What is Workflow?
- Functionally: Workflow is the art of moving transactions from one place to another, requesting and recording actions related to that transaction along the way.
- Technically: Workflow is a routing engine that works with Kuali. Workflow functions by matching attributes of a transaction to existing rules that indicate where a transaction with those attributes should go.
What are the different kinds of routing? Documents pass through one or more route levels (also called “route nodes”). Route levels represent different sets of rules that will evaluate a document to determine its routing. Different documents may pass through different route levels. Commonly, financial documents pass through the following levels:
- Account Level (Fiscal Officer): All accounts used on the document are identified and it routes to a designated approver (in Kuali we call this person a “Fiscal Officer”) for each of those accounts. All approvals at this level must happen before the document moves forward.
Example: Sue is the Fiscal Officer for account 1012300. All financial transactions involving that account will require her approval.
- Organization Review (Review Hierarchy): Every account belongs to an organization and customized routing to individuals or workgroups can be established by each organization based on document type and dollar amount. This routing can take advantage of the Chart of Accounts Organization Hierarchy. All approvals at this level must happen before the document moves forward.
Examples:
– The Dean of Biology wants to approve every Transfer of Funds document over $1,000 that involves a Biology account.
– The Chancellor’s office wants to see Budget Adjustment documents over $100,000 for all organizations that answer to a particular campus.
- Special Conditions Routing: This is a term for additional route levels that might be triggered by various attributes of a transaction. They often represent special administrative approvals that may be required. They can be based on the type of document, attributes of the accounts being used, or other attributes of the transaction.
Examples:
– Disbursement Vouchers for travel must be approved by Travel Management.
– A transaction using a grant account must be approved by a central Contract & Grant Administration area
Is approve the only action I can request? No, workflow can send users action requests of various types. These requests are collected in the user’s Workflow Action List. Common types of action requests include:
- Approve: Verify that the transaction is acceptable. Approved financial documents will continue routing to additional approvers, or--if fully approved--be included in the next update to the General Ledger.
- Acknowledge: A request to view and acknowledge a transaction without the need for a formal approval.
- FYI Review: A courtesy request allowing the user to view the transaction or just clear the request from their action list without viewing it.
- Disapproval: Requests for approval can be disapproved, indicating the transaction is incorrect or unacceptable. Disapproved transactions cease further routing and will not be sent to the general ledger. The document initiator and any previous approvers receive an Acknowledgement action request, letting them know the document has been disapproved. Disapproved documents (in fact, any documents) can be copied and used as the basis for future documents. This allows for easy correction and re-submission.
Can I delegate my approval to someone else? Yes, Fiscal Officers can delegate approval authority to other users based on attributes of a specific transaction such as document type and dollar amount. Delegates can approve documents at the “Account Level” of routing as if they were the Fiscal Officer. Fiscal Officers can choose to establish either type of delegate or both. Fiscal Officers can still access any documents they are responsible for.
- Primary: Documents route directly to primary delegates instead of routing to the Fiscal Officer.
- Secondary: These delegates have a special “filter” option in their action list that allows them to retrieve documents for which they have been given approval authority.
Can documents be routed to workgroups? Yes, a workgroup is a collection of approvers who share a similar responsibility. If a document routes to a workgroup, all members of the workgroup will see that document in their action lists. Once any member of the workgroup takes action on that document, the document is removed from the action list of all other members of that workgroup.
Can we adhoc route? Yes, Ad-Hoc routing allows a document initiator or approver to add additional individuals or workgroups to the routing of a specific document. Approvers inserted into the routing “interrupt” the regular routing process. You can request that an ad-hoc recipient Approve, Acknowledge or FYI Review the transaction.
Example: If I initiate a financial document and ad-hoc route it to my boss for approval it will go to her before it goes to the Fiscal Officer.
Are there any special types of approval? Yes, Blanket Approval and Supervisor Approval.
- Blanket Approval: Users can be established as Administrators, giving them the ability to blanket approve most transactions they initiate or for which they are an approver. Blanket approval pushes a document to “Approved” status. All approvers who are skipped by the blanket approval receive an Acknowledgement request for that document—ensuring that they see it.
- System Supervisor Approval: A user established as a System Supervisor (“super user”) can take special workflow actions:
– Fully approve or disapprove any document, regardless of pending approvals.
– Approve a single action request for a particular user.
– Approve the document through to a different route level (sending it straight to Organization Review, for example).