Guidance on setting up internal approval steps for PayLab Claims and Payment Schedules.
Overview
When Claims or Payment Schedules (referred to as the 'Document' in this guide) require approval by more than one person before being issued, a workflow helps coordinate and record this action.
The internal approval history, current stage, and remaining approvers can be reviewed at any time within PayLab, and email reminders prompt approvers when it is their turn to check and approve a document.
By default, approver details are not visible to users outside their PayLab organisation, but there is an option to include the approval history with the document when issued - see this related article.
Setting up your Approval Workflow
An approval workflow's function is to notify each person required approve a claim or payment schedule document before it can be issued.
PayLab needs to know
- The Steps - What is the chain of approval that the document needs to go through? This will set the number of stages, and the sequence that the document passed through before issue. Refer to Set Approval Steps section below.
- The Approvers - This identifies the person(s) required to perform the approval. you can also select 'Optional' reviewers that can site the document but are not required for the approval to progress.
Before beginning, make sure that all approvers have admin access at either Contract, Project, or Account level.
Approval Workflow Edit Mode
Begin editing the approval workflow by following these steps.
If starting from within Project or Contract settings
- Go to the Project or contract settings
- Find the section 'Certificate Workflow' (in the Section navigator on the left) or 'Payment Schedule Workflow'.
- Click Edit to begin setting up your approval workflow.
Existing contracts or claims/payment schedules approval workflows will not be updated by changes to the project or contract setting respectively. They will need to be individually changed, see settings hierarchy below.
If starting from within a Claim or Payment Schedule:
- Find the current Approval Workflow state is shown at the bottom of the page. Note the Claim or Payment Schedule will need to be in the Review, Approve, or Issue stage.
- Press the pencil icon on the top right to edit the approval workflow.
Existing claims or payment schedules will not be updated with changes to the contract Approval Workflow setting. They will need to be individually changed, see settings hierarchy below.
Set Approval Steps
- Add a step by clicking '+ Approval Step'
- Add at least one approver to each step by clicking '+ Add Approver' and selecting the person required to approve at this step.
Customize the approval step name to better show their purpose or team, such as "QS Approval" or "Project Managers", by clicking the pencil icon next to the Approval Step name.
User eligibility to be an approver; Account, Project or Contract level access must be granted first. For a user to be available to select for a Workflow Approval step, they must have already been added as Project or Contract Members, or been set as Admin at the overall Organisation account level - See 'Creating and Setting up your account'.
Maximum of 5 Approval Steps - Each Approval step can have multiple Approvers, however a maximum of 5 Approval steps can be set.
Each approval step needs at least one Required Approver.
Distribution email list on issue
PayLab can automatically include additional email recipients on top of the contract main contact.
While in the workflow settings, at the final 'Issue Claim' step of the workflow, emails added to the Email List will be automatically added to the recipient list when a claim/payment schedules is been issued.
Save and you're finished
Once all the Approval steps have been set up, make sure you to hit Save at the bottom of the page and now you're good to go! Take note of the settings hierarchy as your changes will only act on future contracts/claims/payment schedules.
Settings hierarchy for Approval Workflows
PayLab uses a hierarchy, with each level over-riding the level before it;
- Project Level
Sets the default approval workflow applied to new contracts within a project. When adding or changing workflow steps at project level, any existing contracts within that project will not be affected. Set this in the Project Settings Page. - Contract Level - Overrides Project settings.
The approval workflow created will only be specific to this contract in the Project. Set this in the Contract Settings Page. - Claim / Payment Schedule Level - Overrides contract settings.
When Set within a Claim/ Payment Schedule, this is a one off approval workflow. Future claims or payment schedules approval workflows will default back to the Approval Workflow defined in the Contract Settings for that contract.- Set once at or past the 'Review and Submit' state. This is set at any point by editing the Approval Workflow within a claim/ payment schedule while approving, prior to issue.
- Prior approvals are reset; Changes at this level will remove any approvals already applied and return the document back to draft state.
Currently Account Level Workflow Approvals cannot be set - Project level is the highest level.
Related Articles
- Creating New Projects
- Creating a Contract
- How to include the Approval History in the issued Claim/Payment Schedule
- Where to go to change settings in PayLab