Banner Finance Approvals

Banner Finance approvals allow documents to be keyed into Banner and then routed to the appropriate person(s) for approval prior to posting. The person who keys the document into Banner is called the originator, and a person who reviews/approves the document is called an approver.

Documents are routed based on their accounting/budget strings. Routing is handled by approval queues, which are set up in advance. Each approval queue defines some combination of the following:

Document type (e.g. journal voucher, requisition)
Rule group (e.g. distinguishes accounting JVs from budget JVs)
Chart
Fund code
Organization code
Account code
Program code

Each queue will be defined with one or more approvers: generally, it’s a good idea to have at least one primary approver, and a backup approver. When more than one level of approval is required, approvals from one queue can be automatically routed to another queue.

One document may require approval from multiple departments. For example, if an accounting journal voucher hits three different organization codes, it may be routed to three different queues for approval (depending on how the queues were defined). If it is, one approver from each of those three queues must approve that document. If any of them disapprove it, all previous approvals are nullified, and the document is returned to the originator for correction.

The general workflow for approvals is as follows:

The originator keys the document into Banner.
The approvals process runs. This compares the chart, fund, org etc used on each line of the document to all the queues defined for that document type.
A list of required approval queues is created for that document.
Email goes out to approver(s) from the first queue on the list.
An approver from that queue approves the document. (only one person from each queue needs to approve)
If this is the only approval required, the document is sent to posting. Otherwise, the process cycles back to step 4, and email is sent to the next approver(s). This repeats until all required approvals have been obtained.
When all approvals have been obtained, the document marked as “final approved”.
Posting runs, and the document is posted to the ledgers.

For more information, see this Banner Finance Approvals flowchart.

Additional information:

Questions about approvals? Contact Sharon.Colman@wwu.edu