Building a multi-level PO approval workflow, in NetSuite - part 2

SuiteApprovals, SuiteFlows, and everything in between.

In this guide, we’re going to:

• Understand what a PO & PO approval are

• Attempt to build a multi-level PO approval workflow in NetSuite using SuiteApprovals, and understand its shortcomings [you are here]

• Successfully build a multi-level PO approval workflow in NetSuite using SuiteFlow

SuiteApprovals

1. Go to Setup→Approval Process Manager→Approval Rule List. Click on “New Approval Rule” and “Use the New Approval Rule page”.

2. Couple important fields here:

   1. End date: set this to some date in the future. This drives the time period for when the rule will be active & enforced.

   2. Subsidiary: set to whatever your POs will be set to.

   3. Record name: important, must be set to “Purchase Order”

   4. Priority: set it to 1. This establishes precedence in case we have multiple overlapping rules active.

      

3. Let’s now embed our approval logic:

   

Wait a second. Let’s inspect the two options:

1. All levels of approval = the PO must be approved by Manufacturing and Finance and Leadership.

2. One level of approval based on approver’s approval limit = the PO is approved by a single department (eg a $950 PO would only go to Finance, a $1250 PO would only to Leadership). Another way to interpret this option:

   1. Manufacturing approves any PO < $1

   2. Finance approves any PO > $1 and < $1000

   3. Leadership approves any PO > $1000 and < infinity

Turns out that SuiteApprovals do not support flows where there’s branching logic in the middle. And even then, the branching must fit the two templates above. Can SuiteFlow solve our problems? Let’s find out.

Next

Click here to go to part 3 of our tutorial.

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