An approval group is a set of authorization rules comprised of include/exclude and amount limit criteria for the following Object Types: Document Total, Account Range, Item Range, Item Category Range, and Location. For each position or job, you ultimately associate these approval groups with document types to implement your authorization rules.
To build an approval group, first assign a descriptive name that will make it easy to reference in the Assign Approval Groups window. You can then add multiple rules for the same Object Type to your approval group. When you associate two or more rules for the same Object Type with a single job/position and document type combination, Purchasing uses the most restrictive criteria during the authorization check.
An Account Range rule defines the distribution accounting flexfield ranges and their amount limits that the approval group can approve, and an Include rule is required for at least one approval group associated with each document type in the Assign Approval Groups window.
To include an account range, choose this Object Type with an Approval Type of Include, enter an Amount Limit, and specify the Value Low and Value High for your range.
Attention: The Amount Limit that you specify for an Account Range Include rule applies to the sum of all accounts included in the range. It does not apply to each individual account within the range.
To exclude an account range, choose this Object Type with an Approval Type of Exclude and specify the Value Low and Value High for your range. The approval group will be unable to approve documents including these accounting distributions, even if your enabling Include rule contains these accounts within its upper and lower bounds.
A Document Total rule defines the maximum document amount that the approval group can approve. This type of rule is optional for all but a blanket purchase agreement approval group. If you want to specify a Document Total, choose this Object Type with an Approval Type of Include and enter an Amount Limit.
Note: The Document Total rules are the only rules applied to blanket purchase agreements.
An Item Range rule defines the items and their amount limits that the approval group can approve. An Item Range rule is not required; approval groups can approve documents for all items by default.
To include an item range, choose this Object Type with an Approval Type of Include, enter an amount limit, and specify the Value Low and Value High for your range. An Item Range Include rule allows you to specify approval amount limits for individual items or item ranges, and the Amount Limit you enter applies to the sum of all items within the range. Also, an Item Range Include rule does not implicitly exclude items that are not referenced in the rule.
To exclude an Item Range, choose this Object Type with an Approval Type of Exclude and specify the Value Low and Value High for your range. The approval group will be unable to approve documents including these items.
An Item Category Range rule defines the item categories and their amount limits that the approval group can approve. An Item Category Range rule is not required; approval groups can approve documents for all item categories by default.
To include an Item Category Range, choose this Object Type with an Approval Type of Include, enter an Amount Limit, and specify the Value Low and Value High for your range. An Item Category Range include rule allows you to specify approval amount limits for individual item categories or item category ranges, and the Amount Limit you enter applies to the sum of all item categories within the range. Also, an Item Category Range include rule does not implicitly exclude item categories that are not referenced in the rule.
To exclude an Item Category Range, choose this Object Type with an Approval Type of Exclude and specify the Value Low and Value High for your range. The approval group will be unable to approve documents including these item categories.
A Location rule defines the ship-to and deliver-to locations and their amount limits that this approval group can approve. Purchasing verifies the ship to location for purchase orders and releases, and the deliver to location for requisitions. A Location rule is not required; approval groups can approve documents for all ship to and deliver to locations by default.
To include a Location rule, choose this Object Type with an Approval Type of Include, enter an Amount Limit, and specify the Location you want to control using the Value Low field. A Location Include rule allows you to specify approval amount limits for individual ship to and deliver to locations. It does not implicitly exclude locations not referenced in the rule.
To exclude a ship to or deliver to location, choose this Object Type with an Approval Type of Exclude and specify the location using the Value Low field. The approval group will be unable to approve purchase orders and releases that include this location as a ship to, or requisitions that include this location as a deliver to.
To illustrate approval group implementation, assume a Purchasing department is comprised of three kinds of purchasing professionals with a corresponding position defined for each in Purchasing: Senior Buyers (who purchase all manufacturing and MRO items/services with a $50,000 document limit), MRO Buyers (who purchase all non-manufacturing items and services with a $10,000 document limit), and Junior Buyers (who purchase all but one manufacturing item category with a $25,000 document limit).
This organization uses four two-segment item categories: MRO-SERVICE, MRO-SUPPLIES, MFG-GENERAL, and MFG-SPECIAL.
First, define one approval group called "Buyer Master" containing a single Account Range Include rule for all accounting distribution ranges with a $50,000 Amount Limit.
You can then define a supplementary approval group called "MRO Buyer" containing two rules: 1) a Document Total rule with an Amount Limit of $10,000 and 2) an Item Category Range rule excluding all item categories with MFG as the first segment.
Finally, you can define another supplementary approval group called "Junior Buyer" containing three rules: 1) a Document Total rule with an Amount Limit of $25,000, 2) an Item Category Range rule excluding all item categories with MRO as the first segment, and 3) another Item Category Range rule excluding the MFG-SPECIAL category.