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Workflow escalation to the next level in hierarchy

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Posted on by ZvikaR

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Hi All,

My question is specific to the purchase requisition workflow, but the answer I think can be applied to any workflow using hierarchy of approval.

I want my workflow to simply escalate into the next level up in the hierarchy, if an approver did not approve on time.

So if requester A reports to B, B reports to C, and C reports to D

And based on approval limit a workflow is sitting with B for approval - once the due date has passed I want the workflow to simply escalate from B to C.

So here is what I am trying, is that the right direction?

So on the Approval step, on the Escalation tab:

1. I selected "use escalation path"

2. I create a new escalation path line

3. On "Assignment Type" tab I selected "Hierarchy"

4. On "Hierarchy Selection tab I selected "managerial hierarchy" (since I am using the default position hierarchy),

5. The stop condition makes sure the employee has enough approval limit:

So my first question: what should be the "start from" value?

My second, related, question is trying to understand what is the meaning of all these "start from" options here?

- "Preparer" is the person who created the the requisition (for themselves, or on behalf of another person)

- "Requester" I am guessing is the person specified on the purchase requisition line, as "requester"? As each line can have a different requester, how is this value used on the purchase requisition?

- "Workflow Owner" is easy - just the person set up as the workflow configuration owner.

- "Workflow Submitter" must be the person who submitted the workflow (I guess it can be different than the preparer), but what is "Workflow originator" which sounds quite similar to "submitter"?

thanks in advance for your help!

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Bell.D 107 on at

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RE: Workflow escalation to the next level in hierarchy

It's strange there is no functionality like assigning to the next person in the queue.

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Rikard Ekengren 52 on at

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RE: Workflow escalation to the next level in hierarchy

Even though you cannot escalate automatically in a setting you could use different stop conditions dependent on how complex the hierarchy is. You could utilize the Position title for this. For example Where the "Employee.Approval limit.Purchase requisition > field > Purchase requisitions.Approval amount" and Job title is not value "PR < 10 000". Then you can add one more escalation path with more stop conditions.

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ZvikaR 152 on at

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RE: Workflow escalation to the next level in hierarchy

I have not, apparently this simple business scenario is not covered out of the box by Microsoft.

However, I learn a "rumor" that Microsoft plans to retire the workflow engine completely early next year and replace it with with Power Automate - so I guess they might not be interested to invest further in this current technology.

Let's hope power automate can do that more easily.

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Rikard Ekengren 52 on at

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RE: Workflow escalation to the next level in hierarchy

Were you able to solve this?

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ZvikaR 152 on at

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RE: Workflow escalation to the next level in hierarchy

Thanks for the information.

Kind of strange to me out of the box functionality cannot address a trivial requirement such as escalating to the next person in the hierarchy.

maybe Microsoft can focus on providing that rather than some bells of whistles...

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MATTGUO 22,342 Moderator on at

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RE: Workflow escalation to the next level in hierarchy

Hi Zvika,

I don't think that the approver will be jumped from B to C with the escalation without the option of "Workflow item owner".

The behavior of Workflow submitter should be same like workflow originator. Please see the pictures of two users clicking the same one PO workflow and they get different results.

For PR, only the preparer/creator can submit the PR, so the Workflow Submitter should be same as preparer and originator.

And in all my tests, the requester always chooses the requester who is in the first line number. You can add the instruction to test.

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