Create New Approval - Users Tab Options

Approval Stage

Defines where the approval resides in the workflow.

Before Run. The approval must be approved before the batch is run and imaged through the Advanced Reporting engine in the PACE Server.

After Run. The approval must be approved before the batch results are distributed to a receiving party, such as print vendor, or email recipient.

Post Distribution. The approval must be completed before the batch is considered complete. If there is a third party involved in the distribution process and the approval has run, it needs to be completed before the batch is considered Complete. A pending post distribution approval does not prevent imaging or distribution, but it does prevent a batch from moving to a completed status.

User/Groups

A list of users or business groups to whom you can assign the approval appears. If you select the Groups button, you can view the users contained in the business group. Select a business group, right click, and select Show Business Group Users from the popup menu. A dialog box appears that displays the Users contained in the selected business group.

Select users or business groups and click the Add link.

Approval Express

Defines how often the approval update history is refreshed.

Every Run. Update approval history every run. Each time an approval record is created for a submitted batch, the approval must be approved.

Monthly. Update approval history monthly. If an approval record is created for a second time in a month, the approval status history is maintained. An approval with a Monthly expiration that was marked as approved in the initial run would start as approved when the approval record was created for the second time in the same month’s period.

This feature does not apply to batches that are submitted using the Batch Status window.

Comments Required for Rejection

This option allows you to specify, at the individual approval level, that an approval requires comments when its status changes to Rejected.

Refer to Appendix A, “Configuring PACE for Client Reporting” for detail on system settings for required comments.

User Defined Approval

This field is optional. You can enter a Visual Basic project and class that performs specific error checking functions, such as searching for key words in reports or comparing numeric values from one report to another. Through use of this class, you can reduce the amount of time you spend reviewing reports. For example, you can create a class to search for the word “unknown” in reports. Or compare the Total Market Value from one report in the package to another. The Visual Basic project that contains the class (the associated DLL file), must be registered on the PACE server for the error checking functionality to run successfully.

Define Approval Notification List

Defines a list of contacts to be notified when an approval status changes on the Define Notification List dialog box.

Add User. Click to add a contact to the Approval Notification List section.

Notify Upon: Select when to notify the contact of the approval.

Approved. Notifies a contact when the approval is approved.

Rejection. Notifies a contact when the approval is rejected.

Due Date. Notifies a contact when the approval moves past its specified due date.

Approval Due Date

Specifies a due date for the approval, and, if you define an approval notification list, send email notifications to recipients when the approval moves past its specified due date. Client Reporting assigns one of the following status values to an approval that moves past its due date:

Ready. Indicates the current date is earlier than the approval’s due date and there are no preceding dependencies in a pending state.

Delayed. Indicates the current date is later than the approval’s due date and there is at least one preceding dependency in a pending state.

Late. Indicates the current date is later than the approval’s due date and there are no preceding dependencies in a pending state.

You can define the Due Date as either a specific number of days greater than the Batch creation date, or base it on a Date Rule which calculates the Due Date by using the Batch creation date as the reference date.

Notification is also sent when approval status changes to either rejected or approved, depending on what you selected in the notification.