How You Set Up Payment Approval
Payment approval allows management to control payments by prioritizing available funds. You can send
payments to approvers for review before making final payments to suppliers or employees. If enabled,
the payment process stops at the Review Proposed Payments stage.
Approvers can then optionally remove payments directly from a payment process request and approve
it.
Note:
Payment approval only supports the payments created by the payment process requests. It doesn't
support payments created on the Create Payments page.
The approval process generates and routes payment approval notifications to approvers. Approvers can
approve or reject payment process requests directly from emails. They can also perform other approval
actions from payment approval worklist.
Setting up payment approval includes the following actions.
Enabling payment approval
Defining payment approval policy
Configuring payment approval rules
Enabling Payment Approval
To enable payment approval, in the Setup and Maintenance work area, use the following:
Offering: Financials
Functional Area: Payments
Task: Manage Disbursement System Options
On the Manage Disbursement System Options page, select the Enable payment approval option.
Select the Payment Process Request Status Report format, and select Automatically submit at payment
process request completion check box.
Note: Selecting this check box ensures that the application creates an approval document before final
payment.
Defining a Payment Approval Policy
Before you can configure payment approval rules, your company must define a payment approval policy.
The payment approval policy defines:
When to initiate the payment approval process
Criteria for triggering the payment approval process, such as bank account, or pay group
A list of approvers who review payments and make final payment decisions
Your company's payment approval policy:
Determines which payments must go through the payment approval process
Allows approvers to review payments and decide whether or not to approve the payment.
Configuring Payment Approval Rules
To configure payment approval rules, navigate to the BPM Worklist. In the Setup and Maintenance work
area, use the following:
Offering: Financials
Task: Manage Task Configurations for Financials
Complete these steps:
Click the Task Configuration button.
In the Tasks to be configured pane, click the PaymentApproval ([Link].0) task.
Click the Assignees tab.
Click the Switch to Vertical Layout link.
Click the diamond icon in the Payment Approval box.
Click Go to rule.
Click the Edit task icon to create the payment approval rules.
Note:
Payment approval rules route the payment approval notifications to approvers in sequential order only.
How Payment Approval Is Processed
The payment approval process allows management to control payments by prioritizing available funds.
Payment approval lets you send payments to approvers for review before final payments are made to
suppliers or employees.
If enabled, the payment process stops and approvers can optionally remove payments directly from a
payment process request and then approve it.
The payment approval process generates and routes payment approval notifications to approvers.
Approvers can approve or reject payment process requests directly from e-mails. They can also perform
other approval actions from payment approval worklist notifications.
Settings That Affect Payment Approval
To enable payment approval, navigate to Setup and Maintenance, search, and select Manage
Disbursement System Options. On the Manage Disbursement System Options page, select the Enable
payment approval option.
How Payment Approval Is Processed
When Payment approval is enabled, all payment process requests go through the payment approval
process. When a payment process request is submitted, payment approval is automatically triggered
after it reaches the Review Proposed Payments stage. The status of the payment process request is then
set to Payments Approval Initiated. Payment approvers then receive payment approval e-mail
notifications, as well as payment approval BPM Worklist notifications.
As the following table shows, approvers can perform different payment approval actions depending on
the payment approval mechanism used, whether from the Review Proposed Payments page, from email
notifications, or from BPM Worklist notifications.
Payment Approval Mechanism
Approval Actions Available
Navigation
Review Proposed Payments page
Approve
Reject
Withdraw approval
Resubmit for approval
Navigate to: Spring board > Payables icon > Payments icon > Overview page > Tasks icon > Click Manage
Payment Process Requests link > Manage Payment Process Requests page > Status: Pending Proposed
Payment Review > Search button > Manage Payment Process Requests page >Action icon > Review
Proposed Payments page.
E-mail notification
Approve
Reject
Your e-mail inbox.
BPM Worklist notification
Withdraw approval
Resubmit for approval
Reassign
Delegate
Request for more information
Navigate to: Tools > Worklist > Financials
To specify a payment approval action on the Review Proposed Payments page, approvers select an
option from the Actions menu. The following table lists the payment approval actions that payment
process request submitters and approvers can take, when the actions are available, who takes the
payment approval action, and the result of the action.
Payment Approval Actions Available on the Review Proposed Payments Page
Availability of Action
Person Performing the Action
Result of Action
Approve payment
Only when the payment process request status is Payments Approval Initiated.
Approvers only.
Allows the payment process request to continue
Status of payment process request changes to Approved
Once the payment has been approved, the auto resumption process lets the transaction proceed
automatically. No manual intervention is required for the transaction after approval.
Reject payment
Only when the payment process request status is Payments Approval Initiated.
Approvers only.
Terminates the payment process request immediately
Status of payment process request changes to Terminated
Withdraw approval
Only when the payment process request status is Payments Approval Initiated.
Submitter of the payment process request or approver.
Terminates the payment approval task
Status of the payment process request changes to Withdrawn
Ensures that all active payment approval notifications are removed from approvers
Approver reinitiates payment approval by selecting the Resubmit for approval action after correcting the
issue
Resubmit for approval
Only when the payment process request status is Withdrawn from payments approval and Error in
payments approval.
Submitter of the payment process request or approver.
Reinitiates the payment approval process for the payment process request
Status of payment process request changes to Payments Approval Initiated
Terminate payment process request
Always.
Anyone.
Terminates the payment process
Ensures that all active payment approval notifications are removed from approvers
Approvers can review the payment approval statuses of payment process requests that require action on
the Requiring Attention tab on the Overview page as the following table lists.
Page
Payment Process Request Approval Statuses
Navigation
Overview page
Payments approval initiated
Pending payment approvals
Withdrawn from payments approval
Payments approved
