Travel: Adding an Approval Step to Workflow

Once a request or expense report has been submitted, the approval path is visible from within the request or expense report.  It shows all the stops for the request or report and the name of the person who will or did approve the item.  The workflow steps are predetermined for requests and expense reports.  Sometimes an approver might want to add an additional person to the path.  This can be done from the approval screens.

Log into Concur, the University’s travel system at travel.tennessee.edu with your UT NetID credentials with DUO two-factor authentication. Click the Required Approvals area of the summary bar or the Approvals title in the main navigation to access active requests or reports.

Approval section from Menu bar

Select the Request or Expenses Reports tabs to view items ready for approval.  Submissions can be opened by clicking the Request/Expense Name.

Approval Types

Once the submission is opened, reviewed and it is determined an additional approver is necessary, a new workflow step can be added.  These steps are added from within the approval screens.  Requests and Expenses work in a similar manner, but some of the screens are different. 

Requests
To add a step to the request workflow, click Request Details then Request Timeline.

Request Header dropdown

From the timeline, click Edit to add a step.

Click Edit to add a step to Workflow

You have the option of adding a substep for the current approver or a new step to the workflow.   The difference in the two is their position in the new workflow.

How to add a step or substep

When a new step (Cost Object Approver Test, in this example) is added directly after the current approver.  The substep (Default Approver Test in this example) is added after both approvers at the Cost Object Approvals.

Revised request timeline

Expense Reports
From the Expense Reports approval screen, select the expense report to be approved.  From the expense report header, select Details then Approval Flow. 

Expense report Details dropdown

From the Approval Flow screen, the default workflow can be seen. Click the downward pointing arrow to the left of the approval step to expand the workflow to view the named approver(s). The approver in the current workflow step can add another approver.  To do this, click on the blue plus sign to the right of the current approver’s name.  A box will open for the User-Added Approver. 

Expnese report approval Flow

When the User-Added Approver box opens, select the criteria by which the additional approver can be found.  Browse for the user-added approver by name, email, or personnel number.

Add a user-added approver

Select the desired individual and they will be inserted into the workflow as the next step.  When all additional steps have been added, click Approve.  The user-added approver will then receive an automatic approval notification email.

Select approver to be added

Approvers can verify the successful addition of the user-added approver by re-visiting the Approval Flow.

Revised Approval Flow

If you have questions or need additional assistance utilizing the University’s travel system, please contact travel@tennessee.edu.

 

 

Details

Article ID: 143865
Created
Mon 1/23/23 12:51 PM
Modified
Mon 3/27/23 3:19 PM
Environment
Travel/Concur