Workflows are the mechanisms by which business rules and approval processes are implemented in the solution. You can direct certain transactions for approvals using workflows. Some examples of documents for which built-in workflows can be set up are AP invoice journals, purchase requisitions, expense reports, budget planning processes, general journals, customer payments, and free text invoices.
The usage of workflows includes the following:
- Assigning a transaction for review
- Assigning a transaction for approval
- Automation of a business step
- Conditional decisions on business data, which the next steps are dependent upon
- Multiple levels of approvals
- Approval type selection, such as based on role, based on position, and managerial hierarchy
- Workflows can be delegated and/or escalated after a specific time frame
Always keep the workflow implementation as simple as possible. Many organizations move from paper or manual approval processes into systematic workflows and come up with complex rules. It becomes difficult to build and maintain such workflows as organizational changes occur and, eventually, these workflows are abandoned.