Delegation of Approvals

You can set up your system so that approvals are delegated. For example, a manager is unable to approve a number of orders due to time commitments or is away from the office; the manager can delegate a secretary to approve the orders on their behalf.

There are several different ways that this can be achieved. Two methods are outlined here:

  • Secretary uses manager's Operator Id.
  • Secretary and manager are in the same Data Access Group.

Secretary Uses Manager's Operator Id

This is achieved by using the Operator Code field on the form used for Approvals. Security is achieved by using DAG controls in Form Designer.

To achieve this, carry out the following steps:

  1. The secretary is not normally part of the manager's DAG, but a lower one.
  2. When approving line(s) via a Control Desk or the actions on the purchase order/invoice entry form, the approvals form is displayed. The approvals form is capable of having the Approver Operator Code on it. This is the operator code of the approver and which DAG codes are checked against it. The default is the current user's operator code.
    Note: A user is able to amend this code to another code that is not theirs without any restrictions.
  3. The approvals form has a DAG code applied to it using Form Designer. There are two options:
    1. A single approval form is used throughout the business unit. This DAG code includes the secretary and all other approvers.
    2. Multiple approval forms are used, where at least two are used as follows:
      1. One form contains the Operator Code and has DAG code permissions applied to it that only allow the secretary to access it.
      2. One form has the Operator Code removed from it. This is for use by all other approvers within the business unit. It may or may not contain DAG code permissions.
  4. When a secretary is approving an order on behalf of their manager, the approval form checks the secretary's DAG groupings to see if they are allowed to see the approval form, and which one if there are more than one available.
  5. The secretary can enter the manager's login code to approve the order.
Note: An order/invoice audit trail is kept of the manager's and the secretary's Operator Id's for audit purposes.

Secretary and Manager in the same DAG

Another alternative is to have the secretary in the same DAG as the manager. In this case, the steps outlined above do not need to be followed because the secretary would have the same permissions as the manager. Again, an audit trail is kept of who approved an individual order/invoice, and it is expected that business processes would need to be in place to ensure that a secretary cannot approve without the manager's prior permission.

Further Security

Further security can be applied via Form Permissions Editor or Control Desk Security.

In Form Permissions Editor, the actions Approve and Approve Line can have Operator Groups assigned to them. This limits only operators within those Operator Groups to use the action.

In Control Desk Security, the Control Desk batch program for approvals can have DAGs applied to it. This would limit only operators within that DAG to be use the program.

Note: These features are additional to the built-in security applied to approvals functionality.