AX1567

Approval Process Step (plan file processes)

The Approval Process Step is intended to be used for steps where you need users to review plan files in a file group. The reviewer can either approve the plan file to move it on to the next step, or reject the plan file to return it back to the prior step.

Step behavior

When a plan file becomes active in the Approval Process Step, a task is generated for the step owner to review (and optionally edit) that plan file. When the owner has completed their review, they can complete the step by choosing one of the following options:

Approve— Approves the plan file and moves it to the next step.
Reject— Rejects the plan file and moves it back to a prior step for more work. The specific step it is returned to depends on the rejection behavior configured for the step.
Deny request—Aborts the plan file in the process. This option only applies to on-demand processes, and only if Allow reviewers to abort the plan file process is enabled for the step.

The Approval Process Step is the only step type that supports moving the process either forward or backward (or to stop it entirely); all other steps only have the option to move forward when completed.

While the plan file is active in the step, the step owner has their security permissions "elevated" as necessary so that the user can open the file and review it for approval. If the setting Assignment grants write access to plan files is enabled for the approval step, then the permission elevation will include the ability to save the file and its data. For more information, see How plan file processes and security interact.

Step-specific settings

Approval Process Steps in plan file processes have the following settings:

Item	Description
Allow reviewers to edit the plan file	Specifies whether the owners of this step are elevated to read/write access to assigned plan files. If this option is enabled, then the "elevation" behavior described in the Process behavior section below will also allow the user to save the file and its data.
Allow reviewers to abort the plan file process	Specifies whether the owners of this step have the option to abort the plan file in the process. The intent of this option is to allow users to "deny" a request and thereby stop it from progressing in the process. For more information on using this option, see Enabling the "deny request" option for a plan file process. By default, this option is disabled, which means that users cannot abort the plan file in the process. This option is only available for on-demand file groups, and only if Enable aborting plan file processes by assigned users at specified review steps is enabled at the process level.
Save and validate plan file before advancing to next step	Specifies whether plan files must be validated and saved before the process task can be completed. This option is only available if Allow reviewers to edit the plan file is enabled. If enabled, then plan files are validated for save errors and then saved (including a save-to-database) before completing the task. If the validation fails then the task cannot be completed. If not enabled (default), then the task is completed without performing any validation or save actions on the plan file. NOTES: If the file group uses virtual plan files, then the validation process only performs a save-to-database. The plan file itself is not saved when using virtual plan files. If Process Plan Files with Utilities is enabled in the file group properties, then utility processing is performed instead of validating and saving the plan file. The utility processing must complete without error in order to complete the process task. When performing utility processing for process step validation, Axiom Software first checks for a ProcessPlanFileUtilities data source flagged as the ProcessValidation data source. If no ProcessValidation data source is found, then the data source flagged as the Default data source is used.
Open forms-enabled plan files as	Select one of the following to determine how form-enabled plan files are opened from the Process task pane: Form in the client (default) Form in web browser Spreadsheet This setting only applies if the plan files in the process are form-enabled; otherwise it is ignored. NOTE: When using the Axiom Excel Client, Axiom forms will always open in the user's browser instead of within the application, regardless of this setting. The spreadsheet option for this setting is also honored for purposes of generating the document link within process notifications. If Spreadsheet is specified, then hyperlinks generated using the `{LinkToPlanFile}` variable will open the plan file as a spreadsheet in the user's default desktop client. However, if Spreadsheet is not specified, then the hyperlink always opens any form-enabled plan files as forms in the Web Client. The ability to generate a hyperlink to open the file as a form within the desktop client is not supported.
Step Rejection Behavior	Select one of the following to determine how the plan file is handled if the step is rejected: Use default process setting (default): The step uses the default rejection behavior as configured for the process on the Process Properties tab. When this option is enabled, the process-level rejection behavior is displayed below the option for reference. Use step-specific setting: The step uses the rejection behavior configured for this specific step. The default rejection behavior does not apply. If this option is enabled, use the When step is rejected field to specify the step-specific rejection behavior: Return to the previous step: The plan file returns to the previous step, regardless of the step type. Return to the previous Edit step: The plan file returns to the previous Edit Plan File step, bypassing any approval steps that fall in-between. Return to a specific step: The plan file returns to a specified step in the process. Use the Specific step to return to field to select the specific step. You can select any step that comes before the current step. Return to a step the user selects: When a plan file is rejected, the step owner chooses the return step. The plan file can be returned to any previous step in the process, as long as the following step-level option is enabled for the step: Show step as rejection choice for user selects rejection behavior. For more information, see Configuring rejection behavior for a plan file process. NOTE: This option does not apply if the approval step is a sub-step of a Multiple Approvals Process Step. In that case, the rejection behavior is configured on the parent Multiple Approvals Process Step instead.
Copy Plan File Settings	This section is only available if the system configuration setting ShowCopyPlanFilesActionInProcess has been enabled for your system. For more information on this feature, see Copying plan files when a process step is completed.
Sort by Dimension Description	Specifies whether tasks for this step are displayed and sorted by the plan code values or by the description values in the Process task pane . By default, tasks in the Process task pane are displayed and sorted by the plan code values. The associated descriptions are appended to the plan code values in parentheses. For example, if the plan code table is Dept, and the description for department 25000 is Finance, then the task displays as follows: Dept 25000 (Finance) If this option is enabled, then tasks in the Process task pane are displayed and sorted by the description values instead. In this example, the task would be displayed as "Finance". Plan code values do not display in the task list when this option is enabled. NOTE: This option only affects the display of tasks for this step within the Process task pane. When a task is completed using the Process task pane, the resulting Process Action dialog continues to display tasks using the plan code values with the description in parentheses.
Grouping Column	Optional. Select a column on the plan code table. Tasks for this step will display as grouped by the column in the Process task pane (or in a custom task pane using the User Process View command). If a column is specified, then tasks for this step display in expandable/collapsible groupings based on the values in this column. For example, if you specify Dept.Region, the tasks are grouped by regions such as US West, US East, and so on. This option is intended to be used for steps where users may have many active tasks at one time, so that the groupings can help the step owners identify and complete their tasks. The grouping option only applies to the Process task pane in the Desktop Client. All other dialogs and pages that display active process tasks do not display the tasks using these groupings.