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Best way to set up approvals by manager / department VP / CFO / CEO

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Level 3

We have a corporate PO request process that requires approval by different people according to the dollar amount being requested:

up to $1000 - no approval needed

> $1000 - Manager

> $5,000 - Department VP

> $10,000 - CFO

> $25,000 - CEO

I'm trying to figure out the best way to set things up and would appreciate advice & opinions! I am a newbie to this. I've read lots of documentation but still struggling.

I could require the users to pick the approver themselves as they fill in the form - just put the hierarchy on the form and tell them to type in the appropriate approver from a user list field. If I do that, though, how do I indicate that the request should be routed for approval to the value of that custom user list field? When I'm creating an approval process it seems to let me choose "Assign to manager" or Project/Program Manager/Sponsor or a specific name, but I don't see a way to select a custom field. I can select the CFO's and CEO's name specifically, but the Department VP depends on which department the requestor is in, and who that VP is.

Should I create a separate Request queue for each of the departments so that I can use one of the fields like Project Manager/Sponsor, which I would fill with the appropriate VP's name?

It also allows me to choose a Job Role or Team. Should I make a separate job role for each department VP, but even if I do that, I'd have to create a separate approval process for each department, right? So I could choose, for example, "Accounting VP" for one process and "IT VP" for another, and so on. And the user would have to choose which request to use based on which department they're in?

Thoughts? Advice?

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1 Reply

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Level 10

Hi Mavis,

I’m happy to start with a nice, low bar other can easily improve upon.

To Start Simple, I’d suggest you create one Approval Path for each of the situations you’ve outlined and name them as such (> $1000 ‚Äì Manager, > $5000 ‚Äì Department VP, etc.) and instruct folks to then attach whichever is appropriate based on the cost of each particular request. For the Manager one, you can use the built in Manager (assuming you’ve got your org chart set up within Workfront), then either use “one of these Department VP’s” (naming them, and letting them procedurally attend to their own, and/or cover for each other if that’s how Pivot rolls) or a role called “Departmental VP” if those folks tend to change over frequently, and ‚Äì same principal ‚Äì “name” the CFO and CEO for the latter two.

Regards,

Doug