To view the properties of the Approve PO subprocess, select its process activity in the navigator tree, then choose Properties from the Edit menu. The Approve PO subprocess has a result type of PO Approval Action and Doc Verification, indicating that when the subprocess completes, it has a result of Invalid Action or Valid Action. These results correspond to the lookup codes in the PO Approval Action and Doc Verification lookup type, in the PO Standard item type.

This subprocess activity is not runnable, indicating that it cannot be initiated as a top-level process to run, but rather can be run only as a subprocess when called by a higher-level process.

The subprocess begins at node 1.

Node 2 checks if the document was already approved (for example, in the Reserve Before Approve subprocess). If so, this subprocess ends at node 3 and the workflow (in the PO Approval Process), sends a notification to the buyer that the document has been approved.

Otherwise, node 4 verifies that the document is ready for approval. If not, node 5 sends a notification to the approver that the document failed the state check (for example, the document's status has changed to closed, frozen, or on hold). Then, node 6 reverts the purchase order to its status before it entered this subprocess, and the workflow ends at node 7. If you modify and resubmit the purchase order or create a new one, the PO Approval workflow starts over when you submit the purchase order for approval.

If the document passes the state check, node 8 verifies that the document is complete, such as ensuring that it contains at least one line and one distribution.

If the document is not complete, node 10 sends a notification of such to the approver. The approver can respond to the notification by choosing Retry (if there is a system-level issue), or reject the document. If node 13 cannot reject the document (for example, the document's status has changed to closed, frozen, or on hold), node 14 sends the Unable to Reject Document notification to the document owner.

If the document passes the state check and is complete, node 17 approves the document, and node 19 retrieves purchase order information and other internal workflow attributes, in case these have changed.

If the Document Approval Manager fails at node 4, 8, 13, or 17, the notification activity at node 9, 11, 12, or 18 sends a notification of the failure to the approver. Once the Document Approval Manager is restarted successfully, the workflow continues if the approver or system administrator responds to the notification with Retry.

See: Document Status Checks. See: Document Submission Checks.