Chapter 3: eProcurement Approvals A critical component to the whole eProcurement process is the ability to submit requisitions for approval electronically. Because approvals are handled online within the PeopleSoft Financials system, each institution can customize the approval process to their own specifications. How Do Approvals Work? As mentioned earlier, a Requester builds a requisition in ePro. Each item on a requisition is actually placed on its own requisition line. Theoretically, each line in a requisition can be charged to a different set of Chartfields. Therefore, there may be different approval paths for each line on a requisition. Once the Requester submits the requisition for approval, each line has its own approval path. This approval path is determined by a number of factors. At a minimum, each requisition line will go to the Department Manager and Project Manager (if a Project is to be charged). These are the managers that are tied into the Department and Project Chartfields on that requisition line. Depending on how your institution has set up approvals for eProcurement, the requisition line may go to many additional approvers as well. This includes approvers for assets, IT items, and items above a certain amount. Below is a summary of all of the approval stages and paths available for eProcurement. To determine what stages and paths your institution is using, check with your Purchasing Department or Local Security Administrator. Approval Stages Overall, there are five approval stages that can be used for eProcurement requisitions. They include: Stage 1: Department and Project Approval Stage 2: Agency Fund Approval Stage 3: Amount Approval (for requisitions built from the GeorgiaFIRST Marketplace) Stage 4: Item-Type Based Approvals Stage 5: Buyer Approval (for requisitions not built from the GeorgiaFIRST Marketplace) Here is a summary of each stage: Stage 1: Department and Project Approval This is a mandatory approval stage for all requisition lines. Each requisition line must be charged to a Department. In addition, requisition lines can be charged to a Project. The requisition line is routed to the Department Manager (as entered in PeopleSoft) for approval. If the Project Chartfield is used on the requisition line, the system also routes it to the Project Manager.
Dispatched has been dispatched to the Supplier. Received The requisition has been placed on a PO. The PO has been dispatched to the Supplier, and the goods have been partially or fully received. Complete After the requisition is dispatched on a PO, the goods are received, and the Supplier is paid. A background process identifies the requisition status as Complete. Canceled requisitions are also identified as Complete. After a requisition has been approved, it must then go through the Budget Checking process. The Budget Statuses include Not Checked, Error, and Valid. Budget Status Explanation Not Chk’d The requisition has not had budget checking run on it yet. Error The requisition has gone through budget checking and failed; the budget checking error must be corrected before the requisition can be sourced into a purchase order. Valid The requisition has passed budget checking and is available to be sourced into a purchase order. The more search criteria that you enter, the more narrow your search results will be. In your list of search results, you will see the following for each Requisition: Requisition ID Requisition Name Business Unit Date Status Budget Total Action Drop Down box and Go button You can sort by a search result, such as Budget, by clicking on the column heading hyperlink. In the results, you can quickly see the status the requisition is in, as well as its budget checking status. To see the lifespan of the requisition, as well as its line item, you can expand the requisition.