Maintaining Approval Paths

This Job Aid shows how to create, manage, and adjust approval paths in COMMBUYS.

Overview

Approval Paths are used to mirror employee authorizations/security roles, and they are entered into the system by the Organization Administrator (OA) after discussion with the Chief Procurement Officer, Chief Fiscal Officer, or other responsible authorities. Approval paths may be created with different filters and/or dollar limits. 

Launching COMMBUYS

1. Launch COMMBUYS
2. Select Sign In
3. Type User ID and Password
4. Select Sign In

Confirming Your Account Role

1. Select Account
2. Expand the identified role and confirm you are in the Organization Administrator role 

Setting Approval Types

1. Select Maintain Agency Approval Paths and Settings on the Organization Administrator home page
   1. If you already set up your approval settings, you may skip to the steps to set up a new approval path or edit a current one
2. Select Configure Approval Settings from the Approval Path Maintenance page
3. Choose the Cascade Setting in the Maintain Organization Approval Setting section
   1. No Cascading – The Buyer may select from one specified approval path
   2. Non-Auto Cascading – The Buyer may select from any specified Approval Paths
   3. Auto Cascading – The Buyer will see the paths that have been selected automatically. The paths may not be changed. This option is the default and recommended.
4. Type the following information in the Maintain Organization Approval Type section
   1. At least one Approval Type must be activated to create approval paths 

Field Name	Action Needed
Approval Type ID	Type a unique identifier for the Approval Type; a five-digit alpha-numeric id. Once set, the Approval Type ID cannot be changed.
Description	Type a description or purpose
Priority	Assign a priority from one to 99. One is low priority and 99 is the highest. COMMBUYS will prioritize the sequence in which approval paths are triggered based on this priority.

5. Select Save and Exit

Adding an Approval Path 

1. Select Add New Approval Path on the Approval Path Maintenance page
2. Navigate through the COMMBUYS tabs menu from left to right to add an Approval Path  

Completing the General Tab

1. Complete the following fields in the General tab. Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required. 

Field Name	Action Needed
Approval Path ID*	Type a unique identifier for the approval path; a five-digit alpha-numeric id. Once set, the Approval Path ID may not be changed.
Description*	Type a description for the Approval Path
Approval Type*	Choose the Approval Type for this Approval Path
Dollar Range*	Type the Approval Path dollar amount ranging from $0.00 to $999,999,999,999.99
Roles*	Choose the Roles that apply to this Approval Path
Approval Doc/Doc Sub Types*	Choose the type of documents that will apply to this Approval Path.
Approvers*	Choose the path’s approvers. A Primary approver is a required approver. Choosing an Alternate approver makes the document available to both approvers so either may approve the document.
Level*	Type “1” to identify the first approver. If additional levels are needed, type “2” for second approver and so on.

2. Select Save and Continue
   1. The Approval Path Status is Active after selecting Save and Continue  

Completing the Change Order Tab

1. Select Apply approval path for all changes to document
   1. Type a dollar amount or a percentage change
2. Select Save and Continue to save changes 

Completing the Department/Location Tab

This section allows you to choose the Departments and Locations to which this Approval Path will apply. If a Department or Location is not chosen, the new Approval Path will apply to all Departments. 

1. Select Add Depts/Locs
2. Select Find It to display the Departments in your agency
   1. Type a Department or Location from the Result Type field
3. Select the checkbox in the Select column to select all Locations. To select specific Locations, select the linked Department ID
4. Select Save and Exit 

Completing the Email Tab

An email will be sent to the approvers for this Approval Path. You may select the number of days to send another email reminder and customize the content of the email. 

1. Complete the following fields:
   1. Confirm the Send Email box is checked
   2. Type the number of days for the system to send a reminder email
2. Select Save and Continue 

Completing the UNSPSC Code Tab

To have certain United Nations Standard Products and Services Codes (UNSPSC) go through their own Approval Path, complete the following: 

1. Select Add UNSPSC Segment-Family/Class/Commodity
2. Select the codes

An Approval Path with this feature enabled applies to all Departments in the organization. If you create an Approval Path based on a Department/Location, do not add a UNSPSC Code to that path. 

Reviewing the Summary Tab

1. Select the Summary tab to review the Approval Path
2. Select Clone Approval Path to create a similar Approval Path
3. Navigate through the tabs to customize the Cloned Approval Path 

Editing Approval Paths

1. Select Maintain Agency Approval Paths and Settings from the Organization Administrator home page
2. Select the linked Approval Path ID to edit an existing Approval Path
3. Review active and inactive Approval Paths on the Approval Path Maintenance page
4. Return to the ‘Status’ field on the General tab to inactivate an Approval Path  

Additional Information

Global Approver Replace function will replace the current approver with a new approver on all approval paths where this user is named.  Use the magnifying glass lookup icon to open the lookup search to find the appropriate user to select as the Global Approver.  This would be used if an employee changed roles or is no longer using COMMBUYS.

Multi-organization Approval Path function is used if your agency needs an approver who works for another agency. Refer to the Creating a Multi-Organizational Approval Path and Multi-Organization Approver User Job Aid.   

Related Resources

The following training class is recommended: COMMBUYS Organizational Administrator Set-Up and Maintenance.