NAV 2016] - Workflow setup for dynamic approvers

Aravindh_Navision

Hi Friends,

[version: NAV 2016 - Workflow]

Scenario:
A person (Person-1) creates a PO and sends for approval to his manager (Approver-1). Once the manager approves, for the next level approval it goes to Department Manager (Approver-2) and after his (Approver-2) approval the Status will get changed to Released. There will be multiple departments and each department will have its own Manager. I have a field in PO that shows the Department Manager's name and his/her department. How to identify the specific Department Manager and how to send to him/her alone for approval.

Can anybody help me how to accomplish workflow in above scenario?

Thanks in advance.
Aarvi

Slawek_Guzek

This is pretty much how the approval workflow works out of the box.

First You need to setup your users in User Approval Setup to follow the department structure

Say user A, B and C work in Deparment 1, so their approver must be a manager of department 1. For users E, F and G working in Department 2 you need to configure the manager of department 2 to be their approver.

Once you have your approver chains setup you need to configure type of approval request generated by the Workflows. Look into Purchase Workflow responses configured for the first approval event "Approval of a purchase document is requested." - you will find there a respone "Create an approval request for the record using approver..." You need to edit it to select what approval type needs to be used.

What you described in your requirement looks like 'a second pair of eyes' approval - a two stage approval process you need someone to approve the order, without looking at the order value. This scenarion is handled by Approver Limit Type = Direct Approver.

Also it seems that you don't really care for whom the purchase has been prepared (the Purchaser Code on the order is not taken into account), all you need is that the order gets approved by a manager of the person who actually sends it to approval. This is handled by Approver Type=Approves setting.

Slawek

Aravindh_Navision

Thank you so much Slawek. I'll try the way you explained.

Aravindh_Navision

Slawek, Just adding some more clarity on the scenario..

As you pointed we have user A, B and C working in Deparment 1, so their approver must be a manager of department 1. For users E, F and G working in Department 2, their approver must be a manager of department 2. Also we have H, I and J working in Department 3 (Department 4,5 and so on). Based on the department (say Department 2) requested PO, the approval has to go from User (A/B/C) to his department manager and after his approval it has to go to the particular department manager (Department 2) who requested to that particular PO and it should not go to Department 3's manager or other departments manager.

I just wanted to know, the setups mentioned in your previous post works for the scenario.

Thanks
Aarvi

Aravindh_Navision

Slawlek, I have almost solved the issue. I just created 5 workflows, wherein in each workflow I gave the condition pointing to the different departments in each workflow.

For Example:
(1) Workflow for Department-1; Condition: Document Type: Purchase Order, Status: Open, Department Code: Department-1
(2) Workflow for Department-2; Condition: Document Type: Purchase Order, Status: Open, Department Code: Department-2
and so on..

I have not tried this in full swing, but my gut feeling says it will work. If I struck up somewhere or achieved what s needed, I will be posting it in the same thread.

Thanks,
Aarvi.

Slawek_Guzek

Hi,

This will work in terms that each department will have its own workflow. It makes sense if the workflows are different, in terms that each one has a different parameters, or different steps.

If your workflows are all the same, and the only difference is in approval chain then there is no need to create many copies to get different final approvers. The separation and different approval paths are achieved just by separating users and their approvers in User Approval Setup.

If you have a scenario where users A, B and C work in department 1 under supervision of their line manager LM1, and then there is also a departamental manager DM1 then you can just configure user approval setup accordingly:

for departament 1 users:
A -> LM1 -> DM1, B -> LM1 -> DM1, C -> LM1 -> DM1

for departament 2 users:
D -> LM2 -> DM2, E -> LM2 -> DM2, G -> LM2 -> DM2

In this case you would use the Approver Limit Type = Approver Chain rather than Direct Approver, and set purchase limit to 0 for users A, B, C, D, E, F, and their managers LM1and LM2, and unlimited for departamental managers DM1 and DM2

Slawek

Aravindh_Navision

Thank a lot very much Slawek.. Will try the way you explained..

Aarvi