take
action on many records
at the same time.
Expense group admins,
supervisors, and
approvers can view
other employee’s
expense reports.
Expense Line Approvals
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Expense Line Conditions
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© Deltek, Inc. All Rights Reserved - Confidential. These plans represent our current estimates on timing
and functionality and may be subject to future modification.
Tip: When using the
expense line item
approval setting in a
condition be sure to
use Y or N for the
values. This is how
these settings are
stored in the
database.
Multicompany Tip: The
company the expense
line originates from is
the company that
requires its approval.
Expense Line Notifications
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© Deltek, Inc. All Rights Reserved - Confidential. These plans represent our current estimates on timing
and functionality and may be subject to future modification.
Tip: Limit the
notifications that
you use for
expense line
approvals if your
employees have
many lines per
expense report.
Expense Line Approval
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The project grid has been replaced by a project filter. All projects are selected by default.
Select the show my assignments only checkbox to display your currently assigned line approvals
Use the new column selection dialog to pick and choose which columns should appear in the list
Take action on all expense lines or take action on just the selected expense lines
If the workflow state for the line assignment is in progress then the assigned approver can edit the
description and details of the expense line
Expense Line Status
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A new line status
column has been
added to the expense
report.
Displays approved,
rejected, and in
progress icons.
Click the icons to
quickly access each
expense line’s
approval and
assignment history.
Expense Line Progress
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© Deltek, Inc. All Rights Reserved - Confidential. These plans represent our current estimates on timing
and functionality and may be subject to future modification.
Touch Expense Approvals
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Touch Expenses
Your Touch URL is different than your core Vision URL.
– “/Time” was appended to the end of the URL for Touch
Only Expense Reports can be approved in Touch.
Devices Supported
– iPhones & iPads with iOS 9+
– Android Phones and Tablets with OS 4.1+
– Windows Phones with OS 8.1
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Expense Approval Indicator
Number bubbles indicate number of timesheets and expense
reports waiting your approval.
Note: You will only see the Expense Approval menu if you
have expenses to approve or you have approved expenses
in Touch before.
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Expense Approval List
Expenses are grouped by status with Submitted at the top.
Note: Approved expenses remain in your list so you can
view them again. If the approval process is not complete,
they will be under Awaiting Final Approval.
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Expense Approval List
Enter part of the employee or expense report name to
search for an expense.
Blank out the search text and tap search to view all.
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Expense Summary
Navigate between
expense reports by
tapping previous or
next.
Summary Info
Tap line to view
detail.
Tap checkmark to
approve and go to
the next report in
the list.
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Expense Summary Menu
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Expense Detail
View receipts.
Navigate between
lines.
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View Receipt
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Approve with Comment
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Reject
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Expense Report List Menu
Use checkboxes
with menu to email
selected employees
or reassign
approvals
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Reassign Approvals
Search and select the
employee to assign the
approval.
Add new assignment adds an
additional approver and keeps
you as an approver as well.
Move assignment gives the
approval to another employee
and removes it from your list.
Common Approval Behaviors
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Approver Delegates
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Approvers can identify a delegate in User Options.
Both the approver and the delegate will receive the approval assignment.
Delegates are identified in the
Assignments grid on the
progress tab.
Tip: Make sure the delegate
has access rights to the
expense report application
Reassignments
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The Reassign action allows users to reassign the approval to another employee.
Reassign is always available to the Approval Administrator in case of workflow failures. Individual
approvers can reassign only if the setting is enabled for the workflow.
The approval remains on the same step when reassigned.
Editing the Workflow
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Only the approval administrator can edit the workflow if there are approvals in progress.
If the workflow is edited then all in progress approvals will restart at step 1 when the edits are saved.
Approval step assignees and actions can be edited without restarting the workflow.
Disabling & Restarting the Workflow
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If the workflows is disabled and re-enabled then the expense reports will need to be submitted again.
If the workflow is changed then all in progress expense approvals will restart at step 1.
Employees can be alerted via email if errors are encountered when restarting the workflow.
Workflow Failures
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Workflow failures occur when the approval engine is unable to make an assignment to an approver.
Example: The step 1 assignment of the expense approval workflow should be made to the
project’s project manager, however the project manager field in the project’s info center record is
blank.
Failed assignments are
routed to the approval
administrator. A workflow
failure email also informs
the approval
administrator of the
failure reason and which
approval role should
have received the
assignment.
Dashboard Alerts
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Dashboard alerts, if
configured, allow you to
view and approve
expenses without
needing to navigate
away from the
dashboard.
Tip: Deselect the
“Display summary as
application link” setting
in the dashpart alert
configuration dialog
when setting up alert.
Approvals Review
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Approvals Review
provides access to any
approval workflow record
in the database.
Clicking an expense
report approval record
link will open the
associated record in a
dialog.
Clicking an expense line
approval record link will
open the line approvals
app in a dialog.
Upgrade Notes
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Upgrade Notes
"Deltek strongly recommends that at the time of upgrade, all in progress expense reports
are reviewed, approved and posted prior to upgrading.“
If you were not using approvals:
– No change. Anything that was submitted prior to upgrading should still be submitted after
upgrading.
If you were using approvals:
– Anything that was submitted prior to upgrading will be reset to in-progress during the upgrade
and will need to be submitted again after upgrading.
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