Approving purchase orders
Whoever wants to place an order with a supplier submits it for approval. It then sits at Pending approval, and somebody has to look at it. Until now it sat there quietly: the order waited in a list you had to open of your own accord, and the person who submitted it only noticed days later that nothing had happened.
From now on the order announces itself. As soon as it is waiting for approval, a process appears in the responsible person's worklist - in the bell at the top right, next to everything else that is waiting for them.
What can I do here?
- See which order is waiting for you - without checking the order list every day.
- Open the order directly - the entry links to exactly that order.
- Approve or reject - the notice disappears by itself afterwards.
- Be reminded by email - in addition to the worklist, unless you unsubscribed.
Step by step
- Open the bell at the top right. A waiting order is listed there with its number and the supplier.
- Click Approve order. SCS opens the order with all its lines and the amount.
- Decide: approve or reject. A rejected order goes back to draft and can be corrected and submitted again.
- The entry disappears from the worklist by itself afterwards, no matter who decided.
Fields explained
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Status of the order | Only Pending approval raises a process. Every other status ends it. |
| Submitting person | Responsibility is derived from them: their supervisor gets the notice. |
| Link to the employee record | The connection between the user account and the personnel record. Without it SCS cannot name anybody. |
| Approve purchase orders permission | The supervisor only gets the notice if they are also allowed to decide. |
Values & states
Who gets the notice
The supervisor of whoever submitted the order - and only if they hold the approve purchase orders permission. SCS derives that responsibility: the submitter's user account, from there the personnel record, from there the supervisor, from there their user account again.
If that chain cannot be closed, a defect is recorded and nobody is notified. That is deliberate: a round-robin mail to everyone who may approve is exactly the state this worklist removes - what is on everybody's list is on nobody's.
The most common reasons for a defect:
- The submitter's user account is linked to no personnel record.
- The personnel record names no supervisor.
- The supervisor does not hold the approve purchase orders permission.
When the notice disappears again
As soon as the order leaves Pending approval - no matter who moved it. So after an approval, after a rejection and after a cancellation. SCS always reads the state off the order itself and keeps no copy of it, which is why the entry can never claim something different from the order.
The backlog is picked up too
On the first run, orders that were already waiting for approval before this change appear as well. That is the point: the backlog is the actual finding, and a notice that only counted from tomorrow would never have made it visible.
No amount in the notice
The entry names the order number and the supplier, but no amount. A figure in the notice would be wrong the moment somebody corrects a line - and approving on that figure would mean approving a copy. The amount is one click away, where it is current.
Escalation after seven days
If the process sits for seven days without a decision, it additionally becomes visible one level up. It does not move away: you stay responsible and continue to see it.
Frequently asked questions
I get no notice although an order is waiting.
Check the chain: is the submitter's user account linked to a personnel record? Does that record name a supervisor? And does that supervisor hold the approve purchase orders permission? If the chain breaks anywhere, SCS records a defect instead of sending to everybody.
We do not assign approvals along the management line but through purchasing.
Then no notice goes out today and the defect is recorded. Any other derivation would be a guess about your organisation, and guessing is not done here.
Do I get the same notice again every day?
No. Exactly one process is raised per order. If a rejected order is corrected and submitted again, a new one is raised - that is a new decision.
Can I switch the email off?
Yes, per process kind in the notification settings. The worklist entry stays in every case - it cannot be unsubscribed from.