SpendMap User Guide (v15)

Field

Description

Required Approvals for:

Use this area to establish approval levels for various types of "special" requisitions.  These approval levels will be assigned to the applicable requisitions automatically as they are processed. These approval levels are in addition to any rules that you might have set up with the Configure Approval Rules utility, or any approvals that the requisitioner might select manually when creating a new requisition (if enabled with the setting "Allow manual approvals", below.

•Non-Catalog (One-Of) Items: Required approval levels for items not defined in the Item Master File.  

•Asset Management Items: If you are using the Asset Management Module, the required approval levels for asset items. You can indicate that an item is an asset using the applicable check box at the top of the Line Item Details Screen on Purchase Requisitions.

•Requisitions for Stock Items: Required approval levels for items defined as stock items in the item master file. This includes Item Requisitions for items coming from stock (i.e. usages from stock) as well as requests to purchase stock items (i.e. to replenish stock).

•Purchase Requisitions: Required approval levels for all line items on Purchase Requisitions and non-stock items on Item Requisitions.

•Last Approver for All Requisitions: The last approval level to always approve all requisitions. Unlike all other approval levels, SpendMap will add this approval to requisitions as the last approval level is removed during the approval process, not when the req is initially processed. See also "Default Approvals When None Exist", below.

•Split charge or missing account coding: Required approval levels for lines that are split-charged or are missing account coding altogether (no G/L or Cost Center codes specified). This setting will override approval levels that are assigned to individual G/L  Account and Cost Center codes in Configure Approval Rules that are specified in the split-charge details of the requisition.

•Approval of Invoices:  Required approval levels for requisitions that are used to route non-PO invoices and invoice discrepancies for approval.  This will override the approval rules that are set up in Configure Approval Rules for invoice-related requisitions, unless you check the box titled "Also include default requisition approvals", in which case both sets of rules will apply.

•Approval of expense reimbursements:  Required approval levels for Expense Reimbursement Requisitions.  This will override the approval rules that are set up in Configure Approval Rules for Expense requisitions, unless you check the box titled "Also include default requisition approvals", in which case both sets of rules will apply.

•Default Approvals When None Exist: Required approvals where no other approval levels are required based on the other rules in the system. This “catch all” feature ensures that requisitions cannot become automatically approved (i.e. will always need someone’s approval, perhaps a System Administrator or other Manager). See also "Last Approver for All Requisitions", above.
 
TIP: To be notified by e-mail when/if requisitions are processed that don't require any approval, use the e-mail notification called "Requisitions processed with no approvals assigned/required"

•Requisitions with no dollar value: Required approvals for requisitions with no value (e.g. if the user did not enter a dollar value on the Req, or for Blanket Orders with no limit, etc.).

If more than 10 approvals?

•Individual line items on requisitions may require up to 10 levels of approval when processed. However, depending on the approval rules that you have set up and/or the approvals that are added to the requisition manually when it is created, it is possible that more than 10 approval levels apply to a given line item.

•For those items that exceed 10 approval levels, you have the option of either 1) using the last 10 approvals (in order from A to Z, Z will be kept), or 2) assigning a single approval level, in which case you can enter the single approval level in the field to the right.

Approvals Based on Value of:

•This setting determines whether the dollar values entered in the in Configure Approval Rules utility apply to the value of the entire requisition or the value of individual line items.

•If based on total req value, the setting below for “Do Not Allow Filling of Partial Item Reqs” will be enabled automatically.

•Also, if you are using the setting below to "Reset approvals if requisition is modified during the approval process", approvals for ALL line items on the req will be reset (start over) when any line is modified, since a change to any one item may affect the total value of the entire req.

Approvals for Item Requisitions:

•This setting can be used to skip (omit) approvals for some or all Item Requisitions.

•Usage Example:  perhaps you only require approval when items are being ordered from a supplier, but not when items are coming from stock.

•Usage Example:  you may want to bypass the approval process for all Item Reqs, and only require approval once a Buyer or Purchasing Manager converts the Item Requisition into a Purchase Requisition.

Route POs to:

•Other than POs that are sent to suppliers automatically as soon as the orders are  approved (see No-Touch POs), POs and other documents that are built from requisitions can either be sent back to the requisitioners to process or to other people (e.g. dedicated Buyers) to process.
 
This setting determines who will receive the documents that are built from approved reqs.

•If you have a decentralized Purchasing environment and end-users (requisitioners) also place their own orders or otherwise interact with suppliers, select “Requisitioner’s Work Area” to route POs and other documents back to the original requisitioners.

•Alternatively, if you have a centralized Purchasing environment with one or more dedicated Buyers, the resulting documents can be sent to those users to place the orders with suppliers using one of the other three options;

Approval code to route documents to when buyer is NOT included in approvals

•If in the previous field you selected to route documents to "Multiple Buyers based on routing rules", you must enter the approval level of a Buyer who will receive documents by default if a buyer is NOT specified in the required approval levels for a requisition. This “catch all” feature ensures that there is always a Buyer to route to in the event that the routing rules are not set up properly.

Exclude buyers from requisition approval...

•This is used in conjunction with the setting above to Route POs To “Multiple Buyers based on routing rules”.

•Check this box if you are using the option to route POs to buyers based on routing rules but Buyers do NOT need to first approve reqs (i.e. their approval levels are only being included in the rules to route the resulting procurement documents).

•If you check this box, the buyers' approval levels will only be used to route the resulting POs or other documents, but they will not be required to first approve the requisitions.

•If you want buyers to first review the requisitions in the Requisition Approval Utility, and then receive the resulting POs once the requisitions have completed the approval process, do not check this box.

•Buyers may want to review requisitions in the Requisition Approval Utility before they are converted into POs or other documents in order to reject or modify the requisitions. While the resulting PO or other procurement documents can also be modified by the Buyer in their document Work Areas prior to being sent to the supplier, once converted into a PO or other documents, they cannot be routed through additional approvals or sent back to the requisitioner.

Build Purchase Reqs into POs immediately after final approval...

•If you check this box, SpendMap will build Purchase Reqs into Purchase Orders as soon as the last Approver approves the requisition, rather than waiting for the Build PO Utility to be run as a separate step.

•TIP: This can be used in conjunction with the No-Touch PO feature (next setting, below) to send new POs directly to suppliers as soon as the final approval occurs.

•NOTE: This is for Purchase Reqs only but not Item Reqs.

•NOTE: If a new Purchase Req does not need any approval, it will be built into a PO immediately when it is processed.

•NOTE: This is for building Purchase Reqs into Purchase Orders, not RFQs.  If you need to build RFQs, you will need to run the Build PO Utility as a separate step (or you can run it in Unattended Mode if you prefer).

Process POs created from requisitions and send to supplier ...

 
(No-Touch POs)

•Check this box to send Purchase Orders to suppliers immediately as they are built from reqs, rather than sending them to a Buyer’s PO Work Area to process and send to the supplier as a separate step.

More...

Reset approvals if requisition modified?

•Requisitions may be modified during the approval process (after one or more people have already approved them). To have requisitions that are modified during the approval process start the approval process again, check this box.

•You can select which fields will trigger re-approval, using the adjacent [Fields to consider as modification] button.  For example, previous approvers would likely want to see that a price change occurred, but perhaps they don't need to re-approve if, for example, the internal account coding changes.

•In addition (or as an alternative) to starting the approval process over again, there are automatic notifications that can be used to let previous approvers know if a req was modified after they already approved it.

Force approval in hierarchy order?

•Check this box to force the approval of requisitions in the order of the remaining approval levels (e.g. A before B before C, etc.), otherwise, approvers will be able to approve requisitions in any order (i.e. a first-come-first-serve basis).

•The hierarchy of approval levels is determined by the ASCII chart (e.g. 0-9 followed by A-Z followed by a-z).

Force a Note/Reason to be entered when rejecting a Requisition?

•If you check this box, requisition approvers will be forced to enter a note when they reject requisitions, otherwise the note is optional.

Allow processing/filling of partial Item Requisitions

•Check this box to allow individual items on Item Requisitions to be processed (i.e. filled from stock or converted into POs or other documents) while other items on the same Requisition are still in the approval process.

•If you do not check this box, no items on the requisition will be filled from stock or converted to POs or other documents until ALL of the items on the Requisition are approved.

Include Approvers when send email messages regarding rejected/modified requisitions?

•Check this box to include requisition approvers in automatic notifications of rejected or modified requisitions. If unchecked, only the original requisitioner will receive a notification if their requisition is rejected or modified.

•You can enable/disable various notifications for each user in the User Master File.

Allow manual approvals...

•Check this box to allow Requisitioners to manually select approvers for new requisitions as they are created. If so, they will be prompted to select one or more approvers when each new requisition is completed and saved.

•Any approvers that are manually selected for new reqs will be added to the approval levels that are assigned by the system automatically based on the other settings in this utility and in Configure Approval Rules, if any exist. That is, you can allow Requisitioners to manually select approvers for new requisitions whether or not you also have the system auto-assign approvals based on pre-established rules.

•NOTE: If no pre-established rules exist and if the Requisitioner does not select approvers manually, new reqs can be created that require no approval at all. That is, enabling this feature gives Requisitioners the opportunity to manually select approvers when creating new reqs but does not force them to actually select approvers for the reqs.

Remove Approvals Lower than Requisitioner’s Approval Level?

•This feature is used to reduce the number of people that need to approve requisitions when Requisitioners are also requisition Approvers AND when your approval levels/letters represent levels of authority within the organization (i.e. when “A” has less authority than “B” who has less authority than “C”).

•If you check this box, SpendMap will automatically remove approval levels that are LOWER than the Requisitioner's approval level as the reqs are processed. For example, if a req needs approval levels A, B, and C based on your business rules and the Requisitioner has an approval level of B, then the resulting requisition will only require approval of C. In this example, “A” is removed because it is a lower approval level than the Requisitioner (B) and “B” is removed because obviously the Requisitioner approves his own req.

•If you do not check this box, only the Requisitioner’s own approval level will be removed automatically and the requisition, in this example, will require approval from A and C.

•The hierarchy of approval levels is determined by the ASCII chart (e.g. 0-9 followed by A-Z followed by a-z).

Except for These Required Approvals

•If you indicated above to automatically remove approval levels that are lower than the requisitioner's approval level, you can optionally bypass this feature for certain special approval levels. That is, if there are certain approval levels that you want to remain on requisitions even if the requisitioner has a higher level, enter those special approval levels here.

And Disregard These User Groups

•If you indicated above to automatically remove approval levels that are lower than the requisitioner's approval level, you can optionally bypass this feature for certain requisitioners.

•Certain requisitioners may require approval from lower level approvers while others may not. Therefore, to bypass the automatic removal of lower level approvals for certain requisitioners, enter the requisitioners' approval level(s) here.