Workflow and Approvals

Overview

JobNext centralises approvals for documents like Purchase Orders (PO), Material Requisitions (MR), Material Receipts (MRN), Estimates, Work Orders (WO), Vouchers, and more. Each document type can have one or more approval steps (sequences), and each step is assigned to an Approval Role. Approvers action items from Home → My Approvals.

Document Types

Commonly routed through Approvals:

• PO, MR, MRN, EST (Estimate), WR (Work Request), WO (Work Order)

• Issue/Return/Adjust Material

• Invoices/RA Bills, Sales Orders

• Vouchers (Bank/Cash/Journal)

• HR documents (Leave Request, Staff Request/Separation, Settlements)

Who Can Approve What? (Access Control)

Approvals are restricted so users only see and act on documents within their organisational scope. There are three scopes you can use:

1. Job-based

• Assign Approval Roles to users on specific Jobs.

• Users only see/approve documents belonging to those Jobs.

2. Business Unit (BU)-based

• Optionally, assign roles by BU when access should follow the business unit hierarchy.

• Often used alongside Job-based documents to simplify large assignments.

3. Accounting Centre (AC)-based

• Assign Approval Roles to users on Accounting Centres.

• Ideal for accounting documents such as vouchers, where approvals are tied to the AC.

How access is enforced

• Each document type is configured as Job-based or AC-based.

• The system links each document to the relevant Job or Accounting Centre.

• Only users who hold the appropriate Approval Role at that scope will receive and can act on the request.

Tip: If a user can’t see an approval they expect, first check their role assignment at the correct scope (Job/BU/AC).

Approval Flow (All Document Types)

1. Request Approval

   • From a document screen (e.g., PO), click Request Approval.

   • JobNext creates approval request(s) based on the configured rules and the current sequence.

2. My Approvals (Home)

   • Magnifying glass: opens a printable view of the document.

   • Further details (new): expands inline with extra context (attachments, notes, multi-row info).

   • Green tick: Approve (you can add a short note).

   • Red cross: Reject (add a reason; the requester will be notified).

Multi‑level approvals (optional)

1. • Some documents progress through sequences 1 → 2 → 3…

   • When a sequence is approved, the next sequence is requested automatically.

   • Value‑based rules can short‑circuit (e.g., if the amount is below a threshold, higher sequences are skipped).

Using the “Further details” Panel (Approvers)

When you expand a row in My Approvals (click on the i icon), you may see:

• Attachment button: opens PDFs/TXTs in a new tab; other file types download.

• Notes: displayed as clean text.

• Tables/lists: for multi‑row or multi‑column details (e.g., multiple estimate documents).

This lets you stay in context and make faster, better‑informed decisions.

Configuration (Administrators)

Set up each document type once, then assign the right users to roles.

1) Document Type Settings

• Scope: Choose Job‑based or AC‑based routing.

• Rule Query: Determines which Job or Accounting Centre a document belongs to.

• Approve/Reject Queries: Update the parent document’s status when approved/rejected.

• Further Details Query (new): Returns extra fields (attachments/notes/rows) for the inline panel.

If you change the scope (Job ↔ AC), update both the type and its rule query.

2) Approval Rules & Sequences

• Create one or more sequences per document type.

• Map each sequence to one or more Approval Roles.

• Optional: enable Auto‑approve for steps that should be approved automatically.

3) Assign Approvers

• Job-based: assign users to the approval role on the relevant Jobs (optionally via BU when appropriate).

• AC-based: assign users to the approval role on the Accounting Centres.

Done correctly, approvers will only receive items for their assigned Jobs/BUs/ACs.

Best Practices

• Keep rules simple: start with the minimum sequences/roles, then extend only if needed.

• Model by value: use thresholds so low‑value items don’t wait for senior approvers.

• Encourage notes: a short approval/rejection note improves communication.

• Review scope first: most visibility issues are due to missing Job/BU/AC role assignment.

Troubleshooting

• I can’t see my approval → Verify the user has the correct Approval Role at the correct scope (Job/BU/AC).

• Further details shows no data → The “Further Details Query” may not be configured or there is no extra data for this document.

• Wrong approver notified → Confirm the Rule Query links the document to the intended Job/AC and review the role‑to‑sequence mapping.