The Life of a
Typical Report
May 16, 2006
Copyright
2006, R. James Holton, All rights reserved
The purpose of this document is to describe the steps that a
“typical” ESS report goes through during its life cycle. The ESS workflow process can be specified for
each site differently and is highly configurable. Below, we’ll assume that the default
report-manager-audit workflow is being used. Here are the steps:
- With
the Reporter module, a traveler will create a report. There are various options including
“Click Here to Start” and the “Day Trip Wizard”
that are used to launch the creation process. The best option depends on the menu that
you are using. The “Click Here to
Start” option is available on the default menu for the “reporter@your_email_domain” user.
- A user
may save their reports and come back to complete them later. To save a report, without submitting it,
select the “Save Report to Server” option.
- When a
user has completed their report and is ready to submit it for management
approval and payment, they select the “Submit for Reimburse” option. The ESS workflow engine will route the
report for approval according to rules specified in the rules.xml file. At this point, the user will also
deliver any required documentation (i.e., receipts) to the expense report
processing area. Sometimes receipts are stapled to paper printouts of the
report, or placed in a receipt envelop, or faxed/scanned. After a user submits a report, they will
receive an email that their report is being processed.
- Once a
report is submitted, an email message is sent to the designated approver.
In the default workflow that is shipped, this will usually be the manager
as specified in the reporter’s user record. The approver approvers the report with
the “Approve Reports” option on the Reporter’s (and approver) module.
- The
approver may either approve a report or reject it. If the manager rejects a report, they
must specify a reason and an email will automatically be sent back to the
reporter about the rejection. The
reporter can then “fix” the report and resubmit it. Approved reports, under the default
workflow, are placed in the audit queue for expense report auditor.
- If a
report doesn’t have any receipts that are required, the report will show
in the “Fast Track” queue in the “Audit” section of the Audit module. Auditors can approve these reports for
payment without waiting for receipts to be delivered. Fast Track reports as often created,
approved and paid in the same day.
- All
reports ready for auditor review are shown in the “Edit and Audit” queue
under the “Audit” section of the Audit module. Expense report auditors will usually
wait to audit a report until they receive receipts from reporters.
- Receipts
are checked against the report. The
screen that the auditors use highlights each receipt that is required. The auditor will check off each
receipt. Auditors can also edit a
report if adjustments are required.
- Once
the auditor has finished processing a report, they have three
options. They can reject a
report. In this case, the reporter
will need to “fix” the report before resubmitting it. The auditor may save their work and come
back to the report later. They
often do this if they need to contact the reporter or approver for more
information or maybe a missed receipt.
The auditor may also approve the report for payment.
- After
a report has been approved, it must be added to the end-of-day batch. The ESS default allows expense reports
to be paid daily through the batch process. To batch reports for payment, the
auditor uses the “Release for Payment” option under the “Process” section
of the Audit module. Only reports
that can be paid are shown in the “Release for Payment” list. Reports that are being held because of a
missing payments status, a hold status, etc. do not appear in this
list. The reports that will be
shown in the list are controlled by the SQL statement that is found in the
listsql
subelement of the endofday element in the system.xml
file.
- After
all the reports for the day have been added to the batch, an auditor will
generate the feeds for that day.
Usually there are site specific processes that are also run to move
the ESS feeds to proper locations for further processing by the companies
G/L and payment systems.
- As
part of the end-of-day process, the auditor will run the “Payment
Messages” option under the “Process” section of the Audit module. This option will inform reporters that
their report has been processed and they can expect payment.
- Sometimes
a report will be in limbo because a manager is not approving or rejecting
it. The “Follow-up Notifications”
option under the “Process” section of the Audit module will generate email
for these reports to managers, and after a specified period of time, will
escalate the approval process to the manager’s manager. To adjust the
number of days for follow-up and escalation, to change the message text,
you need to change sub-elements in the delinquentmessages
element of the system.xml
file.
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