In this Topic Hide
The approval process in LINQ Employee Portal consists of two components, Approval Groups and Approval Hierarchies. This topic explains how to use each component to customize the approval process for your organization.
After reviewing this topic, refer to the following topics for assistance in creating and maintaining your approval groups and hierarchies (chains).
Approval Group Setup
Approval Hierarchy Setup
Approval groups are basically groupings of like employees based on jobs.
An employee may fall into multiple approval groups (maximum 1 per job). An employee’s job may technically qualify (i.e., be-a-match) for more than 1 approval group; however, the best possible choice/match will be selected.
When an employee’s job falls into multiple approval groups, LINQ EP will use the following logic to select the best possible approval group for that job:
Approval department, which is the most important because the approval department is the most detailed level in Alio
Job code
Location
To provide additional flexibility, LINQ EP combines the location with either the department or job code. The following list reflects each combination's level of importance; the lower the number, the higher the importance.
Location with department
All Locations with department
Location with Job
All Locations with Job
Location
All Locations
If your organization sets up an approval group that contains both job codes and departments, LINQ EP looks at this setup as an “OR” condition, i.e., an employee will fall into that group if the employee matches the location and job code OR matches the location and department code. Remember that the department takes higher priority. |
Approval hierarchies are the approval process used for an individual approval group.
Approval hierarchies are children of the approval groups, which are groups of employees formed by the employee’s jobs. When a hierarchy is built you assign that hierarchy to an approval group, which tells LINQ EP to process that group of employees through this approval hierarchy. If an approval group does not have an associated hierarchy, the group of employees is not included in the approval process because LINQ EP does not know which approval process to use for that approval group.
Approval hierarchies allow for multiple approvers at each level defined in the hierarchy. When an approver at an individual level approves a request, the request is advanced to the next level of the hierarchy (it does not force all approvers at the approver level to approve the request).
Refer to the following example when setting up your organization's approval groups and hierarchies.
Locations, Jobs, and Departments
Locations |
Jobs |
Departments |
0001 = High School 0002 = Middle School 0003 = Elementary School |
6100 = Art Teacher 6200 = Math Teacher 6300 = Algebra Teacher 6400 = Trig Teacher 6500 = Music Teacher 6600 = Custodian 6700 = Bus Driver 6800 = Principal 6900 = Secretary |
5 = Activities 10 = Math 15 = Administration 20 = Staff |
Approval Groups
No |
Location |
Job |
Department |
Ranking |
1 |
ALL |
ALL |
ALL |
6 |
2 |
0001 |
ALL |
ALL |
5 |
3 |
0002 |
ALL |
ALL |
5 |
4 |
0003 |
ALL |
ALL |
5 |
5 |
ALL |
ALL |
20 |
2 |
6 |
0001 |
ALL |
10 |
1 |
7 |
ALL |
ALL |
10 |
2 |
8 |
0001 |
ALL |
5 |
1 |
9 |
0002 |
6100 |
ALL |
3 |
10 |
0002 |
6500 |
ALL |
3 |
Employees
Alio Employee No |
Location |
Job |
Department |
Possible Approval Group |
Chosen Approval Group |
000001 |
0001 |
6100 |
5 |
1, 2, 8 |
8 |
0001 |
6500 |
5 |
1, 2, 8 |
8 |
|
000002 |
0001 |
6600 |
20 |
1, 2, 5 |
5 |
0002 |
6600 |
20 |
1, 3, 5 |
5 |
|
0003 |
6600 |
20 |
1, 4, 5 |
5 |
|
000003 |
0002 |
6200 |
10 |
1, 3, 7 |
7 |
000004 |
0003 |
6200 |
10 |
1, 4, 7 |
7 |
000005 |
0001 |
6300 |
10 |
1, 2, 6, 7 |
6 |
0001 |
6400 |
10 |
1, 2, 6, 7 |
6 |
|
000006 |
0001 |
6300 |
10 |
1, 2, 6, 7 |
6 |
0001 |
6400 |
10 |
1, 2, 6, 7 |
6 |
|
000007 |
0001 |
6700 |
N/A |
1, 2 |
2 |
000008 |
0002 |
6700 |
N/A |
1, 3 |
3 |
0003 |
6700 |
N/A |
1, 4 |
4 |
|
000009 |
0005 |
6800 |
15 |
1 |
1 |
000010 |
0001 |
6900 |
15 |
1, 2 |
2 |
000011 |
0002 |
6900 |
15 |
1, 3 |
3 |
0003 |
6900 |
15 |
1, 4 |
4 |
|
000012 |
0001 |
6500 |
N/A |
1, 2 |
2 |
000013 |
0002 |
6200 |
20 |
1, 3 |
3 |
000014 |
0003 |
6800 |
N/A |
1, 4 |
4 |
000015 |
0002 |
6100 |
N/A |
1, 3, 9 |
9 |
000016 |
0002 |
6500 |
N/A |
1, 3, 10 |
10 |
Employees 000008 and 000011 are in groups 3 and 4 because they both have multiple jobs and their jobs are linked to different “BEST CHOICE” approval groups. Therefore, requests for these two employees will flow through hierarchies linked to those two approval groups. |
Results
Final Approval Groups — this is the proper way to view an approval group
Approval Group |
Alio Employee No |
1 |
000009 |
2 |
000007 |
3 |
000008 |
4 |
000008 |
5 |
000002 |
6 |
000005 |
7 |
000003 |
8 |
000001 |
9 |
000015 |
10 |
000016 |
Final Approval Hierarchies — this is the proper way to view an approval hierarchy
Approval Group |
Level |
Approvers |
1 |
10 |
Joe, John |
20 |
Jan, Jess |
|
30 |
Pete |
|
2 |
10 |
Ben, Barry, Bob |
20 |
Butch |
|
30 |
Karen |
|
3 |
10 |
Kathy |
4 |
10 |
Doug |
20 |
Rich, Ron |
|
30 |
Eric |
|
5 |
10 |
Bob |
20 |
Kate, Kat, Kirk, Tom |
|
30 |
Mike |
|
40 |
Nick, John |