Set Up the Approval Process

Contents

Set up the approval process when you create one of the following types of documents: contracts, change orders, purchase orders, requests for information, or payment requisitions.

Note: Before you set up the approval process, ensure that the prerequisites listed in the Workflow-Based Approval Process Overview topic have been met.

Once you have set up the approval process, the Status column will display one of the following for each reviewer:

• Who the BIC is.
• A green check mark () if the reviewer approved the document.
• A red X () if the reviewer rejected the document.

To set up the approval process:

1. Open in Edit mode the document for which you want to set up the approval process.
2. Click the Review Status tab.
3. Select the Use Approval Process option to use the workflow-based approval process.
   • This will display the fields for the new approval process, and will hide the fields that would be available for versions of Contract Management prior to version 12.0.
   • Once you enter all the information for the approval process and click Save, the Use Approval Process option will no longer be visible.
   • After you save the document using the workflow-based approval process, you will not be able to go back and use the approval fields that were available in Contract Management 11.1 and older.

     Note: If you have reports that were built against approval data using the approval fields available in Contract Management versions 11.1 and older, use the approval fields that were available in Contract Management 11.1 and older to set up the approval structure. If you use this new approval process, the reports that you built against the approval data may not work.

4. Click Select Document Owner next to the Document Owner field to open the Select Contact dialog box and choose the contact responsible for this document. This contact should already have been linked to a user account.
5. Click Select Ball in Court next to the Ball in Court field to open the Select Contact dialog box and choose a BIC.
6. Select a priority level for the document. Priority can be High, Normal, or Low.
7. Select a status for the document. This field will change, depending on what action a reviewer designates for a document.
8. Select a method of approval. This can be one of the following:
   • Approve in Sequence: Use this when the document must be approved in the order in which the reviewers are listed in the Review section.
   • All must Approve: Use this when every contact listed in the Review section must approve the document before approval is final.
   • Any can Approve: Use this when any contact listed in the Review section can approve the document and make the approval final.
9. Click Add Reviewers to create the list of reviewers. The Select Contact dialog box will open. Use this to choose the reviewers.

   Notes:

   • You must already have added the contacts and linked them to a user account. You add contacts when you add companies.
   • You can also select reviewers from an approver list that you previously created.
10. Click the calendar icon for the Required Start field and select the date on which the approval process must start.
11. Click the calendar icon for the Required Finish field and select the date on which the approval process must end.
12. After setting up all the information and creating the list of reviewers, click Initiate to start the approval process. Only one of the following users can initiate a document review: the project owner, the document owner, or the Contract Management administrator.

    Caution: If you click Initiate before all fields are complete and the reviewers listed, you will not be able to make any changes in this cycle. Only after a new approval cycle is started can you make any additions or changes. The field to the right of the Initiate field lists the cycles. You can use the drop-down list to pick a different cycle to review. This field will be blank until after the first cycle is initiated.

Once the document review cycle is initiated, Contract Management sends email notification to all relevant contacts designated as reviewers whose email addresses were entered on the Contact dialog box when they were added to a company.