Approval Process for Purchasing Applications

You can choose whether or not purchase requisitions, request for price quotes, and purchase orders (including change orders and release orders) must go through an approval process.

Configuration

The approval process is based on an approval workflow that you set up and configure specifically for each Purchasing application.

An approval workflow identifies the:

• Steps in the approval process for an application.
• Approvers assigned to each step.
• Notification alerts to send and actions to process for each step to keep the approval process on schedule.

You create and configure approval workflows for each application in Configuration > Workflow > Approval Workflows. You can create simple or complex, multi-tiered, conditional steps for approval workflows.

If you use organizations in Vision, you can specify approver roles at the organization level in Configuration > Organization > General.

In Configuration > Purchasing & Inventory > Configuration Company Settings, you turn on approvals for each Purchasing application and specify the approval workflow it will use.

Approving a Purchasing Record

In the Purchasing applications—Purchase Requisitions, Request for Price Quote, and Purchase Orders—after you save a record, you click the Submit option on the toolbar of a Purchasing form. This starts the approval process using the assigned approval workflow. If you are a designated approver for the current approval step, the toolbar on the Purchasing entry form displays an Approvals option. You use the options in Approvers drop-down menu to take action for an approval step, such as approving, rejecting, reassigning, and so on.

Alerts

Alerts that you set up in Approval Workflows Configuration for an approval workflow are automatically sent to notify approvers and others that Purchasing records are ready for their review, the due date for an approval step is near, a record has been rejected or approved, and so on.

Viewing the Progress of Purchasing Records Being Approved

You can see the progress of a record going through the approval process in several places on the Purchasing entry forms: in the Purchasing record lookup (in the Search field), in the State and Step fields on the General tab, and on the Progress tab. These places show you whether or not the approval process has started, the record is in approval or in review, and the approval is completed. You can see the current approval step that the record is in and more details on the Progress tab.

Assigning a Delegate to Perform Your Approval Assignments in Your Absence

If you normally approve purchase requisitions, request for price quotes, purchase orders, change orders, or request orders, you can temporarily assign another person to perform approval duties in your absence. You assign delegates on the General tab of User Options, which you access from Vision's main toolbar.

If You Do Not Use an Approval Workflow for a Purchasing Application

If you do not use an approval workflow for a Purchasing application: After you create and save a record in a Purchasing application, you must click the Submit button on the toolbar of a Purchasing form. This changes the status of the Purchasing record from In Progress to Approved. The record does not go through an actual approval process as it would with an approval workflow, but it must have an Approved status before you can final print it.