Approvals reassessment
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Summary of Approvals reassessment
This topic explains how approvals reassessment functions within the purchasing automation process in ServiceNow's Xanadu release. It covers the conditions under which approvals are reassessed after revisions or merges to purchase orders or requisitions, how due dates for approvals are calculated, and how breached approval tasks are handled.
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Key Features
- Resend approvals for reassessment property (snshop.approval.reassessment.resend): Determines whether an approval requires reassessment when a revision or merge happens. This applies only if the same approval rule triggers; if a new rule triggers, a new approval plan is generated.
- Revision restrictions: Reductions in funds cannot go below amounts already shipped or delivered. Revisions are not allowed on rejected lines, so reassessment does not apply in those cases.
- Approval amount for reassessment: When reassessing, the approval amount includes the original line amount plus any increase in funds (e.g., $1000 original to $1500 revised means $1500 is considered).
- Behavior based on resend property setting: If set to Yes, an in-progress approval plan is marked "No longer required" when a revision/merge occurs and a new plan is created. If No, the existing plan is reused.
- Fully received lines: Rejection of fully received lines during reassessment is not allowed and these lines appear under the Approved tab in Shopping Hub.
- Due date calculation: New approval records in Requested state have due dates calculated based on these properties:
- snshop.pr.approval.duration: Hours allocated per approver (default 9 hours)
- snshop.pr.approval.duration.schedule: Schedule type applied to duration (default 8-5 weekdays excluding holidays)
- Breached approvals review task: If an approval's due date is breached, a purchasing task is automatically created and assigned to the requisition owner. For sequential approvals, tasks are created per overdue approver, while for parallel approvals, a single task lists all breached approvers.
- Task due date: The due date for breached approval tasks matches the breach time from the SLA instance record.
- Exclusions: Tasks are not created for approvals that are canceled or no longer required; corresponding breached SLAs are deleted.
Practical Impact for ServiceNow Customers
Understanding and configuring the reassessment resend property allows customers to control whether approval plans are refreshed or reused during revisions, ensuring compliance with approval workflows and avoiding redundant approvals. Accurate due date calculations help track and manage approval timelines effectively, while automated breached approval tasks facilitate timely follow-up on overdue approvals. By adhering to these rules, customers can streamline purchase automation, maintain better control over approval processes, and reduce delays caused by unresolved approval requests.
Review the conditions for approvals reassessment and their impact on purchase automation.
Resend approvals for reassessment property
The sn_shop.approval.reassessment.resend purchasing property determines if an approval needs to be reassessed as a result of a revision or a merge. The revision could be that of a purchase order or a purchase requisition. This property is only applicable if the same approval rule is triggered. If a new rule is triggered, this property is not applicable and a new approval plan is generated.
For information on approval rule groups and sequencing, and how these impact the property, see Approval rule grouping and sequencing.
A reduction in funds revision is not allowed if the amount is below what has already been shipped or delivered. Revisions are not allowed on rejected lines, and therefore reassessment of approvals is not applicable.
For information on approval rules, see Approval rule types and Create an approval rule.
When an approval reassessment is sent to approvers, the approval amount to be considered must include the revised line's original amount and the increase in funds. For example, if the original line amount is $1000 and an increase in funds revision results in the line amount to be $1500, the amount to be considered for reassessment and approval is $1500.
When the resend approvals for assessment property is set to Yes, if there is an existing approval plan record that is in progress, and a revision or merge occurs before the plan is completed, its status is updated to No longer required, and a new plan is created. If the property is set to No, and if the existing approval plan is in progress, it is reused.
During an approval reassessment, rejection of a fully received line is not allowed. In Shopping Hub, the fully received line is displayed under the Approved tab.
Population of due date on approvals
- sn_shop.pr.approval.duration: Duration, in hours, allocated for an approver to complete the approval request. By default, it is set to 9 hours.
- sn_shop.pr.approval.duration.schedule: The type of schedule associated to the approval
duration. By default, it is set to 8-5 weekdays, excluding holidays.Note:The sys_id of the schedule is used as the value for this property.
Parallel approval records have the same due date. For sequential approvals, the first approver's due date is populated based on the property value defined, the second approver's due date is calculated after the first approval is complete, and so on.
Creation of breached approvals review task
If a due date for an approval is breached, a new task is automatically created using the [PSM] Approval Due Date Breached scheduled job, which runs once a day. This task is a purchasing task, with subtype Approval, and is assigned to the same person to whom the purchase requisition is assigned.
For sequential approval, this purchasing task is created for each approver record that is overdue. For parallel approvals, a single task is created with a related list displaying all the relevant approver records that have breached.
The due date of this task is populated with the breach time on the SLA instance record associated to the SLA definition for the breached approvals review.
For approvals that are no longer required or are canceled, the breached approvals review task creation is not triggered. Breached approvals review SLAs are deleted as they are no longer required.