Example of an Assignment Hierarchy for AP Invoice Approvers

This example uses an assignment hierarchy to determine the approvers to assign to an approval step for an accounts payable invoice.

You set up an approval hierarchy for AP invoices in the Assignment Hierarchy grid on the Assigned To dialog box in Approval Workflows Configuration. The dialog box opens when you click in the Assigned To field in the Approval Steps grid on the Workflow tab on the Approvals Configuration form (Configuration > Workflow > Approval Workflows).

How Vision Assigns an Approver

Vision uses the information in each row in the Assignment Hierarchy grid, starting with the first row, then the second row, the third, and so on, until it finds an employee to assign as an approver when it looks at an AP invoice.

The Route To field identifies a field from the AP Invoice Approvals form for an AP invoice. If Vision finds an entry in that field on the AP Invoice Approvals form, it looks for the employee who is assigned to the role that is related to that field, which you specify in the Approver column in the Assignment Hierarchy grid. Then one or more employees who are specified for the role for the field are assigned as approvers for the approval step.

If Vision does not find an employee entered for the specified role, then it looks at the next row in the Assignment Hierarchy grid to find an approver, and so on until it finds an approver to assign. If no employees are found, the approval administrator for an approval workflow (who is entered on the General tab of the Approvals Configuration form) will receive a workflow failure message and be assigned as the approver for the approval step.

Example

In Approval Workflows Configuration, you entered the following in the Assignment Hierarchy grid on the Assign To dialog box for an approval step, in the exact order shown:

Do Not Use Check Box	Route To	Approver
Cleared	Purchase Order	Buyer
Cleared	Project	Project Manager
Cleared	Employee	Route to Employee
Selected	Vendor	blank
Selected	Organization	blank

Vision performs the following steps when it looks at AP invoice number 115 that is entered in AP Invoice Approvals:

1. Vision uses row one in the Assignment Hierarchy grid to find an approver for the approval step.

   Vision looks at the Purchase Order field on the AP Invoice Approvals form—based on Purchase Order that is specified in the Route To column in the first row of the Assignment Hierarchy grid.

   No purchase order is entered for AP invoice 115, so no approver is assigned.

2. Vision uses row two in the Assignment Hierarchy grid to find an approver for the approval step.

   Vision looks at the Project field on the AP Invoice Approvals form—based on Project that is specified in the Route To column in the second row of the Assignment Hierarchy grid.

   Vision finds two projects (A and B) entered for AP invoice 115.

3. Vision looks in the Project Info Center for the project managers who are entered for projects A and B—based on Project Manager that is entered in the Approver column in the second row in the Assignment Hierarchy grid.

   It finds a project manager entered for project A and a project manager entered for project B. The two project managers are assigned as approvers for the approval step.

   Vision ignores the remaining rows in the Assignment Hierarchy grid because it found employees to assign as approvers per the second row in the grid.

   If Vision had not found any projects entered for the AP invoice per the second row of the Assignment Hierarchy grid (and thus no approvers to assign), it would have looked in the employee Route To field for AP invoice 115—based on the Employee that is specified in the Route To column and the Route to Employee specified in the Approver column of the third row of the Assignment Hierarchy grid.

   If no employee was found in the Route To field for AP invoice 115, Vision would not look at the Vendor or Organization fields for AP invoice 115 (in rows four and five of the Assignment Hierarchy grid) because the Do Not Use check box is selected for those rows. When no approver assignment can be made, the approval administrator for an approval workflow (who is entered on the General tab of the Approvals Configuration form) receives a workflow failure message and is assigned as the approver for the approval step. Workflow failures are always sent when approver assignments cannot be made.