Define Approval Responsibility According to Item

Item-based approval is the most transparent way. In this case it is possible to see the following information for each offered product or service:

• must it be approved or not
• who can approve it
• under which conditions it must be approved

Approval responsibility can be defined on three levels:

• item class
• item type
• offers

Best Practice:

Definition of approval responsibilities should follow the above mentioned three levels:

• First define common responsibility for item classes. In many cases this could be fully sufficient. If not:
• Define special responsibility on the item type level. This may be needed for some special item types.
• Define specific responsibility for each offer for an item type. This may apply to some exceptional situations, e.g. when different approval processes exist for the same item type offered to different clients.

How to Define Approval Responsibility According to Item

1. From the 'SRM Manager' sidebar, open the 'SRM Configurable Tasks' catalog. The catalog contains all task definitions on the highest level.
2. Create a new 'Task Type /Area' using the 'Task Areas' button at the bottom of the catalog. A Task Area should be created for each type of approval area in your process.

   Proceed by creating a new approval task definition for each task area, use the 'Create' context menu action in the 'SRM Configurable Tasks' catalog. Even if one kind of approving is done by different groups for different items, you will only need to create one task definition object at this moment. Individual groups and persons will be later assigned on the item level.
   Make sure that:

   • Task Type = Approve Request
   • Task Area = approval area created in the previous step
   • Assign to Item = Yes
   • Generate Task Results = Yes

     Select the check box if status actions are used and it is necessary to register activities of individual approval persons in regard to the status of the approval process. Clear the check box if task responsibility is defined only as information for the user.

   • Assignment = Group/Person (Standard)

     The group and person selected here is only a general default, it will be possible to redefine them for specific items.

   • General Condition

     Optionally it is possible to define a condition determining when the approval is relevant, e.g. for requested quantity higher than one. To create the condition, use the 'Edit General Condition' button at the bottom of the catalog.

   So far no approval task (defined in previous steps) has been assigned to any item class, item type or offer. This means that all items are still without approval - they would be auto-approved.

3. To assign the approval task, open e.g. an item class that should be approved and use the 'Add' button in the 'Item Responsibility' referenced catalog. In the 'SRM Configurable Tasks' catalog which opens, select the approvals that should be done for the class. The catalog offers all defined 'Approve Request' task definitions which have 'Assign Item' = Yes and which are valid (according to their 'Valid From' and 'Valid To dates'). If an existing approval task is missing in the catalog, it is probably because it does not fulfill these criteria.

   With the task definitions assigned, the approval responsibility for this item class uses the default support groups and persons (based on defaults defined in the previous steps).
   Use the 'Select Group' and 'Select Person' buttons (at the bottom of the 'Class Responsibility' tab of the 'Item Class' editor) to change the responsible group and responsible person for this particular item class.

   Note regarding the approval group/person hierarchy:

   • If a default person has been selected, the person will need to approve all relevant request items. The person can also serve as a dispatcher for the group and delegate approvals to other persons.
   • If a default person has not been defined for the item class, a random person from the defined group will need to approve or delegate.
   • If even the group has not been defined or if the group has no members, then a random person from the default group defined generally (see step 2) will approve.
   • If even this group has no person, then the default person defined generally will approve. Defining this general default person is mandatory (see step 2).
4. After all approval responsibilities have been defined on the class level, it is possible to define special approvals on the item type level. This should be done only if the desired approval is different from the one defined on the class level. Open the relevant item type and go to the 'Class responsibilities' tab of the editor. Here you will find responsibilities inherited from the item class level.

   Change the 'Responsibility' attribute from 'Inherit Class Responsibility' to 'Item Type Specific'. Now it will be possible to adjust the responsibility in the same way as for the class level:

   It is possible for a specific item type to be auto-approved while the remaining item types of the same class are approved manually. To set up the approval this way, leave 'Responsibility = Item Type Specific' and delete all responsibilities for that item type.

5. Analogically, with approval responsibilities defined on item type level, you can proceed to define special approvals on the offer level. This, however, should be reserved only for special cases when different approvals exist for the same item type depending on which specific offer was used by requestor.

   Before doing so, consider if the specific responsibility really depends on the specific offer or if it depends on some common property related to the offer (e.g. on organization unit or cost center of the requestor, the offer package or the price...). If there is some common property that identifies the specific approval responsibility, you can still use responsibility defined on the item class or item type level and use the additional condition (e.g. a condition for the organization unit of the requestor, or the offer price or discount).

   To define the approval for a specific offer, open the offer and define the responsibility in the same way as for item type or item class.