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Adding an Approval Step Entry

The approval process consists of a series of approval process steps that an Office Timesheets administrator defines. You can make an approval process step follow one or more previously defined approval process steps to create a workflow. The workflow creates a sequence of approval process steps that an employee's timesheet must complete before it meets your company’s requirements for final timesheet approval.

To add an Approval Step entry:

1. Click on Approval Process in the Process Management tab.

   The Approval Process screen appears.

   

2. Click the Add button.

   The Approval Step dialog box appears.

   

3. Type a unique name for the Approval Step in the Name text box.

4. In the Follows panel, specify where the current step will appear in the entire approval process workflow.

   Note: While marking the timesheet for approval, as each step is applied, the step that has been defined to follow the last applied step will appear in the Action drop-down list of the Approval Process dialog box. For example, when the employee first marks the timesheet for approval, only those steps that have been defined to ‘follow the “auto status” timesheet status’ will appear in the drop-down list. Then, when the the manager views the Action drop-down list, only those steps that have been defined to follow the first step will be visible in the drop-down list, and so on.

   If the step you are currently defining is the first step in the approval process workflow, check the Follows the “auto status” timesheet status check box. The “auto status” timesheet status is the default status that is assigned to a timesheet before any of the approval steps have been applied. Thus, the first approval step will always have to follow the “auto status” timesheet status.

   If the step you are currently defining is not the first step in the approval process workflow, from the Follows list box, select the step that comes before the current step. For example, if you are currently defining the fourth step, select the third step in the Follows list box. This indicates to Office Timesheets that the step you are currently defining comes after the third step.

   Tip: At times, you may want the step you are currently defining to appear after some previously defined step (or steps) as well as in the first step of the approval process workflow. For example, you may want the current step that you are defining to appear after the third step as well as in the first step of the approval process. In such a situation, select the third step in the Follows list box and also check the Follows the “auto status” timesheet status check box.

   
   

5. In the Lock Options panel, specify whether the Employee should be prevented from adding entries to the timesheet once he/she has applied this approval process step in the Approval Process dialog box. Click on one of the following—

   Click on...	To...
   Do not set Employee lock date	Leave the Employee lock date as it is. Do not change the Employee lock date.   Note: When the Employee lock date is set, Office Timesheets will not allow the Employee to make any entries in the timesheet for dates that fall prior to the lock date.
   Set Employee lock date to end of period	Prevent the employee from making any more entries in the timesheet for the current period.
   Set Employee lock date to end of previous period	Prevent the employee from making any more entries in the timesheet for the previous period. The employee can still make entries in the timesheet for the current period.

   
   

6. In the Availability panel, select whether the step you are currently defining is available only for employees, only for managers or for both employess and managers.

   Check...	To indicate that...
   Available to Employee managers	This step is available only to those users who have been defined as Managers. (See Employees and Employee Groups for more information about assigning managerial status to an Employee.)
   Available to Employee	This step is available only to Employees and not to Managers.

   
   

   Tip: Check both the check boxes if you want the step to be available to both Employees as well as Managers.

Next: Specifying the Email Notification settings

See also