Approval processing

Approval processing is part of the overall procurement process. After a requisition is created and released, it might require approval based on business needs. You use approval processing to secure and control the approval flow.

There are two options for approval processing:

• A manual method using the Requisitions application approval processing. When manual approval processing is used, the requisition total is examined.

• An automatic method using the Requisition Approval Service provided by Infor Process Automation. When Infor Process Automation is used, the requisition total and the extended cost for the line item is examined.

Before you set up approval processing in Requisitions, you need to understand the relationship between requesting locations, approval codes, and requesters. See these for more information:

• Requesting locations

• Approval code

• Requester

When you set up requesting locations, approval codes, requesters, and requisition approval services, you create relationships that determine the manual approach to approval processing.

In the manual approach, requesters are tied to approval codes and to requesting locations. The approval code determines who needs to approve the requisition and at what level before further requisition processing can continue.

The Requisitions application maintains approval dollar amount limits by requisition. All approvers whose dollar amount limit has been exceeded must approve the requisition in the order of approval totals. However, the Skip Lower Levels option can be set to skip lower level approvals. When this option is set to Yes, only the highest level approver whose dollar amount limit has not been exceeded must approve the requisition. Optionally, other lower level approvers can approve the requisition.

Approval processing controls approvals by using accounting units, purchasing classes, and requisition totals or requisition line totals by item type. If you set up accounting units in the General Ledger application and assign them to a requester in Requesters (RQ04.1) on the Purchasing tab, the requester can use only the assigned accounting units.