Defining Workflow

OPTIONAL FEATURE - Contact your RizePoint representative to enable/disable this option.

Once a waiver is requested, it is placed in a queue, and the user assigned to the role associated with that queue receives email notification that a waiver is waiting for approval. Once approved, the next user is notified, and so on. The workflow you configure determines how a waiver moves from person to person (or from queue to queue) for approval.

There are three different types of workflow available:

• AUTOMATIC: The system first checks to determine if a pre-queue exists, and if so, places the waiver in this queue. Once approved, the system checks for the roles assigned to the standard. The waiver is placed in the queue assigned to the first role assigned to the standard, then to the queue associated with the second role assigned to the standard, and so on, until the last role has approved the waiver. Finally, the system checks to see if a post-queue has been defined, and if so, moves the waiver to that queue. The automatic workflow ignores the Steps, if defined, and instead goes strictly by the roles assigned to the standard, and in the order in which they were added.
• MANUAL: The system first checks to determine if a pre-queue exists, and if so, places the waiver in this queue. Once approved, the system looks at the Steps associated with the workflow, and moves the waiver to the first queue specified (that is, to the user assigned to the role associated with the first queue), then to the second selection, then the third selection, and so on. Once all have been approved, the system checks to see if a post-queue has been specified, and if so, moves the waiver to that queue.
• AD HOC: The system places the waiver in the Pre-Queue. All steps, if defined, are ignored. The user assigned to the role associated with the Pre-Queue has two options: (1) APPROVE OVERALL, which ends the approval process, or (2) APPROVE & FORWARD, which allows the user to specify to whom the waiver goes next. Once APPROVE OVERALL has been selected, the system checks to see if a Post-Queue has been defined, and if so, places the waiver in that queue for final approval.

1. Log on as a user with WAIVER - WORKFLOW ADMINISTRATION permission.
2. Go to System > Policies & Waivers > Configure Waiver Workflows.
3. Click the NEW button.
4. In the WORKFLOW INFO section of the page, enter a name for this workflow.
   
   
5. From the WORKFLOW TYPE droplist, select the type of workflow you want to create.
6. If you want someone to look at the waiver before it goes to the user associated with the first queue, select the Pre-Queue role from the droplist. Note that this field is required if you're using the AD HOC workflow type. If you're using the MANUAL workflow type, a pre-queue is optional. If you're using the AUTOMATIC workflow type, the pre-queue field is ignored.
7. If you want someone to look at the waiver after it completes the approval process, select the Post-Queue role from the droplist. If you're using the AUTOMATIC workflow type, the post-queue field is ignored.
8. Select an Escalation Queue if you want the waiver intercepted in the event it remains in the approval process longer than the specified time.
9. The WARNING THRESHOLD fields determine the amount of time to wait before a warning email is sent to remind the user currently responsible for approval that the overall time allotted for approving the waiver is about to expire. In the UNITS field, enter the number of days or weeks to wait, then select DAYS or WEEKS from the UNIT TYPE droplist. Note that this field applies to the overall approval process.*
   
   
10. The ESCALATION THRESHOLD fields are used to specify the amount of time to wait before the waiver is removed from this queue and placed in the Escalation Queue. In the Escalation Threshold UNITS field, enter the maximum number of days or weeks to wait, then select DAYS or WEEKS from the UNIT TYPE droplist. If no escalation role was selected from the ESCALATION QUEUE droplist above, the ESCALATION THRESHOLD field is ignored. Note that this field refers to the overall time allotted for approving the waiver.*
    
    

    The user assigned to the role associated with the Escalation Queue is then sent notification, and that user can then approve or deny it. Note that once a waiver is intercepted in this manner, the user associated with this queue has the responsibility for final approval.

11. Click the SAVE button.

You may specify a separate WARNING THRESHOLD and ESCALATION THRESHOLD for each queue, or step of approval, as well. However, the fields above apply to the overall approval process (workflow) and not to the individual steps of approval.

MANUAL WORKFLOW TYPE

If you selected the Manual workflow type, you'll need to define the steps to determine the order in which the waiver moves through the approval process.

1. Click the STEPS tab.
   
   
2. Click the ADD button.
   
   
3. Select the queue for this step, and click the SAVE button.
   
   
4. Continue to add steps in this manner, in the order in which you want the approval process to progress.

Once a post-queue has approved or denied a waiver, the workflow ends, so make sure you don't select a post-queue as an intermediate step.

Be sure that a workflow has been associated with every policy. All policies MUST have an associated workflow!

ref: Waivers