1. setting up requisition approval levels · approval levels; the requisition process begins in...

Municipal Software, Inc. MSI-Purchase Order Users Guide

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APPENDIX C – REQUISITION APPROVAL PROCESSING

This process allows users the ability to key in their own purchase requests (aka requisitions). The system then processes the requests through the designated approval levels, which are established individually for each user. Once fully approved a purchase order can be generated from the requisition. Using this process helps to reduce both data entry errors and dual entry. Below are the details of how to setup and use this process.

1. Setting up Requisition Approval Levels 2. Entering Requisitions 3. Approving Requisitions 4. Creating Purchase Orders from Requisitions

1. SETTING UP REQUISITION APPROVAL LEVELS

Each user requires a password to access the MSI Purchase Order system. It is in the MSI Password application where passwords are setup and appropriate approval levels for each user are established (see example in Figure C-1).

Figure C-1


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The following fields are used to setup passwords and requisition approval levels:

MSI System When launching the MSI Password application, the first field to fill in is “MSI System”. Since the intention here is to setup passwords and approvals for the Purchase Order program, select “PO” from the drop down menu.

Password Enter in the Password the user will use to sign into the Purchase Order program in the Password field.

NOTE: Passwords are case sensitive.

User Name Enter in the user’s name associated with this password.

Access Levels The access levels section is where permissions to Purchase Order System drop-down menus are defined. Each checkbox pertains to the corresponding menus in the Purchase Order program (see Table CT-1). By selecting the checkbox, it grants the user permission to all the options found under the corresponding menu (see Figure C-2). Check off only those boxes that pertain to the menus this user should have permission to access.

Table CT-1 Password Security Entry Access Levels

checkboxes Corresponding Purchase Order System

Main Menu accessibility Processing 1 Requisitions Processing 2 Purchase Orders Inquiry Inquiry Reports Reports Maintenance Maintenance Support Support

Figure C-2

NOTE: All users will have access to the options found in both the File and Help drop down menus (Figure C-2).


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GL Account Access/Mask – Account # 1, etc. This section can be used to limit the user’s access to certain GL account numbers. The standard MSI wild card of pluses (+) may be used for substitutions.

NOTE: If the user should be able to access all GL Account numbers, then simply key in enough pluses (+) in the Account # 1 field to match the length of the GL mask. In the example in Figure C-3 below the mask is FFDDCAAA, which is 8 characters long and therefore 8 pluses would be keyed into that Account # 1 field.

Figure C-3

In the example illustrated below (Figure C-4) the GL mask is FFDDCAAA. With the Account fields setup as they are, this particular user can only enter in requisitions using GL Account numbers in each of the following:

Fund 01 Department 00 Class 9 Account 215

Figure C-4

Purchase Level (up to) – Level 1, etc. This section, combined with the “Approval Passwords” section, is where the requisition approval levels are defined.

This section is used to define the maximum dollar amounts each user can approve before the requisition moves on to a higher user level for approval. In the example illustrated in Figure C-1 this user can approve their own requisitions as long as they are no more than $150.00. Meaning that if SUGAR keys in a requisition for $150 or less, it is immediately available to be pulled directly into a purchase order – without further approval. When Thomas Smith (aka SUGAR) enters a requisition that totals more than $150, then it will require other user(s) to approve the purchase request before it can become a purchase order.


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NOTE: The highest approval level needs to have total approval rights and should therefore be set to $99,999,999 in the Purchase Level (up to) field.

Approval Passwords – Level 1, etc. This section works in tandem with the “Purchase Level (up to)” section to set requisition approval levels.

This section is used to define which users can approve the dollar amounts set in the “Purchase Level (up to)” section. In Figure C-5, the user with the password SUGAR can approve all requisitions as long as they don’t exceed $150, the user with the password of BANKER can approve all requisitions up to $1000, DAISY can approve all requisitions that are not more than $3000, etc.

Figure C-5

Backup Password The Backup Password field is used to specify a user who can approve requisitions in the even that this user is out of the office. In Figure C-6, the user who signs into the system with the password of CRAIG will approve all of JULIA’s requisitions when she’s set to Out of Office.


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Figure C-6


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Out of Office When this box is checked it activates the backup user specified in the “Backup Password” field and forwards requisitions for approval from this user (JULIA in Figure C-6) to the backup user (CRAIG in Figure C-6) so that requisition approvals may continue in her absence.

NOTE: When this box is checked and the user specified in the Backup Password field logs into the Purchase Order program and there are requisitions for the original user to approve, the backup user will see the below message.

When the Backup user clicks “OK” the PO Approve Requisitions screen will open where a list of requisitions awaiting approval will be listed (see Figure C-9).

NOTE: In the example pictured in Figure C-6, user JULIA is set Out of Office. If another user has

JULIA in their Backup Password and you try to set that user Out of Office too, then the below message will appear and the Out of Office box will automatically uncheck itself:

This is because the program is not designed to piggy-back Out of Office users.

In this scenario, specify a backup other than JULIA who can approve requisitions on this user’s behalf.

NOTE: In the example pictured in Figure C-6, user JULIA is set Out of Office and CRAIG is her backup.

If you try to set CRAIG as Out of Office too, then the below message will appear and the Out of Office box will automatically uncheck itself:

This is because the program is not designed to piggy-back Out of Office users.


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In this scenario, specify a backup other than JULIA who can approve CRAIG’s requisitions in his absence.

Print Options – Windows, etc. Select Windows Print if using the MSI Purchase Order program over a Windows platform. If MSI is running on a Unix System, then select that option. Line Print should not be selected (it is a remnant from the older, character version of the MSI program).

Prior Fiscal Year Access This field can be left blank. It is populated when setting up users for the General Ledger MSI System and can be ignored when setting up users for other applications.

2. ENTERING REQUISITIONS

Once passwords, security, and approval levels are setup as detailed in Section 1 Setting up Requisition Approval Levels; the requisition process begins in Requisition Entry (from the Purchase Order System Main Menu select Requisitions > Requisition Entry). For details on how to enter a requisition, see Section 1.10 Requisitions Entry.

In the example shown in Figure C-7, Thomas Smith has signed into the Purchase Order system with his password SUGAR and keyed in a Requisition totaling $8450.00, which exceeds his approval level as defined for him in the MSI Password program (see figure C-1).

Figure C-7


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Notice that the Status of each line is set to “2”, this means that the Requisition is currently pending approval by the user specified at level two in the MSI Password program. To view who that user is, simply select Inquiry > Requisition Inquiry, key in the Requisition number in question and view the “Waiting for approval by” field at the bottom of the screen (Figure C-7) or use the MSI Password program (Figure C-1) which shows that it is the user who signs in with the password BANKER.

3. APPROVING REQUISITIONS

Continuing from the requisition example displayed in Figure C-7, when Olivia Anderson (the user who has approval level 2 rights) signs into the Purchase Order program with her password BANKER, the approvals icon (as in Figure C-8) is displayed on the toolbar which tells her that there are Requisitions awaiting her approval.

NOTE: On a regular basis each user who has approval rights should access the Purchase Order system to see if there are any new requisitions that require authorization.

Figure C-8

BANKER has the option of either clicking the approvals icon or selecting Requisitions > Approve Requisitions from the Purchase Order System Main Menu in order to open the program (Figure C-9) that will allow her to process this requisition through the approval structure as defined in Figure C-1.

Once in the PO Approve Requisitions screen, all of the detail will automatically populate as in the example shown in Figure C-9.


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Figure C-9

From here BANKER has a few options:

1. To quickly approve the requisition without viewing any of its detail, just highlight the line (by single clicking on it) and click “OK”. This will bring up the message in Figure C-9a which gives BANKER the options to either approve or deny the requisition or to return to the approval screen. If BANKER approves the requisition, then it moves on through the approval process for the next user to approve. If BANKER selects “No” to deny the requisition then that requisition will be closed.

Figure C-9a

2. To view the detail of the requisition before approving it, double click on the requisition line item to open the PO Requisition Approval Detail screen (see Figure C-10). From this screen, the user has a few options (as defined in the lower left-hand corner of the screen):

a. Click the “Approve All Items” button to approve the entire requisition with just 1 click.


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b. Double-click on individual line items to only approve those particular lines. c. Enter the Item # and Quantity in the boxes provided to partially approve a line item. For

instance, in Figure C-10 Item # 1 is for 65 Cellular Phones. If BANKER only wants to approve 30 of those for purchase, she can type “01” in the “To Partially Approve an item enter Item Number” field and then type “30” in the “and Quantity” field.

d. Only the user who has final approval for this requisition can use the final option “To Unapprove an Item with a status of “O” enter an Item Number”. If that user approves a line item and then decides that was a mistake, they can enter that Item # in this field in order to set the status from “O” back to the highest approval level # related to that requisition’s approval path.

Figure C-10

NOTE: Once a line is approved it cannot be unapproved… unless the one to approve it moves the Status to an “O” for Open.

NOTE: Once a line item is approved, the status of that line item will change to the next appropriate level of authorization as defined in the requisition originator’s password file (see Figure C-1). In the example in Figure C-11, BANKER has approved Item # 02, 03, and 05, which have moved on to Status 3 and are therefore awaiting approval from DAISY.


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Figure C-11

NOTE: To exit this screen and go back to the PO Approve Requisitions screen after all intended changes are made; click the “Exit” button. Or, if all the line items are approved, then the below message will appear. In this case click “OK” to exit the screen.

NOTE: Once the user approves all pending requisitions, they will see the below message. When “OK” is selected, the PO Approve Requisitions screen will automatically close taking the user back to the Purchase Order System Main Menu:


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4. CREATING PURCHASE ORDERS FROM REQUISITIONS

Once a line item in a requisition goes through the entire approval process (as defined in the requisition originator’s password file in Figure C-1), its line status will be set to “O” (see example in Figure C-12). At that point the detail is ready to be pulled into a purchase order. This can be done one of two ways:

1. With Purchase Order Entry; to convert one requisition at a time. 2. With Create Purchase Orders; to convert all requisition line items with a status of “O”.

Figure C-12

With Purchase Order Entry Converting a requisition into a purchase order is a very easy process. With this method, simply click Purchase Orders > Purchase Order Entry from the Purchase Order System Main Menu to open the PO Entry program. Then, in the Requisition Number field type in the appropriate requisition number. When the user tabs from this field, all of the lines in that requisition that have a status of “O” will populate into this purchase order (see Figure C-13).

NOTE: Once a user keys a requisition number into a purchase order and tabs from that field, the corresponding requisition closes (if all of the lines of that requisition are pulled into the PO). Even if the user clicks Cancel or Delete afterwards in Purchase Order Entry, the requisition will still remain closed.


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Figure C-13

With Create Purchase Orders Using this method (by clicking Purchase Orders > Create Purchase Orders from the Purchase Order System Main Menu, Figure C-14) is the fastest way to convert all available requisitions into purchase orders. With the click of one button the user creates purchase orders from all requisitions that have line items with a status of “O”.


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Figure C-14

This program gives the user the option of which purchase order number to create first and which purchase order date to use on all the purchase orders created.

Once the user clicks OK, the program begins its process; when finished the screen will appear as in Figure C-15 which shows how many purchase orders were created and the highest Purchase Order / Requisition number that the program scrolled through.


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Figure C-15

Clicking “OK” on the message in Figure C-15 will take the user back to the Purchase Order System Main Menu where they may continue processing the newly created purchase orders.

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