Approval Chain for Voucher Adjustments

When the Approval Chain for Voucher Adjustments is enabled, Approval Chain functionality will be used to obtain approval for most A/P voucher charges created from within the financials module. System generated adjustments and system generated tax do not require approval.

The Approval Chain Domain Table is used to manage Approval Chain workflows that are initiated from Transportation Manager. For the 6.3.2 release, there is just one row in this Domain Table representing the Approval Chain for Voucher Adjustment workflow. When the row in the Domain Values table is Active, Approval Chain logic will be triggered.

When Approval Chain workflow for Voucher Adjustments is active globally, an Approval Document will be created for most Charge Details created from within the Financial A/P module. This includes Voucher Charges associated with initial vouchers, post charge vouchers and miscellaneous vouchers. The following Voucher Charges are exempt:

• Initial charges (includes base charges computed by rating and system generated tax charges)
• System generated adjustments (created during Transfer to A/P process to adjust for minor variances between Voucher Amount and Approved Amount)
• Charges associated with A/R Vouchers

If the Approval Chain workflow for Voucher Adjustments has been activated globally but a Voucher Charge is exempt for any of the reasons listed above, the Approval Status will not be set. If the Approval Chain workflow for Voucher Adjustments has not been activated globally, Approval Status will not be set.

The APIs that can be used to create a Voucher Charge will allow the Approval Chain workflow for Voucher Adjustments to be intentionally bypassed. This feature can be used for "system-defined" charges created by integration. There will be no way to bypass the approval chain for charges created via the web UI. The Approval Status for the bypassed Voucher Charges will initially not be set. However, if material changes are subsequently applied to these Voucher Charges (for example, Adjustment Amount is modified), the Approval Chain workflow for Voucher Adjustments will be initiated.

Transportation Manager will create a row in the Voucher Hold Log table for each Voucher Charge that requires approval. When there is one or more system-generated Voucher Hold Condition, the Voucher will be system held. Once all Voucher Hold Conditions have been eliminated, the Voucher will no longer be system held.

Voucher Charges where Approval Status is "Waiting" or "Pending" will have fields recorded for Approval Chain Document Attributes protected, not eligible for modification, even when other fields on the row are eligible to be changed. For example, Adjustment Amount will be read-only while G/L Account Numbers will remain editable.

When enabled, the Approval Chain workflow for Voucher Adjustments will commence when an eligible Voucher Charge is created, or when a "bypassed" adjustment is modified. There is no formal step required by the user to initiate this approval workflow. An Approval Document will be created for each Charge Detail in "Waiting" Approval Status.

When the Approval Document is created (in ABPP), a TM API will be triggered to advance the Approval Status for the Charge Detail from "Waiting" to "Pending".

Voucher Charges where Approval Status is "Waiting" or "Pending" are not be eligible for A/P Accruals and are not eligible to be used as the basis for carrier surcharge based invoicing.

When a Voucher Adjustment Approval Document is accepted:

• The applicable Voucher Hold entry will be deleted. If this was the last Voucher Hold entry for the Voucher:
  • The Voucher Held flag will be set to False.
  • If the Voucher is currently matched to a Freight Bill Detail, the Number of Held Details for the Freight Bill will be reduced by one; if this count is reduced to zero, the System Held flag for the Freight Bill will be set to False.
• The Approval Status for the Voucher Charge will be set to "Approved" and the Approved/Rejected By User ID and Approved/Rejected Date/Time will be updated to reflect the same values assigned to the actual Approval Document.
• If the Voucher is matched to a Freight Bill Detail, Carrier Amounts for the matched Freight Bill Detail and parent Freight Bill will be updated when the Freight Bill Detail Source is "Auto Pay" and the Apply Voucher Adjustments to Auto Paid Freight Bills flag in the Global Settings (new) is True. See "Adjustments to Vouchers Previously Selected for Auto Pay" for additional information.

When a Voucher Adjustment Approval Document is rejected:

• The applicable Voucher Hold entry will be deleted. If this was the last Voucher Hold entry for the Voucher:
  • The Voucher Held flag will be set to False.
  • If the Voucher is currently matched to a Freight Bill Detail, the Number of Held Details for the Fright Bill will be reduced by one; if this count is reduced to zero, the System Held flag for the Freight Bill will be set to False.
• The Approval Status for the Charge Detail will be set to "Rejected" and the Approved/Rejected By User ID and Approved/Rejected Date/Time will be updated to reflect the same values assigned to the actual Approval Document.
• The status for the applicable Voucher Charge (Charge Detail) will be set to "Canceled".
• If the Voucher is matched to a Freight Bill Detail, Carrier Amounts for the matched Freight Bill Detail and parent Freight Bill will be updated when the Freight Bill Detail Source is "Auto Pay" and the Apply Voucher Adjustments to Auto Paid Freight Bills flag in the Global Settings is True.

If a Voucher Charge is deleted or canceled, the Voucher Adjustment Approval Document will be Rejected with a comment indicating why the rejection occurred.

The Reactivate operation will allow a canceled Voucher Charge to be reactivated for a Voucher that is still active. This would allow user to trigger the Voucher Adjustment Approval Chain again, perhaps after modifying the amounts or applying a comment to the Approval Document itself.

If a Voucher is reversed or canceled, the Voucher Adjustment Approval Document for any associated Voucher Charges will be Rejected with a comment indicating why the rejection occurred.

When Approval Chain workflow for Voucher Adjustments is active globally, an A/P Voucher Charge will not be replicated to A/R until the Voucher Charge has been approved.

Approval Chain functionality for Voucher Adjustments is only supported for A/P Voucher Adjustments.