P-Card Workflow and Notifications
Overview
The Procurement Card (P-Card) module is fully integrated with Workflow for approvals and notifications. The module comes standard with two approval and two notification models. Each has its own features and benefits that you may find valuable.
Approvals
Approvals can be processed using one of two methods: at a group level where an action cascades to each associated transaction record or at an individual transaction level where each transaction requires an action in order to update the record.
Workflow Approval Level
In Workflow Designer, you should only make one model active in a single environment:
Statement Import Groups by Card Approval - PCARD_APPRG: Approval user receives one item on the task list for all transactions in the group. If the user marks the group approved, each transaction in the group is also individually marked approved.
Transaction Level Approval - PCARD_ APPRT: Approval user receives one item on the task list for each individual transaction.
Group Approval
Each group of transactions that are imported together becomes a statement holder group based on a summary of P-Card transactions. For example, if you download transactions from the bank once per week, the result would be a group of transactions for each card for the week.
The benefit with this approach is the ability to streamline the number of approvals required for transactions. However, each group of charges is sent to all assigned approvers for any charge in the group. Users may need training to look for their charges by Account Code or Description to find the appropriate charges and credits on which to take action.
A business rule has been created on the Statement Holder Record Group to cascade the Approval Flag update to all individual charges in the group. This means that after the group of transactions is approved, the approval flag is updated on each transaction so that they can now stand independently in case changes are needed.
When an approver rejects a record, if you are using group level approvals the Group Status is set to RJ.
Transaction Level Approval
Each P-Card transaction that is imported from the bank is approved separately in this model. This works best for cardholders with credit card charges which have many approvers, such as an IT or Maintenance Department Card that purchases for other departments. With transaction level approval, each transaction is routed only to the individuals that need to approve that single charge. Everything about the charge stands independently, but it may require each user to approve a higher volume of transactions.
This method provides the benefit of transaction approval and AP payment independent from other transactions in that statement holder group by import date.
When an approver rejects a record, if you are using the transaction level approvals the Transaction Detail Status is set to RJ. It does not affect any other records.
Send to AP Approval Level
On the APPCBK page, the Approval Level field determines when a transaction is sent to Accounts Payable (AP). It is strongly recommended to use the same setting that you use in Workflow Designer.
T-Transaction: The individual transaction is sent to AP when it is marked as approved.
G-Group: The transaction is sent to AP only when all transactions contained in its group are marked as approved.
None: The transaction can be sent to AP without approval.
You need to define the approval level for each card holder with the same approval level.
Notifications
Transaction Notification on Approval and Send to AP Failure: PCARD_APPRAPEX
Notification on Import: PCARD_NOTIFYNEW
Transaction Notification on Approval and Send to AP Failure
Transactions may fail the Send to AP process based on a number of business rules in the AP entry screens. P-Card transactions are validated against the AP business rules to identify problems that need to be corrected. Many issues are identified during the reconciliation and validation stages of the process. Even though we validate, over time data can change and no longer be valid. An example is a Purchase Order that was entered and validated, but then closed by another process prior to sending to AP.
When P-Card transactions fail to send to AP, they are updated with a status code of AX (AP exception). As soon as the transaction is updated to AX, Workflow sends an email to the reconciler and any additional users that need this information.
Sometimes the exception is resolved outside of the P-Card process by another action such as re-opening a Purchase Order. If this is the case, the Transaction remains in AX status with the Approval Flag set, and after the PO is open again, transactions with an AX status are picked up again by the Send to AP process with no additional requirement to update the P-Card record.
The exception may need to be updated to reflect the correct information. If this occurs, the transaction status will be updated to RC, and then VA when the user changes and validates the record. The Workflow model is designed to remove the Approval Flag at the beginning of this process, so that it can require another approval for the updated P-Card transaction. Clients may choose to opt in or out of this additional approval, depending on business needs.
Notification on Import
A Workflow model is available to send notifications to reconcilers when they have new transactions to approve. An email notification is sent to the Reconciler ID’s email address defined on the APPCCR page for each statement holder group of transactions that are imported instantly upon import of the transactions.