Deciding on the Approval Process

When you decide on the most suitable approval procedure for your enterprise, there are a series of questions you should take into account:

What data do you want to approve?

In Customizing, you can specify for each data entry profile whether you want to approve the data recorded with that profile. If you decide on approval, all data that was recorded has to be approved. It cannot otherwise be transferred to the target components.

Alternatively, you can restrict the quantity of data to be approved. You can specify that only particular data is forwarded for approval, such as only recorded absences or working times with particular working time attributes.

For more information about approving data only in exceptional cases, see Special Approval .

Which role in your enterprise is responsible for approving data?

Your choice of the most appropriate approval procedure for your enterprise also depends on the people who approve the data:

  • If you want approval to be based on your enterprise's organizational structure, the employee who entered the working times is the decisive factor in selecting an approver. This is particularly suitable if you want data to be approved by line managers, a time supervisor, or a time administrator.

  • If you want approval to be carried out on the basis of projects or orders for which an employee entered working times, the decisive factor in selecting an approver is the working time attributes entered. This is particularly suitable if you want data to be approved by project leads or shop-floor supervisors.

You can also combine the two forms according to the data recorded – for example, attendance times are approved by the project leads and absence times by the line managers. To do so, you have to implement the CATS_APPROVE enhancement spot.

Which application do you want to use to approve data?

To choose the most suitable approval application, the following options are available:

  • The Approve Working Times Web application.

    The Web application is the most user-friendly option for approving data. You can use it in Manager Self-Service and Project Self-Service . The working times to be approved are selected automatically by the system using the SAP Business Workflow , the view group from Manager Self-Service or the grouping ID from the Time Manager’s Workplace .

  • Reporting in the back-end system

    Approvers can use the Approve Working Times report (RCATS_APPROVE_ACTIVITIES) and the RCATS*01 reports to carry out the approval in the back-end system. The data to be approved is selected manually using the report’s selection options. This means that data can be selected according to employees and particular working time attributes. You can also connect the reports to SAP Business Workflow .