Approving Requisitions and Invoices

Buyers may have a Self Approval Level if this has been authorized in the user’s profile by a Community or User Administrator. If a requisition is within the self approval level set for a buyer, then the requisition will be approved automatically and sent to the supplier immediately.

If a requisition is outside a Buyer's self approval level it will be sent for delegated approval and routed to the first user with the correct delegated approval level. Depending on how your community's approvals are configured this approval could be for a whole requisition or individual lines. It may also require multiple approvals on a single requisition.

Once the requisition has been approved, the purchase order will automatically be sent to the supplier.

Note: Buyers can also be setup to have no self-approval level, in which case, all requisitions will be sent for delegated approval.

For information on how to approve or decline see Approving or Declining a Requisition.

Approval Process

Approvals in Unimarket will route by either Org Unit or Account Code depending on the  Approval Process.

Org Unit

Each buyer is tied to an Organization or Org Unit, that Org Unit is tied to one or more approval chains containing a hierarchy of approvers, each with an approval level. If there is more than one approval chain the buyer selects the correct one when creating the requisition. The approval is sent to the correct users in the approval chain based on the required approval amount.

Account Code

Approvals can also be driven by Account Codes which are tied to an approval chain. In this case the approval is routed according to the account codes used on the requisition. The approval is sent to the correct users in the approval chain based on the required approval amount.

 

Requisition Approved/Declined

If the order is approved the buyer will be copied into the order email sent to the supplier. If the requisition is declined the buyer will receive an email stating that the requisition has been declined by the approver. The approver is able to provide a reason why the requisition was declined, which if provided, will be included in the notification email.

Approvers are assigned Requisitions from Buyers to approve. As an Approver you will see notifications on your dashboard and a red indicator will show on your Tasks sidebar if there are Approvals awaiting your action.
You will be sent an email notification with the details of the Requisition and a link to your Approvals page in Unimarket. Here you will see a list of any Pending Approvals assigned to you.

If you need to find the Approval without using the link in the notification email, click the checkbox in the top right corner and select Approvals.

Approve or Decline a Requisition

• Click on the Requisition number to view the details
• Select Approve/Decline from the top right of the screen

• A popup window will display, enter a reason if applicable (especially important and mandatory if declining a requisition) and select either Approve, Decline or Cancel (no action).
  
  

Additional Comments

For any further comments that may need to be added by the Approver or sent to the Buyer, these can be entered in the Comments tab at the bottom of the Requisition screen and a notification email will be sent to the Buyer as well as any other Approvers. If anyone other than the active Approvers adds a comment here, a notification email will be sent to both the approver(s) and the buyer (refer emails list at bottom of article).

Declined/Approved

Should the Requisition be declined, a notification email is sent to the buyer, providing any reason entered by the approver. Any approved requisitions will generate a purchase order that is sent to the supplier with the buyer copied in.

Note: If there are multiple approvers included and only one approver is needed to convert the requisition into an order, when this is done the other approver(s) will be notified via email that the approval is no longer required (refer emails list at bottom of article).

Unavailable for Approvals

When an approver knows ahead of time that they will be away for any amount of time and therefore unavailable to approve requisitions, they can set themselves as Unavailable for approval requests too. For information on this see Approvers - Unavailable & Assigning Proxy.

Approval Reminders

If a requisition has been awaiting approval for longer than the community configured time limit, a notification email will be sent to the approver(s). For more on approval settings, please see Setup & Manage Approvals.

Below is a full list of emails sent out during the approval process, their wording, what triggers them and who sends/receives them:

Purpose - Trigger

Approver Not Required - A requisition which was assigned to a user for approval has been approved by another user Senders: Community - Email set up in community email settings: Approvals Recipients: Approver who doesn't need to approve the requisition anymore Subject: Unimarket Approval No Longer Required: Requisition 196 Approval No Longer Required Demo Community Requisition 196 (Demo Supplier) for Demo Administrator: No further action required. Your approval is no longer required because the requisition has already been Approved or Cancelled. The approval task has been removed from your approval queue. Description Supplier Account Code Qty Distribution Percentage Unit Price Subtotal Subtotal                                                                                       $0.00 Shipping                                                                                      $0.00 Tax.                                                                                             $0.00 TOTAL                                                                                         $0.00

Approval Reminder - A requisition that was sent to a user is still awaiting approval (the default reminder period can be set in the community approval settings) Senders: Community - Email set up in community email settings: Approvals Recipients: User who has an approval waiting Subject: Unimarket Approval Reminder: Requisition 197 Approval Required Demo Community Requisition 197 (Demo Supplier) for Demo Buyer Description     Supplier               Account Code   Qty Distribution Percentage  Unit Price Subtotal Product4 Demo Supplier 101001­-1­-753  1     $40.00  (100.00%) $40.00  $40.00  Subtotal                                                                                                     $40.00 Shipping                                                                                                      $0.00 Tax.                                                                                                             $6.00 TOTAL                                                                                                       $46.00 Please login to approve or decline this requisition.

Approval Required - A requisition has been sent to a user for approval Senders:  Community - Email set up in community email settings: Approvals Recipients: Approver(s) Subject: Unimarket Approval Required: Requisition 195 Approval Required Demo Community Requisition 195 (Demo Supplier) for Demo Administrator Description       Supplier            Account Code    Qty  Distribution Percentage  Unit Price  Subtotal Product3 Demo Supplier 101001-­1-­753 25  $750.00  (100.00%) $30.00  $750.00  Subtotal                                                                                                     $750.00 Shipping                                                                                                        $0.00 Tax.                                                                                                            $112.50 TOTAL                                                                                                       $862.50 Please login to approve or decline this requisition.

Approval Declined -  A requisition that was submitted has been declined Senders: Community - Email set up in community email settings: Approvals Recipients: Buyer who created requisition Subject: Requisition 193 has been DECLINED. Requisition Declined Requisition 193 for Demo Buyer has been declined Requisition Approval Summary Description  Unit Price  Subtotal    Approval Product4   $40.00   $40.00   Declined Reason: Reason will be displayed here. Shipping: $0.00 Total: $46.00 For full approval details please view the requisition in Unimarket.

Approval Mixed - A requisition that was submitted has some lines that were approved and some were declined (this applies to requisitions that have multiple suppliers also) Senders: Community - Email set up in community email settings: Approvals Recipients: Buyer who created requisition Subject: Requisition 191 has mixed approval. Demo Community Requisition 191 has been part Declined Some lines on this requisition were declined. Approved lines have been ordered. Requisition Approval Summary Description  Unit Price  Subtotal    Approval Product5   $40.00   $40.00  Approved Product9   $90.00   $90.00  Approved Product4   $40.00   $120.00 Declined Reason: Reason will be displayed here. Shipping: $0.00 Total: $299.00 For full approval details please view the requisition in Unimarket.

 

This feature must be enabled by a user with the Approval Administrator or Community Administrator role for it to be available. If a requisition requires urgent approval, this feature allows users with the Community Administration or Escalate Approval role to escalate the Requisition from the user currently assigned to the next delegated approver in the chain.

Approvals are routed based on how a Community has their approval settings configured. To find out more on this see Setup & Manage Approvals.

How to Escalate a Requisition

1. Select Requisitions from the Orders menu at the top of the screen.
2. Locate the desired requisition using the search filters and click on the requisition number to open it.
3. Go to the Approvals tab and choose the Escalate option next to the user the approval is currently assigned to.
   
   

The approval will be routed to the next delegated Approver in the chain. You will be able to see who escalated it and when by clicking Detailed View and hovering your mouse over the  icon. The new Approver will be sent a notification email advising them the Requisition requires their approval.

Note: If All Must Approve is enabled, all approvers should be visible regardless of whether Detailed View is enabled or not.

Note: Should the approval be escalated to the end of the chain a warning message will appear on the Approvals tab of the requisition saying "Could not find an Approver for step "Name of approval step here" with sufficient authority - please contact your Administrator." This means that the approval cannot be escalated any further and you need to contact your Unimarket Administrator.

Approver are sent requisitions that need to be reviewed before they are sent to the supplier to fulfill. In cases where an approver will not be able to do this (e.g. they are on annual leave), they can change their availability and have any requisitions that come to them during a set timeframe automatically escalate up the chain to the next delegated approver.

Alternatively, if the Proxy Approvers feature has been enabled, approvers who are unavailable can select another user to approve for them until they return.

Note: Approvals will not auto-escalate over weekends or public holidays set in the Public Holiday Schedule of your community.

 

Out of Office

Users that are away will display with an away icon and return date in all user-selection menus including the requisition reassign function, invoice assignment and anywhere a user is selected. You can set yourself as Out of Office by following the below steps:

1. Go to the User icon and select Out of Office.
2. Check the box for I am Unavailable.
3. Enter the dates you will be Unavailable From and Through and click OK.

When a user is unavailable it will grey out their name and show when they are returning when reassigning a requisition or order.

 

Unavailable

1. Go to Approvals from the Tasks menu at the top of the page.
2. Click View All and then Change Availability, which will open a pop up window.
3. Check the box next to I am unavailable and enter the dates you will be unavailable From and through To and click OK.

 

Proxy Approver

If the Proxy Approvers feature has been enabled for your community you can also assign who the Proxy will be by using the dropdown menu in the pop-up window. If no Proxy is selected the requisition will automatically escalate up the chain to the next delegated approver instead.

Proxy approvals are noted by the Proxy icon, visible on the approval tab of a requisition and within a user's approval tasks.

View & Manage Approvers Availability

Community Administrators have the ability to view and manage Approvers availability. This is extremely useful if an Approver has forgotten to mark themselves as unavailable and assign a Proxy (if Proxy Approvals are enabled). Community Administrators can view any Approvers currently marked as unavailable or mark an Approver as unavailable by navigating to the top left of the screen and selecting Administration from the Module selector and then choosing the Users option from the menu to the left of that. Then from here if they can click on the Out Of Office tab.

 

This view will show all users who are currently unavailable. To include all users who are currently unavailable as well as users that will be unavailable in the future tick Include Unavailable in Future. To add an Unavailable User click +Add Unavailable User.

After selecting +Add Unavailable User a popup window will appear. You will be required to select a User and then define the time frame in which the Approvers will not be available.

Once the Unavailable To date has passed, the approvals will no longer automatically escalate or route to the proxy approver if selected.

 

Note: If a Proxy is set to start later in the day or on a future date, you can view this from the Admin > Users > Out of Office tab > select "Include Unavailable in Future".

 

Limiting Proxy Approvers by Organization Unit

There is a configuration in the Approval Administration that limits the choice of Proxy Approvers to one in the same Organization Unit. This option is off by default, but provides more control for organizations that need it.

 

 

 

Note: Invoice acceptance does not get escalated via a Proxy since these only occur when invoices fall outside of the communities matching tolerances and this is a step that is taken before the invoice approvals take place. This means that the buyer or requestor who created or initiated the order that is being invoiced will receive a task to accept or decline and then if it is accepted, it would get sent out for delegated approvals based on the community's approval process.