When a user creates a journal voucher and submits it, the application passes it through several checks to determine when the journal voucher is approved and how it gets assigned to approvals. Essentially, approval checking is performed before and after a balanced JV is submitted. This topic outlines how to set up and use the journal voucher approval process and how to monitor journal voucher approvals. Financial staff and anyone who creates or approves journal vouchers should find parts of the discussion useful. The information also will be of interest to system administrators.
The journal voucher approvals process enables designated approvers to review and approve or reject manual journal vouchers created in General Ledger.
A journal voucher can be reviewed by a single “direct” approver or routed to several approvers in an approver group. In the routing process, the journal voucher amount is compared to each group member's maximum approval limit to determine if the person should review the journal voucher. Each group member can approve or reject journal vouchers up to his/her maximum limit. (Two approvers in the same group cannot have the same limit, however.)
Recurring journal vouchers are not processed through approvals, nor are statistical journal vouchers.
Role objects control access to approver group edits and journal voucher approval queues. You may need to change the settings of role objects for users who work with and administer journal voucher approvals.
Role objects control access to vendor approver groups and vendor approval queues. You may need to change the settings of role objects for users who work with and administer vendor approvals.
The default setting for role objects is None.
To administer journal voucher approvals and access All JV Approver Queues, the role object "JVApprovalAdmin" must be set to Modify or higher in the user's role.
Setting up journal voucher approvals also requires access to organization, source journal, and User Profiles. The documentation topic Set Up and Maintain Users, Administration, and Security explains role objects in detail.
Approval requirements can be set up in different ways.
- Individual account codes for the organization can be flagged as requiring journal voucher approval.
- Journal vouchers for designated source journals can be flagged for approval.
- Journal vouchers whose profit effect exceeds a specified threshold can have approval required.
Journal voucher approvers are designated as such on their User Profiles.
Approval can be required before a journal voucher is posted, or after posting.
Below are the decision points used by the system to determine if approval is needed, and how to route a journal voucher for approval. Figure 4 is a flow diagram.
If yes,
a. On the source journal: Is the source journal flagged as needing approval (Figure1)?
Figure 1 - Requiring JV Approval for a Source Journal
- If yes, the system routes the journal voucher to the approver(s) listed on the organization record.*b. Is an account code on the journal voucher flagged as needing approval (Figure 2)?
Figure 2 - Requiring JV Approval for an Account
- If yes, the system routes the journal voucher to the approver(s) listed on the organization record.*
c. Does the profit effect for the journal voucher exceed an established threshold (Figure 3)?
Figure 3 - An Organization's Profit Effect Threshold Field
- If yes, the journal voucher is routed to approvals to the approver(s) listed on the organization record.*
Note: One of the conditions (a, b, or c, above) must also be met in order for the journal voucher to post first before it goes to approvals.
The Profit Effect Threshold is set for an organization on the Organization record's GL Information tab.
See "Fields on the Organization General Ledger (GL) Information Panel" for details.
- When the Approve Before action is specified on the User Profile, the journal voucher enters the approval process before posting.
-
If the Approve Required action is specified, the journal voucher is allowed to post before it routes through approvals.
When you require source journal or account code approval, the organization must designate approvers. For source journal or account code approvals, if no approvers are assigned on the organization record, the journal voucher remains in the Entered Status.
Figure 4 displays the approvals decision points.
Once a journal voucher is created, balanced, and the control totals are matched, the user can click Finish Now to send the JV to approval. The Status of the JV then becomes Pending Approval. The journal voucher cannot be posted until its Status is Approved. A previously posted JV that is "unposted" has its Status returned to Entered, and must go through the approval process again.
When a user submits a posted journal voucher that requires approval, the Status of the JV is Posted Pending Approval. The approver can approve the JV or leave its Status as Posted Pending Approval. Rejecting the journal voucher is not supported.
To handle a posted journal voucher that an approver does not wish to approve, the approver must approve the journal voucher, and then go to the Journal Vouchers List and unpost it. The journal voucher's Status will be Entered, and it can be edited, and re-routed through the approvals process.
Each approver has an approval queue that contains journal vouchers awaiting approval. An approver can select an unposted journal voucher from the queue and approve or reject it. Approvers can also approve posted journal vouchers from the queue.
If specified on an approver's User Profile, the system can send a notification to an approver when a journal voucher is placed on the person's queue. Notifications can also be sent to the originator of the journal voucher when it is approved or rejected.
An all-approver queue of JVs awaiting approval is also available. This queue is useful for managers or others who have higher-level authority for all journal vouchers. (See Security for the role object setting.)
Journal vouchers whose Status is Posted - Pending Approval cannot be rejected when reviewed from an approver's queue. These journal vouchers must be "unposted" to allow editing, and then re-routed for review.
Source journals: Identify any source journals that require journal vouchers to be approved, either before or after posting.
Account codes: Identify any account codes that require JV approvals.
Approvers: Designate approvers and set up approver groups.
Organizations: Designate approvers, if source journal or account code approvals are required. Set a Profit Effect Threshold value, if used.
JV Originators: For any user who creates manual journal vouchers, edit his/her user profile to indicate if approval is needed. If so, assign a direct approver or approver group to the user.
Setup for journal voucher approvals processing has these steps:
Step/Task |
Path |
1. Identify approvers. - Identify users who approve journal vouchers. - Select notification options and an approver buddy for each approver. |
Administration > Administration > Users > edit user > User Roles tab and Approver Limits tab |
2. Create approver groups. | General Ledger > Journal Vouchers > JV Approver Groups > New |
3. Identify users who create journal vouchers and who must have them approved. - Assign a direct approver or approver group to each user. |
Administration > Administration > Users > edit user > GL Limits tab |
4. Select approval notification options for a user who creates journal vouchers. | Administration > Administration > Users > edit user > GL Limits tab |
5. Identify source journals that need journal voucher approvals. | General Ledger > Tables > Source Journals > edit source journal |
6. Identify account codes that need journal voucher approvals. | General Ledger > Account Management > GL Accounts > edit account record |
7. Set a Profit Effect Threshold amount -- if used -- for the organization. | General Ledger > Tables > Organizations > edit organization > GL Information |
8. For approvals based on profit threshold effects, specified account codes, and/or source journals assign a direct approver/approver group to the organization. | General Ledger > Tables > Organizations > edit organization > GL Information |
9. Enter reason codes to be used in approving or rejecting a journal voucher. | General Ledger > Reason Codes > Reason for Approval Rejection |
Journal voucher approver groups allow journal vouchers to be routed to multiple approvers.
The Journal Voucher Approver Group Edit panel appears (Figure 9). When you add users to the group, they are listed on the lower part of the panel.
To enter more users, go back to Step 5 and follow the steps until the approver group is complete.
Note: A journal voucher approver group can be restricted by organization, if needed (as described below).
By (optionally) restricting approver groups by organization, you can limit access to them based on users' data profiles.
When an approver group has been restricted by organization, it can only be assigned to users with data profile access to at least one of the restricted organizations.
The JV Approver Group Edit panel (Figure 9) contains a Restricted Orgs tab that lets you identify organizations.
For users who create manual journal vouchers, each user profile lets you specify whether approval is required, and notifications (if any). Several fields on the GL Limits (Figure 8) panel are available for this purpose.
If a source journal must have journal entries approved -- either before or after posting -- you can set a flag on the source journal for this requirement. You identify source journal approvers by organization. (See the subsequent section.)
You can require approvals for journal vouchers whose Profit Effect exceeds a threshold that you set. The field Profit Effect Threshold on the Organization Edit panel's GL Information tab (Figure 12) is used for that purpose.
- On the GL Information tab (Figure 12), enter a threshold dollar amount in the field Profit Effect Threshold. When a journal voucher's Profit Effect exceeds the amount (plus or minus), the journal voucher routes for review to the approvers designated for the organization.
When you wish to require approval for journal entries for particular accounts, you set a flag on the account records. Then, you identify account code approvers by organization. (See the subsequent section.)
For profit threshold effects, specified account codes, and/or source journals, you designate either a journal voucher approver group or a direct approver for the organization. The fields for making the assignments are on the Organization Edit panel's GL Information tab (Figure 15). (You must have first flagged the source journal/account code as needing approval. For profit effect threshold approvals, a Profit Effect Threshold amount must be entered on the GL Information tab.)
Reason Codes provide a shorthand method for communicating the reason for rejection (or approval). When a journal voucher approver approves or rejects a journal voucher, the approver selects a Reason Code from a list that you or your system administrator creates.
When you create a journal voucher, the Approval tab contains fields where you can identify the person or approver group responsible for approving the journal voucher, if none have been assigned for the organization or the user.
The Journal Vouchers List lets you monitor the progress of a journal voucher through approvals.
The JV Status column displays one of these values:
Entered - The journal voucher has been created, balanced, and control totals matched. But, it has not routed through approvers (if required), nor posted to the General Ledger. Information can still be added to the journal voucher. If a journal voucher has been "unposted," its Status returns to Entered, and it can be edited, and re-routed through approvals.
Incomplete - The journal voucher is incomplete. It may not be balanced, or account information may be missing. You can edit the journal voucher to complete it.
Pending Approval - The journal voucher has been submitted for approval. Approval is pending with the appropriate approver.
Posted - Pending Approval - The journal voucher has been posted, but has not been approved. Approval is pending.
Rejected - The journal voucher was submitted for approval and rejected by a journal voucher approver.
Note: If the last approver in an approver group approves a journal voucher, the journal voucher can still end up with the Status of Rejected. This situation occurs if the journal voucher's dollar amount exceeds the last approver's dollar limit for approvals. The clue to this occurrence is in the journal voucher approval history.
- To display the history, next to the journal voucher, select Menu > View Audit Info.
The audit data shows that the last approver approved the journal voucher, but the journal voucher Status changed from Pending Approval or Posted - Pending Approval to Rejected.
Approved - The journal voucher was submitted for approval, and was approved.
Posted - The journal voucher has been posted.
Direct Approvers are solely responsible for the approval or rejection of a submitted journal voucher. When they approve a journal voucher, the JV Status is Approved.
Approver groups share responsibility for the approval or rejection of a submitted journal voucher. When a member of an approver group approves a journal voucher, the journal voucher Status remains at Pending Approval until all eligible approvers in the group have reviewed the journal voucher. When the last eligible approver approves the journal voucher, the journal voucher Status is set to Approved.
Journal vouchers are routed sequentially to each member of an approver group -- according to each approver's Max Approval Limit -- until the approver whose Limit is greater than the Journal Voucher Total is reached.
When an approver user sets his/her "Out of Office" status, approvals for the user are routed to the user's approver buddy.
Approvers access journal vouchers waiting for approval through approval queues.
My Journal Voucher Approval Queue is unique for each approver and shows journal vouchers assigned to the approver.
If you are a journal voucher approver, this queue contains journal vouchers assigned to you.
All Journal Voucher Approval Queues shows journal vouchers assigned to all journal voucher approvers.
Consolidated Approval Queue shows journal vouchers awaiting approval, and any other transactions documents (such as invoices) that you are also authorized to approve.
Based on a journal voucher approver's user profile settings, the approver may be notified by an email when a new journal voucher is placed in his/her approval queue.
The General Ledger main Contents contains menu links to the approval queues.
The review reason is also supplied in the column Reason Approval Assigned. This column can have these values:
For Source Journal Direct Approval - A direct approver has been assigned to approve source journal entries for the organization generating the journal voucher.
For Account Code Direct Approval - A direct approver has been assigned to approve account codes entries for the organization generating the journal voucher.
For Source Journal Group Approval - An approver group has been assigned to approve source journal entries for the organization generating the journal voucher.
For Account Code Group Approval - An approver group has been assigned to approve account code entries for the organization generating the journal voucher.
For Direct Approval - A direct approver has been designated on the journal voucher by the originator.
For Group Approval - An approver group has been designated on the journal voucher by the originator.
Notes:
When the Journal Voucher Status is Pending Approval, the Finish Now button is disabled on the journal voucher Edit panel. A user who edits the journal voucher cannot click Finish Now to process the journal voucher. The journal voucher must first be approved.
This Consolidated Approval Queue consolidates all your invoices, journal vouchers, check requests, and requisitions needing approval in one place.
You can see all the transaction documents that you are authorized to review and approve or reject.
This panel is helpful for approvers who approve multiple types of transaction documents...such as invoices and requisitions...so that they do not have to go multiple approval queues in the ERP application. Everything is in one queue.
From the Materials Management, Accounts Payable, or General Ledger main contents, select Consolidated Approval Queue (Figure 18).
The list of transaction documents awaiting your approval appears. On the list are journal vouchers awaiting approval, but also any other documents that you are authorized to approve.
The links and menu have the same capabilities as those on My Approval Queue or on All Approval Queues.
When an approver's Out of Office status is set, journal vouchers for the approver go to his/her approver buddy. If an approver group is assigned to the journal voucher, both the original approver and the person's approver buddy can belong to the approver group.
In this situation:
A General Ledger feature lets you create maintenance jobs for mass changes to journal voucher approver groups (Figure 19)
The mass approver change feature lets you swap multiple approvers in and out of approver groups for journal voucher approvals.
You can change the members of approver groups; remove approvers from groups; and add new approvers to approver groups.
The remove function also lets you remove an approver as the direct approver for other users.
Similar to other "mass change" features in the application, you first create a "mass assignment" job, and specify the approver reassignments in the job.
When the job runs, the changes take effect.
Details on using the mass maintenance feature are in the topic "Making Mass Approver Changes."
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