Hr Processes Forms Workflow Activity Report

Copyright ©2011 Michigan State University. All rights reserved.

12/20/2011 Reference Guide (RGHR-0004) 1

HR Processes and Forms Workflow Activity Report This guide explains the purpose and function of the report and how to track forms as they progress through workflow.

Contents Description and Purpose ................................................................................................................. 1 Using the Report ............................................................................................................................. 2

Description and Layout ............................................................................................................... 2 Report Results ............................................................................................................................. 5 Process Step Details .................................................................................................................... 6

Description and Purpose In the HR Payroll system, forms are submitted into workflow for approval. Forms are routed from approver to approver through the HR-Payroll Inbox. The HR Processes and Forms Workflow Activity Report is used to track and monitor forms through the approval process. The report allows Unit Administrators to see several key pieces of workflow information for forms:

• A list of all forms submitted into workflow. • Current location and status of each form. • Entire workflow route of the form from beginning to end. • A list of all organizations involved in the approval process. • Individual approvers for each step in the approval process. • Contact information for each approver.

The report maintains data confidentiality. Users outside of the Central HR Office can track any form, however they cannot open and view the information contained on the form.

1. The Forms Workflow Activity Report is an SAP report, similar to the Employee Information Report, Reported Time Database Report, and others. The report is accessed

HR Processes and Forms Workflow Activity Report

through the EBS portal by clicking the report link under Unit Administrator > Administrative Services.

Using the Report

Description and Layout The workflow activity report is simple and easy to use:

1. Select the Application. 2. Define the Process Selection filters. 3. Define the Output Selection (optional). 4. Execute the report.

Copyright ©2011 Michigan State University. All rights reserved. 12/20/2011 Reference Guide (RGHR-0004) 2

The main parts of the selection screen are:

1. SAP Navigation Bar: Navigate forward and backward between screens; standard to all

SAP reports. 2. Execute button: Click to run the report. All SAP reports use this same button to run the

report. 3. Application: Determines the type of forms to include in report results.

• Personnel Administration: Include only forms that take action on a person/employee, such as hiring, appointment, change of status, and termination forms. This application includes all forms except the following: Change Faculty/Academic Staff Position Create Faculty/Academic Staff Position Change Support Staff Position Create Support Staff Position


• Personnel Development - Include only forms that take action on organizational management or create or change positions. This application only includes the following forms: Change Faculty/Academic Staff Position Create Faculty/Academic Staff Position Change Support Staff Position Create Support Staff Position

The Process Selection Area contains additional criteria.

• Process Reference Number: Search for a single form. Every submitted form receives a unique process reference number. Enter that number in this field to locate only that specific form. The preceding zeroes are not needed.

• Process: Select a specific process. The process is the same as the name of the form. Look up the process that the report will search for. The image to the right shows a listing of available processes that can be selected for this field.

This lookup provides a listing of all processes regardless of the application selected. Remember that the report is driven by application. For example, if the Personnel Administration application was selected but the chosen process was Change Academic Faculty/Staff Position, the report would yield no results because a change to a position is not a Personnel Administration application.

• Process Initiator: Search for a process by initiator. Enter the MSU NetID of an HR-

Payroll system user to view processes they have submitted. To maintain confidentiality, the actual form cannot be viewed from the report. This allows you to see if another user has initiated a process.




• Process Status: Search for forms by status. Use the lookup to select a process status. Currently, there are more processes statuses available than are used. The only four processes can be selected are:

Draft Started Completed Withdrawn

• Process Start Date: Determines the period of time to be searched. By default, the date range is from 1800 to 12/31/9999. Change this only if you want to limit results to a specific period of time, such as processes that were submitted last week.

• Personnel Number: Searching by personnel number is not recommended as it will not provide any valid results. Available only when the Personnel Administration application is selected.

• Object Type: (Personnel Development only; not pictured) Search for forms that apply to only a certain object type, typically an organizational unit. Enter “O” to search by organizational unit.

• Object Key: (Personnel Development only; not pictured) If an object type is selected, then this field is required. If object type “O” is entered, enter the Organization Unit number here.

• Processor: Search by processor/approver. Enter the MSU NetID of an approver to view forms for which that person was a processor. Note that this does mean that person processed a particular form, just that they could have processed a form. You can use this field to narrow results to forms applicable to your unit.

The Output Selection area contains two checkboxes that provide additional options for Personnel Administration forms only:

• Get Effective Date: Forces the report to display the effective date of the action. For example, to see that a form submitted this week is for an action that will take effect three months from now. If you choose this option it will take longer to run the report.

• Get Hire Employee Names: Forces the report to include and display names on new hire forms. By default, the report does not list the names of new hires because they are not yet in the employee database. If you choose this option it will take longer to run the report. When using this option, be sure to also apply other filter criteria such as initiator and date range to render the report more quickly.


Report Results Once the report is executed, the report results are displayed.

1. The standard SAP Report tool bar allows you to customize the view, layout and filtering. The following columns appear, from left to right:

• Process Name: The type of form. • Ref. No.: The process reference number displayed when a form is submitted. • Initiator: The MSU NetID of the person that submitted this form into workflow. Use this

to see which Unit Administrator submitted a process. • Process Status: The overall workflow status of the form:

Started: Submitted into workflow. Draft: Saved as a draft but not yet submitted. Completed: Has been through all approvers. Withdrawn: The initiator has withdrawn this form from workflow.

• Object Key: The specific object the form/process impacts. For Personnel Administration processes, this is the personnel number of the employee. For Personnel Development processes this is an organization unit or position number.

• Last Name and First Name: The specific person a process is acting on. By default, the report does not display the first and last name of new hires that do not have a Completed status. This is because the new hire does not exist in the employee database until the form completes workflow. You can force the report to pull the names of the new hires and display them in the report by checking the Get Employee Names checkbox before running the report. This will cause the report to take longer to run.

• Start Date: The date the initiator first saved the form. It is not the date that the form was submitted into workflow.

• End Date: The date that the form completed the workflow approval process. This column is blank until it completes workflow.



• Error Description: If a form encounters an error during workflow, it appears here in red. The HR Workflow Administrator will contact the initiator to resolve the issue. If there is no error, this column is blank.

Process Step Details

In addition to the summary information on the opening screen of the report, you can view each individual step in the approval process for a process/form on the report using the Process Step Details button. The detailed steps for the highlighted process are displayed beneath the report in the Process Step Details area. This is where you find out if a form has been approved or rejected.

1. Approvers button: Select a step and click this button to view the approvers for the highlighted step. For steps that have not been completed, it shows who has permission to approve the form at that step. For steps that have been completed, it shows the approver’s name.

2. Approving Orgs button: Click this button to open a window that shows all the organizations involved in the approval process. Central HR does not appear as an approving org, but remember that the majority of forms need Central HR approval before the process is completed if it is not withdrawn or rejected.




Below are descriptions of the columns in the Process Step Details area, from left to right.

• Step Name: The process name from the report along with the name of the person this action applies to.

• Step Status: Indicates what happened at each step. Some of the available step statuses include:

Process Initiated: The initiator submitted the form into workflow. Approved by Dept/Fund: The approver approved the form. Implied Approval: The approver is a primary approver for this org unit and level,

and had previously approved the form. Awaiting Central HR Approval: The form is waiting for final approval from

Central HR.

Note on Step Status for Graduate Assistant Processes: The order in which Graduate Assistant forms are processed by Central HR is determined by the assignment begin date, to help prioritize Central HR approvals. After all departmental approvals have taken place, the system places any forms with an assignment begin date more than 60 days out into a holding tank. Within 60 days of the assignment begin date, the system brings the form out of the holding tank and places it for Central HR approval. The step status for a Graduate Assistant form will not display Awaiting Central HR Approval unless the current date is within 60 days of the Graduate Assistant assignment begin date. You can expect Graduate Assistant forms to be processed by Central HR within a reasonable amount of time before the actual assignment start date.

• Processor: The MSU NetID of the person that took action. • Approver Level: The approval level of the person that took action. Central HR and

initiator are identified as approver level 00. • Approving Organization Unit: Initiators and Central HR are identified with an org unit

of 00000000. • Approving Organization Unit Description: The full name of the approving

organization. • First and Last Name of the approver. • Approver Email ID: The work email address of the person that took action. • Approver Phone Number: The work phone number of the person that took action. • Start Date: The date the action was started. For an initiator, this is the date the form was

submitted or saved as a draft. For an approver, this is the date they opened or assigned the form to themselves for processing.

• Start Time: The time of day the action was started. • End Date: The date the action was completed. Compare this to the start date to see how

much time an approver spent processing the form. • FWD to Expert: Indicates if the form was forwarded to an expert during a particular

step.

Documents

Hr Processes Forms Workflow Activity Report