Using Approval Cycles

Viewing Approval History  

 iSupport Approval Cycles

Approval cycles require records to be approved by designated approvers before most functions can be performed. When an approval cycle is in effect, an alert bar will appear at the top of the screen after the record is saved and most of the fields will be disabled. (However, you can send correspondence and update work history.) Approvers can edit line items and add comments for purchase requests in an approval cycle; a configuration setting can enable approvers to perform additional modifications. Approval cycles are configured with serial or concurrent approvers, notifications, and statuses for each stage of the process. Approvers can be support representatives (who specify a verdict in the Incident, Change, and/or Purchase Request screens) or customers (who specify a verdict via the mySupport portal). Approver delegates can be designated for support representatives and customers.

An approval cycle can be applied if:

• An approval cycle is associated with the selected customer profile, company record, template, or category.If the cycle associated with a category is specified, the lowest level category is checked and if no cycle is associated, the next (higher) level is checked, and so on up the category hierarchy.
• The rule group in effect contains a rule that meets conditions and initiates the cycle.Note that Approval functionality is not affected by the business hours configured for a rule group.
  
  Multiple cycles can be specified for a rule group but only one cycle can be active at a time.
  
  If a rule-group-required cycle is completed or cancelled, the Incident or Change menu will contain an Initiate Ad Hoc Approval option for starting another approval process.

• A default approval cycle is configured for all purchase requests.If a default approval cycle is configured, it will be applied. If there is no default approval cycle, any customers on the purchase request that have an associated approval cycle will be used. If no customer-associated approval cycle is used, the customer’s company record will be checked for an approval cycle.

If any approval cycle results in a Decline verdict, no further cycles will apply.

Initiating Ad Hoc Approvals

If configured, you can initiate an approval cycle by selecting Initiate Ad Hoc Approval after a record has been saved. In the Ad Hoc Approval dialog, you can select the Change Approvers checkbox to add or remove the approvers configured for the selected cycle. Note that the approver cannot be changed if an approval cycle is configured to use the approver associated with the selected customer. An active ad hoc approval cycle for an incident or change will not be cancelled when the effective rule group changes; any approvals that are defined by the new effective rule group will initiate after the ad hoc cycle is approved.