Introduction:
The approval processes related to a business document in the solution usually consists of one step. However, the business processes may sometime require approvals from multiple users in which case the business processes may require more than one approval step in the approval process. This is referred to as Multi-Step Approval Process(MSA).
Ex: Consider a two-step expense report approval process where for expenses over 50USD, approval from manager would be required and for expenses over 5000USD additional approval from two VPs would be required.
Problem Description:
When conditions in the approval process step(s) are met, task(s) are created for the responsible(s) which the responsible can then approve/reject.
Customers would like to analyze the time it takes at each step to approve a document and explore the possibility to reduce the time taken. Scenarios could include
- Who are the approvers who take more time to approve the document ?
- Who needs a follow-up ?
- What percentage of approvals get rejected ?
- How many approvals get corrected before getting approved ?
Solution:
This can now be achieved by using the Approval Task Details data source. A report created out of the steps mentioned below would list all the approval tasks corresponding to a business document configured for MSA from which information can be gathered.
Detailed explanation on how to consume the Data source :
The data source “Approval Task details” should always be used as a join data source along with application created data source. Application created data source should act as an anchor data source. Approval task details data source should never be consumed independently. Also if the business documents are not enabled for MSA, then the report will never work.
For example:
Purchase order and supplier invoice are registered for MSA and where data source for the same is listed below which can act as an anchor data source.
- Approval of Purchase orders – Data source available for “Purchase order header data “.
- Approval of non-PO invoices – Data source available for “Supplier invoice header data “.
Steps for creating a join data source :
Below I have explained with an example of purchase order approvals.
Step 1:
Go to work center Business Analytics -> Design Data Sources
Step 2:
Create a join Data Source
Step 3:
Add Purchase order header data source as anchor and select the necessary fields required for constructing the report as shown below .
Step 4:
Once the anchor data source is added .Select and add the Approval task details data source and choose the necessary fields that is needed that the time of displaying the report as shown below.
Step 5:
Remove the UUID attribute of the Approval Task Details data source.
Step 6:
Create a join between the Purchase Order ID (UUID) and the UUID from the Approval Task Details data source.
Step 7:
On the created data source, create a report which will fetch all approval tasks for the purchase order(s).Go to Business Analytics work center, Design Reports view. Create a new report as shown below.
Step 8:
Select all the required key, characteristics and complete the report creation guided activity.
Step 9:
Execute the report to fetch the approval tasks for the purchase orders, where you can find all the necessary details.