Approvals
The Approvals (APPROVAL) application is used to inspect and approve (or reject) items. It has three tabs to choose from to get an overview of items in need of approval and to follow up on them:
Approval detailed view, where item attachments has a preview area
Approval list view, with the option to export the list to Excel
Sent by me, where items sent for approval is gathered in one place
Approval detailed view
This tab (view) is divided in three main areas:
A list of the items sent to the user for approval
This is where the user approves or rejects the items by clicking the Approve or Reject symbol on each item. In this area, the user also has the option to approve all items for one document at the time by clicking the Approve all button. (For example all items belonging to one Purchase order (SPO) or one Supplier invoice (SIN).) Finally, there is an option to Approve all selected items at the bottom of the area, and a button to Select all and one to Deselect all to the right.
A Preview area to preview any attachments
If there are more than one attachment, the user may use the arrows at the top of the area to switch between the different attachments. There are several tools available for the preview area, for example zoom, so the user may zoom to find the ideal preview of the attachment. If the zoom is changed from default, the application will remember the change. In other words, the zoom last used will be the new default for the user.
A Details area with further details for each item
In this area, the user will find information like Account, Department and Finance project, as well as a log of activity under the Approvers header at the bottom.
Filtering
The Approval detailed view has several filtering options.
When entering the application, there is a default filter called Sent to me , which may be turned off by clicking on it.
In addition, the five tabs Procurement, Logistics, Sales, Finance, All are quick filters to give an overview and help make the approval process as efficient as possible. The number at the top of each tab indicates how many items are awaiting approval of the specific user.
Beneath the tabs, there is a Search field to filter further, and a Filter builder to choose a Standard filter or to Create custom filters.
Approval list view
This tab presents perhaps the more traditional view, with items presented as a simple list. The view has several filtering options via the Sent to me filter, the Search field at the top, the Filter builder and the checkbox option Include all employee approvals.
Each item may be approved or rejected by clicking the Approve or Reject symbol on each item. All items may be marked by clicking the checkbox at the top left of the list and approved by clicking the Approve all selected button below the list. This button may also be used for selected items only, if the user marks the relevant items by clicking on the Status code of each of the items.
One of the advantages of this view is the possibility to Export to Excel via the Column settings icon.
Sent by me
This tab is in reality a filter to see only a list of items sent by the user. It makes it easy to have an overview of sent items (all in one place) and keep track of their status.
Widgets
To make it easy to keep track of approvals, there are three approval widgets that may be added to the users dashboard:
PendingMyApprovalWidget: Shows the number of approvals pending the user's approval
PendingApprovalWidget: Shows approvals Sent to me, Sent by me and I can approve
ItemsPendingMyApprovalWidget: Shows the user's approval items as a list, and lets the user approve items directly from the widget.
Note
The rules for approvals (who approves what etc) is set up in the Approval configuration (APC) application.
Note
A daily e-mail will be sent to each user with a summary of approvals pending the user's review. When an approval is marked as "urgent", an e-mail will be sent to the user immediately.
Note
If the user has access to more than one company, the available companies are located in a grey header at the top of the application. Click on a company to access the Approval application for that specific company.
Note
Tip: Hover the mouse over symbols, search fields and buttons to get a description of function.