Mandatory Approval of Time and Expenses on Work Orders

Introduction

For time and expenses reported on work orders, a mandatory approval step can be configured and will take place before the transactions update the maintenance customer order (MCO) invoice specification and before accounting is updated. This approval allows for increased control over what transactions are reported, accounted, and invoiced to the customer on a work order. This step is also important for large businesses where for example, several levels of managers exist or reported overtime requires approval and so on. Parameters on the work order type 'Work Order Type. Open' (MOS120) and the cost type 'Cost Type. Open for Miscellaneous Costs' (COS160) control whether mandatory approval is activated on work orders or not.

'WO Operation. Time Transactions' (MOS810) is the core program for viewing reported time transactions. The intended usage is for technicians and managers to get a consolidated view of reported time transactions and the ability to edit, submit, approve, and reject the reported time transactions.

This document provides this information:

  • Concept of mandatory approval of time and expense transactions on work orders
  • How to activate mandatory approval of time and expenses transactions on work orders
  • How to process time transactions that require approval
  • This document does not in detail describe how to process expenses that require approval. Take note that the details are described in a separate document for 'MCO. Report Expenses' (COS150).

Setup

These conditions are required to activate work order time and expense approval process:

  • In (MOS120), parameter 380 'Mandatory approval of time transactions' must be set to 1 or 2 to activate mandatory approval of time transactions.
    • If 1 is selected, reported time transactions will stop in status 10 in (MOS810) and will require a two-step review before accounting and the MCO invoice specification is updated. The intention is to have one step for review by the employee who has reported the time, and a second approval by a manager or similar.
    • If 2 is selected, reported time transactions will stop in status 20 in (MOS810) and will require one approval step before accounting and the MCO invoice specification is updated.
  • In 'Cost Types. Require Approval' (MOS129), it is possible, in addition to setting 380 in (MOS120), to define which work order types, facilities, or cost types (for example, only overtime transactions) require approval. If this program is left blank, setting 380 in (MOS120) will assign values for all work order types, facilities, and cost type.
  • In (COS160), parameter 'Mandatory approval of expenses' must be set to 1 to activate mandatory approval of expenses in (COS150). If activated, expenses will stop in status 20 after they have been submitted. An approval step will be mandatory before the expenses get to status 90 and before accounting and the MCO invoice specification are updated.
  • In 'Service Manager. Open' (SOS422), service managers must be created. A user must be added as a service manager in (SOS422) to approve transactions in (MOS810). Employees in 'Person. Open' (CRS530) can be connected to service managers.

Limitations

You can activate or deactivate mandatory approval for labor and expenses independently in (MOS120) and (COS160). Since there is no functionality in (COS150) to monitor miscellaneous transactions by the service manager or a group of technicians, we recommend to have both mandatory approval of labor transactions and mandatory approval of expenses parameters activated. With this setup, you can monitor both time and expense transactions through (MOS810).

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