Approval Configuration

Introduction

The ZoneApprovals SuiteApp uses as a starting point an approval configuration record. This record defines for one or multiple subsidiaries some basic variables that will be used by the system. Because the approval configuration record is limited to one or multiple subsidiaries, it provides full flexibility to define different options for specific subsidiaries.

Creating an Approval Configuration

To create an approval configuration navigate to SETUP->ZONE APPROVALS->APPROVAL CONFIGURATION->NEW. When the page opens it is recommended to start with the general section.

General

The options for these general fields are explained below.

• Inactive: When set, the configuration record will not be taken into consideration by the SuiteApp
• Folder ID: In this field, the internal ID of the storage folder can be set. How a folder can be created is explained on the page Create a folder
• Subsidiary: This field is multi-select and defines for which subsidiaries this configuration will be active. When holding the shift key or CMD key it's possible to select multiple subsidiaries.
• Default Approver: Select in this field the fallback approver. This approver will only be used by the system if something isn’t configured properly and protects in this way against transactions that potentially will get stuck in the approval process.
• Use Net Amount: When this checkbox is enabled the application will use the net amount to evaluate it against the Approval Hierarchy Levels

It is possible to create just one approval configuration and deploy it to all subsidiaries, but if more control is needed like different folders to store data, different approval thresholds, or currencies then it is recommended to create more specific configurations.

Micro Training Video: Approval Configuration - General Settings

Approvals by Email

The ZoneApprovals SuiteApp comes with a functionality that allows approval by mail. For each approval configuration, this can be configured as needed. To enable this feature simply enable the checkbox labeled “Enable Approval by E-mail”. When enabled additional fields will become visible. The options for these fields are explained below.

Data protection

The system is protected against unauthorized approvals or rejections. Only the actual receiver can reply to the received mail to trigger an approval or rejection. Emails from other mail addresses will simply be ignored by the Approvals SuiteApp

• Enable Approval by E-mail: When enabled the system will send approval notifications to the approver. An approval request mail will only be sent out when also on the employee level the approval by email has been enabled.
• Reply to Email Address: In this field, the internal Netsuite email address should be pasted. This mail address can be found by navigating to CUSTOMIZATION->PLUGINS->MANAGE PLUG-INS. There should be one email plugin that is named “FFA APPROVAL BY E-MAIL PLUGIN”. By default, this mail plugin will not be active. To activate it enable the checkbox for this email plugin and press the blue button labeled “Save”.
• Sender Field: This field should be populated with the internal field ID from the field that holds the created by. In many cases, this field will have the internal ID “employee”. The email to the approver will be sent as if it was sent by this user.
• Default E-mail Sender: In case you would like to have a fixed "sent from" employee, then this field should specify the person. To use this field the “Sender Field” should be empty. If it's not empty, the field will remain greyed out. In the dropdown you can choose an employee record that will act as the sender.
• Approve Strings: In this field, it is possible to define the words that represent approval. The receiver of the email can reply with one of these words to approve the transaction. The words should be comma-separated.
• Reject Strings: In this field, it is possible to define the words that represent rejection. The receiver of the email can reply with one of these words to reject the transaction. The words should be comma-separated.
• Attachment Folder ID: Define here the folder where potentially captured attachments from reply emails should be stored. This folder will only be used when the “Store Attachments from reply email” option is enabled.
• E-mail Template: By default, the Approval by Mail feature will send out a basic email to the approver. It is possible to define a custom mail template and if this is created the template can be selected in this dropdown field. More information regarding the mail template can be found on the page Email Template.
• Default E-mail Recipient: Select a default recipient for approval emails. Following recipient will be used only in case when the original recipient could not be found.
• Attach E-mail to Transaction: When enabled the system will store the sent and received mail for the approval flow to the transaction under the Communication subtab.
• Store Attachments from Reply Email: When enabled the system will store attachments that are present in the reply emails. These attachments will be stored in the “Attachments Folder ID”
• Enable Error Email Notifications: When enabled the creator of the transaction that needs approval will receive an error notification by email if something goes wrong during an approval process.
• Include PDF Printout: When enabled the user will receive an email that includes also the PDF printout from the transaction.
• Include OCR PDF: This function only works if the Scan & Capture bundle is installed. When enabled the scanned PDF document will be included in the email.
• Include Additional Documents: When this checkbox is enabled, the approval email will also include all the documents that are listed under the section “Files” of the transaction’s communication tab. The system does not provide an option to exclude attachments and will include all documents present in the outgoing approval email.

Notice

• The system will use the configuration with the highest internal ID when multiple configurations are created for the same subsidiary.
• The email plugin is by default not enabled. When approval by email is used, the plugin must be enabled manually.
• The system needs some time to process a response by mail. This processing time is on average 15 minutes.
• Sandbox and Test-driven accounts are limited with mail options and can only mail to the logged in user.

Micro Training Video: Approval Configuration - Approval by Email

Workflow Behavior

Under the workflow behavior the user can configure how the system should handle certain situation. The options are explained below.

The transaction locking behavior allows the user to define if and when the transaction should be locked. The options provided allow the user to define the locking behavior based on specific user roles, actual users, or a combination of both options. Also, it is possible to define different locking behavior per transaction type when Approval Transaction Records are used.

To enable a locking behavior during approval or after approval check simply one of the checkboxes:

• Lock transaction during approval
• Lock transaction after approval

When a checkbox is enabled the SuiteApp will display automatically 2 new options that will allow excluding certain user roles or specific users or a combination of both. By default, the SuiteApp will lock the transaction for all users and user roles. Adjust the options as needed. Any changes will reflect instantly.

The other checkboxes in this section are explained below

• Enable General Threshold Allowance: When this checkbox is enabled the system will monitor the amount changes on transactions that are in the approval flow or are fully approved. When the set threshold is exceeded the transaction will be submitted again for a full approval routing. This submission will be recorded in the audit trail. When the checkbox is enabled additional options will become available.
• Approval Threshold Type: Select in this dropdown if the threshold is amount or percentage based
• General Fixed/Percentage Threshold Amount: The field name changes based on the selected threshold type and allows to set a fixed amount or percentage.
• Approval Reason Mandatory: When this checkbox is enabled the system will make the approval reason mandatory when approving a transaction. This setting can be overwritten by an “Approval Transaction” configuration. The “Approval Transaction” configuration will prevail when existing.
• Exclude Requisition related Purchase orders: When this checkbox is enabled ZoneApprovals will exclude requisition-related purchase orders from the approval flow and approve them in full automatically.
• Exclude Purchase Order Related Vendor Bills: When this checkbox is enabled ZoneApprovals will enable a different behavior on purchase order related vendor bills according to the preference selected within 'Default Vendor Bill Status'. The options available are as follows:

> Automatically approve - this option will automatically approve Vendor Bills created via Purchase Orders. This option is managed by ZoneApprovals and will provide audit trail. 

> Automatically reject - this option will automatically reject Vendor Bills created via Purchase Orders. This option is managed by ZoneApprovals and will provide audit trail. 

> Retain Pending Approvals status - the option to retain the pending approval status bypasses ZoneApprovals logic, meaning that there won't be any audit trail or interaction with the entry. This can be a suitable option when a custom workflow or integration should interact with these transaction types.

• Exclude Bank Reconciliation Related Transactions from Approval: When this checkbox is enabled ZoneApprovals will exclude transactions created by the bank reconciliation SuiteApp for approval routing. When not enabled the financial impact from bank statements could be incorrect.
• Automatically Submit Auto-generated ZoneCapture Transactions: When this checkbox is enabled the system will auto submit transaction for approval when generated automatically by ZoneCapture.
• Enable ZoneCapture 3-Way Match: This checkbox allows users to activate ZoneCapture’s 3-way matching functionality within ZoneApprovals. This feature enhances the Approval Matrix with additional chip options, therefore allowing users to configure approval routing triggered by the captured discrepancies of Purchase Order and Vendor Bills.
• Default transaction status when no matrix is applicable: By selecting a status from the available options, users can now establish a predefined condition for transactions falling outside matrix criteria. If no option is selected, the system will auto-approve transactions that do not meet matrix criteria. Available options are: Auto-approve, Auto-reject and Set Default Approver. All options are managed by ZoneApprovals and all options will provide audit trail. This configuration is available on transaction levels too.

Micro Training Video: Approval Configuration - Transaction Locking & Thresholds

Unapproved Transaction Accrual

The accrual posting feature is only available in the tier levels “Plus” and “Enterprise”. When the feature is not available the system will grey out the checkbox named “Enable Accrual of Unapproved (non-posting) Transactions” and display a message that a higher tier level is required. The section will look as follow when not enabled.

When the purchased tier level allows to enable the accrual feature then the checkbox will be working as normal. When checked the configuration options will become available.

Enable on the main configuration

When the accrual posting feature is enabled on the main configuration all none posting transactions will follow the defined accrual posting behavior. When you only would like to have accrual behavior on specific transaction types it is recommended to create an “Approval Transaction Record” and define the logic specifically for the needed transaction type.

• Create Accrual Posting for standalone vendor bills only: Unless enabled, by default the system will create accruals for all Vendor Bills holding status 'Pending Approval'. The Accruals feature is capable to detect a Purchase Order link and from there enable different options of accruals generation (or not), based on this checkbox state. Therefore, the need to create Accrual postings for Vendor bills created as standalone, can be handled with this checkbox enablement. Accordingly, Purchase Order Vendor bills will be filtered out and not accrued.
• Create Accrual Posting Instantly: When this checkbox is enabled, the Zone Approvals system will create the accrual posting directly after submitting the transaction for approval. This is a general setting for all supported transaction types. Note: Even when this checkbox is enabled, an Accrual Creation Date must still be defined unless the "Only Create Reversal After Approval/Rejection" setting is also enabled. This is in case transactions are left in Pending Approval status for a long time, the system will create a subsequent accrual on the specified date after the initial one is reversed.
• Only Create Reversal After Approval/Rejection: When this checkbox is enabled, the Zone Approvals system will only create the reversal accrual once the transaction is approved or rejected. Otherwise, the reversal will occur after the month end on the date specified in the "Accrual Reversal Date" field. This is a general setting for all supported transaction types.
• Delete Accruals Instead of Reversing: Enable this setting to delete Accrual Postings instead of reversing them. If the Accrual Posting is in a closed accounting period by the Reversal Date, deletion will not be possible and a Reversal Posting will instead be created.
• Default Unapproved Transaction Accrual Account: Select in this field the account that should be used by ZoneApprovals to create the accrual posting. This is a general setting for all supported transaction types.
• Accrual Creation Date: Select in this field the applicable option that defines when the actual accrual posting should be created. The accrual posting will only be created for transactions that are in the approval flow in the status "Pending Approval" and created on or before the selected threshold. Note: This field is also mandatory when "Create Approval Posting Instantly" is enabled and "Only Create Reversal After Approval/Rejection" is disabled, because if a transaction is left in Pending Approval status for multiple months, the system must know when to create subsequent accrual postings after the previous one was reversed.
• Accrual Reversal Date: Select in this field the applicable option that defines when the actual accrual reversal posting should be created. The accrual reversal posting will only be created for transactions with existing accrual postings.

When the accrual feature is enabled and configured the ZoneApprovals SuiteApp will generate journal postings that are a custom transaction type name “Unapproved Transaction Accrual”. These custom transaction types will have a status that identifies the transaction type. The used statuses are:

• Accrual Posting
• Accrual Reversal

The accrual postings and current settings for the transaction can be found on the transaction under the subtab ZONE APPROVAL->UNAPPROVED TRANSACTION ACCRUALS

On the Unapproved Transaction Accrual posting more information can be found that identifies the transaction that is responsible for the accrual posting and which accrual posting is offsetting the posting.

Closed accounting period considerations

• When modifying the content of a 'Pending Approval' transaction, any previously generated accruals will be reversed or deleted based on the configuration settings. Consequently, to reflect the updated transaction details, a new accrual will be generated. This process repeats each time the transaction is updated within an open accounting period, ensuring accurate accounting for the modifications made.
• Once the period is closed and the original accrual posting is generated within that closed period, subsequent updates to the transaction are restricted. The system permits updating the original accrual only once. Therefore, if a transaction undergoes an update, the system will reverse the original accrual (and generate a new one) solely the first time. Any subsequent updates to the same transaction will not affect the accrual.
• In the scenario where the preference for 'Delete accruals instead of reversing' is enabled and an original accrual is generated in a closed accounting period, any subsequent updates to the transaction pose a challenge due to NetSuite limitations. In such cases, the system is unable to directly delete the accrual. Instead, it will reverse the posting and initiate the creation of a new accrual to accommodate the updated transaction details.

Micro Training Video: Approval Configuration - Enable Accrual of Unapproved Transactions

 

Exclude System generated transactions

The system-generated transactions are a high-level collection name for transactions created by some sort of automation inside NetSuite. Within NetSuite’s terminology, this automation is known as “Context” and stands for transaction’s source, or way of generating a transaction inside NetSuite. 

Within ZoneApprovals, once a transaction is deployed, the same will be subject to approval, if it is meeting conditions of the user's setup. These manually generated transactions hold the Context UI. When the context is different than UI, such as scheduled script, SOAP Web Services, or another custom integration, within ZoneApprovals users can set up an automated action to either “auto-approve” or “auto-submit” transactions. This way, an end user can either bypass the manual action of Submitting transaction for approval, or bypass the entire approval flow.

A requirement to activate this automated behavior, is to Enable exclusion of system-generated transactions checkbox on the ZoneApprovals configuration. After enabled, the Context needs to be selected (visible under System notes of transactions loaded with an integration) and then the desired behavior (Automatically Submit Transactions Approval Routing or Automatically Approve Transactions). 

Custom sourcing

The ZoneApprovals Matrix is the prime driver of the Approval routing, therefore all Approvers can be set up on the Matrix itself. Setting Approvers on the Approval Matrix, allows for static selection of Approvers who can be set in the form of individual Approvers, group Approvers, role Approvers etc.

If the approval routing is required on a dynamic setting, as an example, Approver should be a user who created the transaction, and this Approver can be a different user depending on business processes. To tackle this behaviour, users can set up a Sourced Predefined Approver or Sourced Predefined Group Approver, that would be dynamically assigned, depending on a custom field value selection.

In order to configure a Sourced Predefined Approver on the Approval Matrix, a small setup is required on the ZoneApprovals Configuration. The custom sourcing can be extracted either from Transaction or Entity level. If Transaction level is used as an example, then a custom field’s ID needs to be stored under Predefined next approver field id too. The same setup applies for Sourced Predefined Group Approver. Only prerequisite is to store the group custom field’s ID under Predefined next group approver field instead.

Below is an example of a Vendor Bill. The field “Created by” is used as a field that would dynamically source the value entered individually on different Vendor Bills, and apply the approval log approver, dependent on the value set in this field.

Once the internal ID is copied, it can be pasted onto the ZoneApprovals Configuration as in the example below:

This setup can be additionally overruled by a setup of a child record configuration i.e. the ZoneApprovals Transaction Configuration.

Once this setup is completed, then the matrix setup should hold the Sourced Predefined Approver, as a level Approver:

Below is also an example of a Vendor Bill submitted for approval, holding the matrix setup as above:

The same requirements apply for Sourced Predefined Group Approvers. Once the field id is stored under the ZoneApprovals configuration, the matrix only needs to be altered to configure the dynamic Approver, on a level as required.

Limitations to consider

• Sourced Predefined Approvers are only supported for Vendor and Employee records, therefore supported transactions types are Purchase orders, Vendor Bills and Expense reports. Customers are not yet supported.

 

Approvals Transaction Records

The Approval Transaction Records allows the user to define for each transaction type individually the following settings:

• Sender field ID
• Default approver
• Default sender
• Locking behavior
• Accrual posting behavior

These settings will overwrite the basic configuration so that a deviation is possible. If for example a different default sender for purchase orders is needed or when for example a different default fallback approver is needed. To configure a deviation navigate to SETUP->ZONE APPROVALS->APPROVAL CONFIGURATION and click on the grey button labeled “New Approval Transaction Records”.

A new page opens that allows entering the following settings:

• Transaction Type: Select in this field which transaction type you would like to use in different settings. This field only shows transaction types to which the ZoneApprovals logic is deployed. More information can be found on the Approval Configuration page.
• Inactive: When set the configuration record will not be taken into consideration by the SuiteApp.
• Default Approver: Select in this field the fallback approver. This approver will only be used by the system if something isn’t configured properly and protects in this way against transactions that potentially will get stuck in the approval process.
• Sender Field ID: This field should be populated with the internal field ID from the field that holds the created by. In many cases, this field will have the internal ID “employee”. The email to the approver will be sent as if it was sent by this user.
• Default Sender: In case you would like to have a fixed "sent from" employee, then this field should specify the person. To use this field the “Sender Field” should be empty. If it's not empty, the field will remain greyed out. In the dropdown you can choose an employee record that will act as the sender.
• Use Net Amount: When this checkbox is enabled the application will use the gross amount to evaluate it against the Approval Hierarchy Levels

Workflow behavior

The transaction locking behavior allows the user to define if and when the transaction should be locked. The options provided allow the user to define the locking behavior based on specific user roles, actual users, or a combination of both options. Also, it is possible to define different locking behavior per transaction type when Approval Transaction Records are used.

To enable a locking behavior during approval or after approval check simply one of the checkboxes:

• Lock transaction during approval
• Lock transaction after approval

When a checkbox is enabled the SuiteApp will display automatically 2 new options that will allow excluding certain user roles or specific users or a combination of both. By default, the SuiteApp will lock the transaction for all users and user roles. Adjust the options as needed. Any changes will reflect instantly.

When all settings are configured press the blue button labeled “Save” to store the settings. From this moment onwards newly created transactions will follow these new settings when applicable.

The other checkboxes in this section are explained below:

• Approval Reason Mandatory: When this checkbox is enabled the system will make the approval reason mandatory when approving a transaction. This setting can be overwritten by an “Approval Transaction” configuration. If the “Approval Transaction” configuration exists then it prevails.
• Exclude Bank Reconciliation-related Transactions from Approval: When this checkbox is enabled the ZoneApprovals will exclude transactions created by the bank reconciliation SuiteApp for approval routing. When not enabled the financial impact from bank statements could be incorrect.
• Enable General Threshold Allowance: When this checkbox is enabled the system will monitor the amount changes on transactions that are in the approval flow or are fully approved. When the set threshold is exceeded the transaction will be submitted again for a full approval routing. This submission will be recorded in the audit trail. When the checkbox is enabled additional options will become available.
• Approval Threshold Type: Select in this dropdown if the threshold is amount or percentage based
• General Fixed/Percentage Threshold Amount: The field name changes based on the selected threshold type and allows to set a fixed amount or percentage.

Approvals by E-mail

In this section a checkbox named “Enable Approval by E-mail” can be found. This checkbox is enabled by default so that for the newly created “Approval Transaction Record” the approval by email is enabled. When this checkbox is unchecked it means that for the configured transaction type the system will not send out an approval by email.

Micro Training Video: Approval Configuration - Creating Approval Transaction Records