Transform Purdue project to update, streamline, simplify fiscal approval and workflow process

The fiscal approval and workflow process has undergone updates that will go into effect with the July 1 General Ledger (Finance) transformation project go-live. The changes are designed to streamline and simplify the process by reducing the number of required approvals and redundant work streams, increasing the timeliness of transactions and postings, and ensuring the review effort is proportional to the impact of the transaction.

One of the main changes will be that transactions under $1,000 will not require fiscal approval. Estimated approval of these transactions today requires more than 19,000 hours of effort annually. A majority of transactions over $1,000 will be routed electronically for required approvals, in many cases eliminating paper forms that are routed around campus before being sent to the central office once the necessary approvals are received, and eliminating the manual work required today to obtain approvals. For example, rather than having to receive an email from an Sponsored Program Services staff member, principal investigators will be notified as part of the workflow when sub-recipient payments on their grants require approval in SAP. 

With the current process, business offices often interact with a transaction multiple times. The new process will streamline workflows to go directly to the approver with the appropriate level of authority, rather than through each fiscal approval level.  The updated process and associated electronic workflows will mean fewer, more strategic touches with less rekeying of information. Departments will see improvements in transaction time, as well as a significant reduction of paper routing and duplicate entry made possible by the electronic workflow.

During the transition period, departments and units should review the individuals who have the authority to initiate transactions that may be less than $1,000 to ensure they have the appropriate training and system access for processing transactions.