Ariba Approval Workflow

Ariba®
Getting Started User

Guide
Ariba Procure-to-Pay™
Ariba Procure-to-Order™
Ariba Invoice Professional™
Ariba Procurement Content™
December 2013
Copyright © 1996–2013 Ariba, Inc. All rights reserved.
This documentation, as well as the Ariba software and/or services described in it, contain proprietary information. They are provided under a license or other
agreement containing restrictions on use and disclosure and are also protected by copyright, patent and/or other intellectual property laws. Except as permitted
by such agreement, no part of the document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise, without the
prior written permission of Ariba, Inc.
Ariba, Inc. assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in the documentation. The information contained in the
documentation is subject to change without notice.
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registered trademarks of Ariba, Inc. Ariba Procure-to-Pay, Ariba Buyer, Ariba eForms, Ariba PunchOut, Ariba Services Procurement, Ariba Travel and
Expense, Ariba Procure-to-Order, Ariba Procurement Content, Ariba Sourcing, Ariba Savings and Pipeline Tracking, Ariba Category Management, Ariba
Category Playbooks, Ariba StartSourcing, Ariba Spend Visibility, Ariba Analysis, Ariba Data Enrichment, Ariba Contract Management, Ariba Contract
Compliance, Ariba Electronic Signatures, Ariba StartContracts, Ariba Invoice Management, Ariba Payment Management, Ariba Working Capital
Management, Ariba Settlement, Ariba Supplier Information and Performance Management, Ariba Supplier Information Management, Ariba Discovery, Ariba
Invoice Automation, Ariba PO Automation, Ariba Express Content, Ariba Ready, and Ariba LIVE are trademarks or service marks of Ariba, Inc. All other
brand or product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or organizations in the United States and/or other countries.
Ariba Sourcing solutions (On Demand and software) are protected by one or more of the following patents, including without limitation: U.S. Patent Nos.
6,199,050; 6,216,114; 6,223,167; 6,230,146; 6,230,147; 6,285,989; 6,408,283; 6,499,018; 6,564,192; 6,871,191; 6,952,682; 7,010,511; 7,072,061; 7,130,815;
7,146,331; 7,152,043;7,225,152; 7,277,878; 7,249,085; 7,283,979; 7,283,980; 7,296,001; 7,346,574; 7,383,206; 7,395,238; 7,401,035; 7,407,035; 7,444,299;
7,483,852; 7,499,876; 7,536,362; 7,558,746; 7,558,752; 7,571,137; 7,599,878; 7,634,439; 7,657,461; and 7,693,747. Patents pending.
Other Ariba product solutions are protected by one or more of the following patents:
U.S. Patent Nos. 6,199,050, 6,216,114, 6,223,167, 6,230,146, 6,230,147, 6,285,989, 6,408,283, 6,499,018, 6,564,192, 6,584,451, 6,606,603, 6,714,939,
6,871,191, 6,952,682, 7,010,511, 7,047,318, 7,072,061, 7,084,998; 7,117,165; 7,225,145; 7,324,936; and 7,536,362. Patents pending.
Certain Ariba products may include third party software or other intellectual property licensed from a third party. For information regarding software or other
intellectual property licensed from a third party, go to http://www.ariba.com/copyrights.cfm.
Revision History
The following table provides a brief history of the updates to this guide. Ariba updates the technical
documentation for its On Demand solutions if:
• software changes delivered in service packs or hot fixes require a documentation update to correctly
reflect the new or changed functionality
• the existing content is incorrect or user feedback indicated that important content is missing
Ariba reserves the right to update its technical documentation without prior notification. Most
documentation updates will be made available in the same week as the software service packs are released,
but critical documentation updates may be released at any time.
To provide feedback on this guide or any Help@Ariba resources, click the Submit Feedback link on any
Help@Ariba page.
Document Month/Year of Updated Short Description of Change

Version Update Chapter/Section
1 August 2012 n/a Reset revision history for release 12s.
2 October 2012 Working with Updated the sections on escalations and withdrawals.
Approval Flows
3 November 2012 Working with In the procedures involving the To Do page, added that, in
Approval Flows the default configuration, the To Do page lists up to 500
items. This limit is configurable by Ariba Customer
Support.
4 March 2013 Working with In the section about email approval, added information
Approval Flows about validation.
5 June 2013 Getting Started Added a note about exporting tables with custom string
fields to Excel.
6 December 2013 Getting Started Updated the information about changing your profile to
include a new feature that allows users to submit
purchasing unit responsibility requests.
Ariba Procurement Getting Started User Guide iii

Revision History
iv Ariba Procurement Getting Started User Guide

Table of Contents
Revision History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
Chapter 1 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Logging In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Session Timeouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Reviewing Your Access Rights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Your Home Dashboard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Understanding the Dashboard Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Masthead Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Command Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Content Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Dashboard Tab Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Content Refresh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Cleaning Up the To Do Content Item . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Customizing the Dashboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Adding Content to the Current Dashboard Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Customizing Saved Search Content Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Editing Properties for the Current Dashboard Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Adding New Dashboard Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Deleting Dashboard Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Rearranging Content Items on Dashboard Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Managing Changes to Dashboard Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Comparing Dashboard Tabs to Template Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Resetting Your Entire Dashboard to Template Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Table Display Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Exporting Table Rows to a File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Errors and Warnings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Searching for Approvables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Options for Searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
General Information About Searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Defining Search Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Using Saved Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Finding Approvables Using Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Setting Your Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Changing Your Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Changing Your Secret Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Assigning Viewers to Your Charges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Changing Your Profile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Changing Locale and Currency Preferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Setting Display Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Chapter 2 Working with Approval Flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

About the Approval Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Ariba Procurement Getting Started User Guide v

Table of Contents
Editing the Approval Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Adding Serial Approvers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Adding Parallel Approvers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Moving Approver Nodes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Deleting Approver Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Tips for Editing Approval Flows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Approving or Denying Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Escalations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Automatic Withdrawal Due to Inactivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Using Email or PDA Approval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Email Approval Exceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Approving or Denying Requests from Your To Do Content Item. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Denied Approvables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Example Denial Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Finding Approved or Denied Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Finding Requests If You Are a Watcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Delegating Approval Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Archiving Approval Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Creating Approval Reports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Changing Approval Notification Preferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Working with Approval Queues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Appendix A Approvable Document Prefix Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Purchasing and Receiving Approvables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Purchasing Card Approvables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Catalog Approvables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Contract Compliance Approvables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Service Procurement Approvables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Invoicing and Payment Approvables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Travel and Expense Approvables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
User Profile Approvables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
vi Ariba Procurement Getting Started User Guide

Chapter 1 Getting Started
• “Logging In” on page 7

• “Session Timeouts” on page 8
• “Reviewing Your Access Rights” on page 8
• “Your Home Dashboard” on page 9
• “Understanding the Dashboard Pages” on page 9
• “Customizing the Dashboard” on page 13
• “Managing Changes to Dashboard Tabs” on page 17
• “Table Display Options” on page 18
• “Errors and Warnings” on page 19
• “Searching for Approvables” on page 19
• “Finding Approvables Using Labels” on page 23
• “Setting Your Preferences” on page 25
Logging In
You log in to the application from the login page:
The first time you log in, set up your secret question and answer so you can obtain help from the system if
you have trouble logging in later. For more information about setting your secret question and answer, see
“Changing Your Secret Question” on page 27.
Ariba Procurement Getting Started User Guide 7

SessionTimeouts Chapter 1 Getting Started
 To log in:
1 Enter your User name and Password. Note that user names and passwords are case-sensitive.
2 Click Login.
3 The Home Dashboard is displayed, unless you selected a functional area to start with.
Notes:
• If you already set your secret question and answer preferences, you can reset your password by clicking
password in the Forgot your user name or password? links. If you forget your login user name, click the user
name link and provide your email address to receive information on how to recover your login
information.
• If you have not previously set your preferences for a secret question and answer in case you forget your
password, contact your administrator for login assistance.
Session Timeouts
To comply with industry standards for session timeouts and to address security concerns, Ariba solutions
time out after 30 minutes. If you close your browser window, the session on the server times out after 30
minutes. If you leave the browser window open and inactive for 30 minutes, a message is displayed
indicating a session timeout will occur. If there are any long running operations in progress and you see a
progress bar (including data downloads and uploads), the session will not time out.
Reviewing Your Access Rights

You can see only the functionality that you are authorized to access. For example, if you are only authorized
to create invoices, you cannot also create purchase orders and expense reports.
Access to functionality is determined by group membership. Groups usually represent job functions or
functions within the Ariba solution. Examples of groups are Purchasing User, Invoice Agent, Expense
Manager, and Customer Administrator. Being a member of a group grants you access to all the functionality
associated with that group. You can be a member of multiple groups. To view your group memberships,
choose Change Your Profile from the Preferences menu on the command bar.
If you need access to additional features, you can request a change to your group membership. For
information on requesting changes to group membership, see “Changing Your Profile” on page 29.
8 Ariba Procurement Getting Started User Guide

Chapter 1 Getting Started Your Home Dashboard
Your Home Dashboard

After you log in, the Home Dashboard page is displayed, unless you selected a different starting page. This
page is your starting point for all actions you are authorized to access. Dashboard pages are easily
customized. The following shows a typical dashboard page:
Understanding the Dashboard Pages

Each functional area in your system has its own dashboard page, which you access through the dashboard
tabs. The dashboard tabs are available on every page in the system to provide access to specific components
and pre-defined content based on the functional area you are working in. Which dashboard tabs you see
depends on the site configuration and the functions you are authorized to access based on your group
membership. The highlighted tab indicates which functional area you are currently working in. Click any tab
to quickly switch to another area that you have access to.
Note: If you are working on an approval request, and you switch to another action before completing it, the
Confirm Exit page is displayed. You can decide to delete the request, save it for completion at a later time, or
continue working. If you choose to save the request, it is saved to the My Documents content item.
Each dashboard tab may display the following components:

• Masthead—the white horizontal area on top of each page
• Dashboard tabs
• Command bar—the blue horizontal menu under the dashboard tabs

Understanding the Dashboard Pages Chapter 1 Getting Started
• Content items, such as To Do, Search, and My Documents, display the content of a specific page. The
content items change depending on the functional area you are working in.
• Additional links to customize your dashboard tabs or refresh content on your page.
You can easily customize your dashboards to display only the content items you are interested in, to
minimize or maximize their display, or move them to different parts on the page. For more information, see
“Customizing the Dashboard” on page 13.
Masthead Commands
The following table describes the commands on the masthead.
Command Use this command to…

Home Return to the functional area’s dashboard tab. You can also click the dashboard tab itself.
Help View documentation, training, and support information on the Help@Ariba website.
Logout End your session and exit the Ariba system.
To view session information, click your user name on the masthead. If you need assistance to resolve a
problem, provide your user information on the splash screen to Ariba Product Support to help them resolve
your issue as quickly as possible.
Command Bar
Regardless of where you are in the application, the command bar lets you move quickly between the actions
that you can access. Clicking the available commands on the command bar displays the available options
based on your group membership.
Note: If you are working on an approval request, and you switch to another action before completing it, the
Confirm Exit page is displayed. You can delete the request, save it for completion at a later time, or continue
working. If you choose to save the request, it is saved to the My Documents content item.
The following table describes the commands on the command bar:

Dashboard icon: Return to the functional area’s dashboard tab. You can also click the dashboard tab itself.
Create Create approvables (for example, requisitions, expense reports, invoices). Displays only the types of
approvables you are authorized to create.
Search Search for approvables. Displays only the types of approvables you are authorized to view or
process.
Manage Manage approvables or business processes. Displays only the business areas you are authorized to
access.
Recent Access the most recently viewed or worked-on approvables.

Chapter 1 Getting Started Understanding the Dashboard Pages

Preferences Change your password, delegate your authority to another team member, change your user profile,
and modify your default locale and email notification preferences.
Community Access web sites for networking and knowledge sharing about spend management and Ariba
solutions.
Content Items
The dashboard pages include content items. The content items available to you depend on your site
configuration. This section describes some of the most important content items.
Common Actions
The Common Actions panel displays links to common actions to create and manage approvables and
provides another way to access a particular function than using the Create or Manage links on the command
bar.
To Do
The To Do content item lists up to 50 approval requests that require action from you. The list includes the 50
submitted approvables that were most recently assigned to you. It does not include approvables that are in
the Composing state.
Click the request icon or the request title to open the requests and act on them. The View List link in the lower
right corner provides access to the To Do requests by type or required action. Click any column header to
sort the list by that column’s contents (for example, sort by Status). An arrow in the column header indicates
the column by which you are sorting, and whether the sort order is ascending or descending.
Note: Receipts and contract milestone trackers appear in the To Do content item only for approvers that are
in the approval flow after the initial receiver.

Understanding the Dashboard Pages Chapter 1 Getting Started
My Documents
The My Documents content item displays the 20 most recent approvables you have created. Click an
approvable’s icon or title to open the approvable and review and complete it, if required. The View List link in
the lower right corner provides access to all approvables by type. Click any column header to sort the list by
that column’s contents (for example, sort by Status). An arrow in the column header indicates the column by
which you are sorting, and whether the sort order is ascending or descending.
Note: The My Documents content item does not list contract milestone trackers. To find contract milestone
trackers, use the Search options, specifying Milestone Tracker as the type of approvable to search. For
information about searching, see “Searching for Approvables” on page 19.
Recently Viewed
The Recently Viewed content item displays the five approvables you accessed most recently either to review
or to work on.
Search
The Search content item allows you to quickly search catalogs, search for approvables, and access saved
searches. The search panel on the left side of the content item displays the most common approvable types to
search for based on the functional area you are working in. Click More to choose other approvable types to
search for.
See “Searching for Approvables” on page 19 for more information on defining search options and filters.
Dashboard Tab Configuration

Click Configure Tabs to customize your dashboards or create new dashboards. For more information, see
“Customizing the Dashboard” on page 13.
Content Refresh
The To Do content item is refreshed every 15 minutes to display new approval requests or updates to existing
requests. If a user submits a request that requires your approval, and you are already logged in, the request is
not displayed until the next refresh happens unless you manually refresh your content.

Chapter 1 Getting Started Customizing the Dashboard
Note: This applies only to the To Do content item. Approvables that you have created and are working on are
displayed immediately in your My Documents content item when you save or submit them. However, status
changes to your approvables are reflected only with the next content refresh or when you click Refresh
Content.
To update the To Do and My Documents content items manually, click Refresh Content. During content
refresh, you might see a warning message on your dashboard telling you that content retrieval is in progress
and that your data might not be completely updated yet.
Cleaning Up the To Do Content Item

In some cases, your To Do content item might contain approval requests for which you are no longer
responsible. For example, if an approval request was assigned to you based on your group membership, and
you are no longer a member of the group, the request might remain in your To Do content item. You can
clean up the To Do content item to remove these requests.
 To clean up your To Do content item:

1 Select Manage > My To Do.
2 Click the Clean Up button above the list of approval requests.
Customizing the Dashboard

The content you can add to your dashboard varies depending on the Ariba Spend Management solutions
your company has purchased and on your assigned user groups. The following table describes all of the
content items that are available for Ariba Procurement and Invoicing Solutions. For information on content
items available for Ariba Strategic Sourcing and Contract Management Solutions, see the documentation for
those solutions.
Type of Content Content Items and Descriptions

Reports • Chart/Table—Displays a report chart or table; clicking the chart or table opens the report from
the dashboard.
• Folder—Displays a report folder. Clicking the folder allows you to run any report in the folder
from the dashboard.
• Summarized View—Displays a summarized view of a report.
Common • Calendar—Displays a calendar of the current month and lists all of your tasks that are overdue,
due in the current week, need review, or are submitted for review, as well as all tasks with alerts.
Clicking a task on the list opens it from the dashboard.
Buyer • Saved Search—Displays the results of the saved search you select.

Customizing the Dashboard Chapter 1 Getting Started
Type of Content Content Items and Descriptions

General • News—Displays the News content item, which your administrator configures to display news
or announcements from your company.
• RSS—Displays the specified Rich Site Summary (RSS) feed.
• To Do—Lists open tasks on which you must perform some action. Clicking a task on the list
opens the task from the dashboard, while choosing View List > My Tasks opens the My Tasks
page.
• Search—Displays a content item where you can search for projects and documents by keyword,
ID, and title, or open saved searches.
• My Documents—Lists the documents and projects to which you have access, as well as your
Personal Workspace folder. Clicking a document, project, or folder on the list opens it from the
dashboard.
Some dashboard templates limit the types of content you can add to specific tabs.
Adding Content to the Current Dashboard Tab

 To add content items to the current dashboard tab:
1 Click Configure Tabs and choose Add Content.
2 In the Add Content menu, drag and drop an item to any location on the dashboard tab, or click the item to
add it to the right column of the tab. For some types of content, you must perform additional steps:
• For Chart/Table, navigate to the report, click it, and choose Table to add the report to the tab in table
form, or choose a chart type to add the report to the tab in chart form.
• For Summarized View, navigate to the report you want to summarize and create the view you want to
display. See topic Running Analytical Reports: Creating Summarized Views for more information on
creating summarized views of reports.
• For Folder, navigate to the folder and click Select.
• For Saved Search, click Select next to the saved search you want to add to the dashboard.
• For RSS, enter the URL and title of the RSS feed you want to add to the dashboard. Each RSS feed
appears as a different content item.
3 Click Done on the Add Content menu when you are finished adding content items to the dashboard.
To remove a content item from the current dashboard tab, click the X in its title bar.
Customizing Saved Search Content Items

If you add a saved search to the dashboard, you can do the following:
• Choose which columns to show or hide
• Group information by field (column)
• Export the data to Excel
• Change which saved search is displayed in the content item

Chapter 1 Getting Started Customizing the Dashboard
 To customize a saved search content item:

1 Click the down arrow in the title bar of the content item to display a menu.
2 Select the option you want.
Editing Properties for the Current Dashboard Tab

Properties include the title of the dashboard tab, the types of documents that are visible on the dashboard tab,
and whether the dashboard tab is the primary tab for documents of a certain type. Ariba defines some tabs as
primary tabs by default; for example, the Sourcing tab is the primary tab for event documents in the out of
the box Ariba dashboard configuration. Your company’s dashboard templates might use different settings.
 To edit properties for the current dashboard tab:

1 Click Configure Tabs and choose Edit Properties.
2 To change the title of the dashboard tab, enter a new title in the Title text box.
3 Click Display all document types on this tab if you want all document types to be visible on the dashboard
tab, or click Restrict this tab for use with specific document types if you want to select the document types that
will be visible on the dashboard tab.
4 If you are restricting the tab for use with specific document types, specify the document types you want to
be visible on the dashboard tab:
• Select Display to make a document type visible on the dashboard tab.
• Select Primary to make the current dashboard tab the main tab for documents of that type.
5 Click OK to save your settings.

Customizing the Dashboard Chapter 1 Getting Started
Adding New Dashboard Tabs

 To add a new dashboard tab:
1 Click Configure Tabs and choose Add New Tab.
2 Enter a title for the new dashboard tab in the Title text box.
3 Click Display all document types on this tab if you want all document types to be visible on the dashboard
tab, or click Restrict this tab for use with specific document types if you want to select the document types that
will be visible on the dashboard tab.
4 If you are restricting the tab for use with specific document types, specify the document types you want to
be visible on the dashboard tab:
• Select Display to make a document type visible on the dashboard tab.
• Select Primary to make the current dashboard tab the main tab for documents of that type.
5 Click OK.
The new dashboard tab appears on the command bar, and the Add Content menu opens.
For information on adding content items to new tabs, see “Adding Content to the Current Dashboard Tab” on
page 14.
Deleting Dashboard Tabs

 To delete a tab from the dashboard:
1 Click the tab you want to delete.
2 Click Configure Tabs and choose Delete Tab.
3 If prompted, confirm that you want to delete the selected content.
Rearranging Content Items on Dashboard Tabs

 To rearrange content items on a dashboard tab:
Click the handle in the upper left-hand corner of a content item and drag it to a different location on the
current tab, or drag it to a tab on the command bar to move it to that tab.

Chapter 1 Getting Started Managing Changes to DashboardTabs
When you drag a content item on a tab, dotted guidelines show you where to drop it to move it to the right
column, the left column, or an area that spans both columns.
Managing Changes to Dashboard Tabs

You can view the difference between your customized dashboard tabs and the default template and reset part
or all of your dashboard tab set to the template settings. For more information on dashboard templates, see
the Ariba Administration and Data Maintenance Fundamentals Guide.
Comparing Dashboard Tabs to Template Settings

The comparison between your current dashboard and the template settings displays the places where your
current dashboard differs from the template. It does not list content items that are both in the template and on
your current dashboard.
 To compare your dashboard tabs to template settings.

1 Click Configure Tabs and choose Compare Your Tabs to Default Settings.
2 Click a dashboard tab to compare it to the default template settings.
3 To reset any part of your current dashboard to template settings, perform one of the following actions:
• To reset specific content items to template settings, select them and click Reset.
• To reset your entire dashboard tab set to template settings, click Reset All Dashboard Tabs and click Yes
to confirm that you want to revert your entire dashboard. All of your dashboard customizations will be
lost, including any new tabs you have added.
4 Click Done.

Table Display Options Chapter 1 Getting Started
Resetting Your Entire Dashboard to Template Settings

When you reset your entire dashboard tab set to template settings, all of your dashboard customizations will
be lost, including any new tabs you have added.
 To reset your dashboard to the template settings:

1 Click Configure Tabs and choose Revert Tab Set to Default Settings.
2 Click OK to confirm that you want to revert your entire dashboard.
Table Display Options

Lists of data, such as search results, are displayed in tables. You can use a combination of tools to display
data in tables. The following table describes these tools.
Icon / Links Description

Table options icon: Some tables provide an icon for the Table Options menu. Click the icon to display a menu of
options.
Scroll bars Some tables provide vertical and horizontal scroll bars, as necessary, to scroll through data
without pagination. When you scroll large amounts of data, a progress bar indicates data is
being loaded.
Minimize and Some tables provide icons for minimizing or maximizing the table. You find them on the top
maximize icons right corner of the title bar.
Pagination controls Some tables provide horizontal arrows and a pull-down menu above the table’s column headers,
for displaying other pages of data. Click an arrow to display the previous or next page or choose
a page from the pull-down menu.
Expand and collapse Some rows provide a triangle icon for expanding or collapsing rows of subcategory
icons information.
Hide Detail/Show The Hide Details / Show Details toggle link allows you to display or hide details for some data,
Detail such as requisition or invoice line items. You find the link on top right of the table.
Exporting Table Rows to a File

You can export rows of a table, such as search results, to a Microsoft Excel file. The following commands
are available on the Table Options menu:
Click the Table Options icon to access

commands for exporting rows to a file
• Export All Rows exports all rows of the table, up to a maximum of 2000 rows.
• Export Current Page exports up to 50 rows, which is the maximum number of rows displayed in a page.

Chapter 1 Getting Started Errors and Warnings
Notes:
• These commands do not export data to a CSV file that can then be used for importing data.
• If the table you export includes a custom string field that contains only numerals, the resulting value in the
Excel file is a number, not a string. Also, numbers that include more than 15 digits are truncated in the
Excel file.
Errors and Warnings

Warnings and error messages appear when you do something like omit required information, enter an invalid
value, or enter a value that violates your company policy. Warnings are usually informational and do not
require any action on your part. Errors typically require you to take an action. Read the message and follow
the suggestions to correct the problem. If there are multiple errors, you can use the Previous and Next links
to move from message to message. Note that the error might not be on the page currently displayed.
If you are inactive for a period of time, a logout warning appears and begins a logout countdown. To
continue working, click Cancel Logout before the countdown ends. To log out, click Logout or wait for the
countdown to end and the system to log you out.
Searching for Approvables

This section describes the options for searching, general information about searches in Ariba Procurement
and Invoicing Solutions, how to define search criteria, and how to use saved searches.
Options for Searching

You can search for approvables using the following options:

Searching for Approvables Chapter 1 Getting Started
• The Search content item of your dashboard. Enter a title, ID, or number to search for a specific
approvable, or leave the text boxes empty to search all your approvables (approvables for which you are
the requester or approver, or that you are authorized to view) by approvable type. Click Search to display
your search results on the Search page. If required, you can refine your search criteria on this page.
• The Search link on the command bar. Choose a type of approvable to search for. This action takes you
directly to the Search page, where you can enter search criteria values and refine your search filters.
For some approvable types, the default search criteria includes a date range for the Date Created search
option, as indicated in the following figure. For example, the default date range for requisitions and
purchase orders is 14 days. For expense reports and travel authorizations, the range is three months. You
can change the dates in the range or choose a different range from the Date Created pull-down menu.
Including a date range in the search criteria helps searches run faster.
By default, searches for some types of approvables

include a custom date range in the search criteria in
order to improve search performance. You can adjust
the range or turn off the Date Created search option.
General Information About Searching

The following information applies to all searches for approvables:
• You must search for approvables by type. For example, to search for approvables of all types according to
the date they were created, you need to repeat the search for each type separately (requisitions, invoices,
receipts, and so on), even if you applied the same label to approvables of a different type. For information
on organizing your approvables for easy retrieval, see “Finding Approvables Using Labels” on page 23.
• The search functionality performs partial matching except when searching for invoices associated with a
specific purchase order. For example, if you have two approvables titled “Requisition for books,” and
“Requisition for notepads,” and you enter “Requisition” in the Title text box, both approvables are
displayed. However, if you search for invoices by filtering on Order ID, it will display only invoices for
purchase orders that match the Order ID search string exactly.
• You can save your searches to your Search content item to use again. If you belong to the Report Manager
group, you can create public searches to add to other users’ Search content items as Public Saved
Searches.

Chapter 1 Getting Started Searching for Approvables
• When you perform a search for approvables, the search results include the items that match the search
criteria, up to the first 2000 items. The total count of items found is listed at the top of the search results
table, as shown in the following figure:
If there are more than 2000 items that match the search criteria, the search results table displays the
message shown in the following figure:
The 2000-item limit also affects the Export All Rows command on the Table Options menu. For
information, see “Exporting Table Rows to a File” on page 18.
Note: Home page content items—for example, the To Do and My Documents content items—show the
full count of items, even if that count exceeds 2000.
The item counts shown in the To

Do and My Documents content
items are not subject to the
maximum item limit of 2000.
Defining Search Criteria

 To define the search options:
1 Do one of the following to choose the type of approvable:
• On the command bar, click Search and choose the type from the pull-down menu.
• On the Search page, choose the type from the Type pull-down menu.
Note: Your group membership determines the types of approvables on the menu. For more information,
see the Ariba Groups and Notifications Reference Guide.

Searching for Approvables Chapter 1 Getting Started
2 Click Search Options to display the available search fields for that type of approvable. Fields with a check
mark are configured as search fields and displayed on the Search page in the Search Filters area. Fields
without a check mark are hidden. Click a field once to change its state.
3 Enter values for the displayed search fields. Depending on the type of the search field, you either choose
values from a pull-down menu, enter a value into a text box, or click select to choose values from another
page or menu.
4 Do the following:
• Click Search to initiate the search.
• Click Reset to clear the values for all search fields.
• Click Save Search to save the search with the options you have selected. On the Save Search page, give
your search a descriptive name. If you can create public saved searches, the Save as Shared Search check
box appears. Click the check box to make the search available to other users. The saved search is now
available on the left navigation panel of the Search page and in the Search content item.
Using Saved Searches

 To use a saved search:
1 On the navigation panel of the Search page, click the saved search you want to use. The search results
appear in the Search Results panel.
2 Do the following:

Chapter 1 Getting Started Finding Approvables Using Labels
• Click Refine to refine or edit the search. If you edit the search, you have the option to save it as a copy
of the original search (for example Copy of: My Search), or under a new name.
• Click Delete to delete the search. You can delete only your own saved searches, or public searches that
you created.
• Click Search to initiate the search.
• Click Remove from All Dashboards (or Remove from My Dashboard). Which link is displayed depends on
your group membership. If you are authorized to create public saved searches, you can remove the
saved search from all users’ Search page or Search content item. After you remove a search, the Add to
My Dashboard, and Add to All Dashboards links allow you to reactivate the search either for you only, or
for other users also.
If you are not authorized to create public saved searches, the Remove from My Dashboard link allows you
to remove the saved search from your Search page and Search content item.
Note: If there is a shared search that returns a type of approvable that you are not permitted to view, the
search name is not displayed as a link. If you click View for that search, an error message appears.
Finding Approvables Using Labels

You can assign labels to approvables in order to find them easily. For example, you might use a project name
as a label so you can search for all requisitions related to that project. You can assign labels to any
approvable that you are submitting, approving, editing, or viewing. You can either create a new label or
assign an existing label.
You can search by label from the Search content item on the dashboard pages or from the Search page.
 To assign labels to a single approvable:
On the Summary tab of an approvable that you are submitting, approving, editing, or reviewing, do one of the
following:
• (To add a new label) Click Apply Label > New Label, and enter a label in the Add Label dialog box.

Finding Approvables Using Labels Chapter 1 Getting Started
• (To assign an existing label) Click Apply Label, and choose the label to assign. Note that you can assign
multiple labels to the approvable.
 To assign a label to multiple approvables at once:

1 From search results on the Search page, click the check box for the approvables you want to label.
2 Click Labels, and do one of the following:
• Click an existing label.

• To add a new label, click New Label.
You can also assign labels to approval requests while approving them. For more information, see “Approving
or Denying Requests from Your To Do Content Item” on page 44.

Chapter 1 Getting Started SettingYour Preferences
 To find approvables associated with a label:

1 In the Search content item on your dashboard, or on the Search page, click the type of approvable you
want to find (for example, Requisition or Invoice).
2 Click the label link in the Saved Searches/Labels section.
3 If you assigned the same label to different approvable types, click the next applicable type, and repeat the
label search.
For example, if you assigned the same label to requisitions and to expense reports, you must do two
searches, one for requisitions and one for expense reports.
 To remove labels from approvables:
Do one of the following:

• Open the approvable, and on the Summary tab, click Apply Label. Under Remove Label, click the label to
remove.
• On the Search page, search for the approvables by the label you want to remove. Select the approvables
whose label you want to remove, and click Label. In the Remove Label section, choose the label you want
to remove.
Setting Your Preferences

You can modify your user profile and preference settings from any page by clicking Preferences on the
command bar.
Some of the changes you make to your preferences require approval before they take effect, for example,
delegating your approval authority to someone else, or making changes to your profile. When changes to
your preferences require approval, a user profile (UP) request is created and is routed through the
appropriate approval flow.
A user profile approvable can have the following statuses:

• Submitted: The request has been submitted for approval.
• Processed: The request has been completely approved and the requested change is in effect.

SettingYour Preferences Chapter 1 Getting Started
• Denied: The request has been denied.
 To set your preferences:

1 On the command bar, click Preferences. Some options are visible only for specific users. For example,
only purchasing card users see the option for assigning viewers to charges.
• To change your password, see “Changing Your Password” on page 26.

• To change your secret question and answer, see “Changing Your Secret Question” on page 27.
• To assign viewers to your charges, see “Assigning Viewers to Your Charges” on page 28.
• To change your profile, see “Changing Your Profile” on page 29.
• To change your locale and currency preferences, see “Changing Locale and Currency Preferences” on
page 32.
• To reset your default preferences for the user interface, see “Setting Display Preferences” on page 33.
• To delegate approval authority and change email notification, see “Delegating Approval Authority” on
page 49 and “Changing Approval Notification Preferences” on page 52.
Changing Your Password

 To change your password:
1 Choose Preferences > Change your password.

For this option… Do this…

Current Password Enter your current password.
New Password Enter your new password.
New Password (confirm) Enter your new password again.
2 Click OK.
Changing Your Secret Question

The first time you log in, set up your secret question and answer. If you have trouble logging in to your site
in the future, you can click Password Help on the login page, and log in without requesting assistance from
the system administrator. In this case, the system sends you an email message, and you can use the links
available in the message to reset your password.
You can change your secret question and answer any time.
 To change your secret question and answer:

1 Choose Preferences > Change secret question.
2 Enter the answer to the currently selected secret question.
3 Choose a new secret question from the pull-down menu.
4 Enter an answer to the secret question.
5 Click OK.

Assigning Viewers to Your Charges

You can give specific users viewing access to the charges you make using your PCard. You must be
configured as a card holder to see this option in the Preferences menu.
 To assign viewers:
1 Click Preferences > Assign Viewers to Your Charges.
2 Choose a user from the list.
If the user you want is not displayed in the list, click select to choose another user. Click the Select button
corresponding to the user you want to assign, and then click Done.
3 Click Next.
4 Review the approval flow and add additional approvers, if necessary. For more information, see “Editing
the Approval Flow” on page 36.
5 Click Next.
6 Review your changes, and then click Submit.

Changing Your Profile

Your profile contains information such as your email address, your group memberships and accounting and
shipping information. Depending on your access rights, you might not have access to all the fields described
in this section.
 To change your profile:

1 Choose Change your profile from the Preferences menu. Follow the Personal Profile wizard to review and
change your personal profile information
2 Review and change your personal information.

Name Enter your name as you want it to appear to other users.
Business Email Enter the email address to which you want notification messages sent. This can be any
Address email address.
Supervisor Choose a user from the available choices, or choose Search for more to select a different
name. You cannot choose yourself or someone who reports to you.
The user you select becomes your supervisor. This user appears as your manager in
approval flows.


Groups Click a link in this section to view the other members assigned to this group.
Click select to add yourself to additional groups, or to remove yourself from existing
groups.
• Click the check box for a group to add yourself to that group.
• Clear the check box for a group to remove yourself from that group.
• Click OK.
Limited Click a link to review your group membership and the purchasing units you are
Responsibilities responsible for. The actions you can take as a user are restricted to the particular
purchasing units you belong to or are responsible for.
On some sites, users can request changes to purchasing unit responsibilities. If your site
allows this, an Add/Remove button appears at the bottom of the Limited Responsibilities
table. Click it to make changes to your purchasing unit responsibilities.
Note: Users must belong to a group in order for a responsibility request to be effective for
that group. Adding a group in the Limited Responsibilities table does not add you to that
group. If you are not already a member of the group, add the group in the Groups section.
3 Click Next or click Account/Ship in the Personal Profile wizard. Review your accounting and shipping
information and make changes, as required. The fields available on this screen depend on your ERP
system integration and might differ from this example.
4 Click Next to enter a justification for your profile change request.
5 Enter an explanation for changing your profile, and then click Next.

6 Review the approval flow and add additional reviewers if required. For more information, see “Editing the
Approval Flow” on page 36.
7 Click Next to review your changes.
8 Click Submit.
The changes to your profile take effect when your request has been fully approved.

Changing Locale and Currency Preferences

 To change your default locale and currency:
1 Choose Change default locale from the Preferences menu.

Locale Choose the language-country value from the available choices, or choose Search for
more to choose a different value. The change takes effect the next time you log in.
Default Currency Choose the default currency from the available choices, or choose Search for more to
select a different currency.
You can override your default currency for specific transactions, such as expense reports,
and choose a different transaction currency.
2 Click OK.

Setting Display Preferences

 To set the display preferences:
1 Choose Edit default preference from the Preferences menu.
2 Click the check box for a preference to enable that preference, or clear the check box to disable that
preference. Click Reset to return the preferences to the default settings.
3 Click OK.
Note: The preference Expand Item Details applies to purchase orders and requisitions only.


Chapter 2 Working with Approval Flows
• “About the Approval Process” on page 35

• “Editing the Approval Flow” on page 36
• “Approving or Denying Requests” on page 40
• “Denied Approvables” on page 46
• “Finding Approved or Denied Requests” on page 48
• “Delegating Approval Authority” on page 49
• “Archiving Approval Requests” on page 50
• “Creating Approval Reports” on page 51
• “Changing Approval Notification Preferences” on page 52
• “Working with Approval Queues” on page 53
About the Approval Process

Any request you submit (for example, a change to your profile, a purchase requisition, or a contract request)
might be subject to an approval process. Similarly, an invoice reconciliation might have exceptions that must
be cleared by an exception handler, and a receipt might require action by a receiver.
For example, purchases under $50.00 might not require any approval, purchases between $50.00 and
$1,000.00 might require only the approval of your immediate supervisor, and purchases over $1,000.00
might require the approval of your immediate supervisor and someone in the Purchasing Manager group.
The approval processes that govern the approval requirements for each request type and requester are created
and maintained by your administrator.
The following general steps are used for preparing and approving any type of request:
1 You add line items to your request, such as expense items for an expense report or invoice line items for
an invoice. To request a user profile change, edit your current profile using the Personal Profile wizard.
2 You submit the request. You might first need to provide summary information, add additional approvers
or watchers, or resolve any policy violations.
3 If your request is subject to an approval process, the people involved in the approval flow are notified.
Your request is not approved until all required approvers review and approve your request.
4 If your request is denied, you can edit the request and resubmit it or withdraw it.

Editing the Approval Flow Chapter 2 Working with Approval Flows
The people involved in the approval flow of your request are listed in the diagram on the Approval Flow tab of
the approvable, as shown in the following figure. A status of Active means that the approver received
notification of the request for approval. Active approvers must approve the request in order to move it to the
next approver in the approval chain.
If an approver has delegated approval authority to another user, the approval flow diagram still displays the
name of the original approver. Only after the delegatee approves or denies a request on behalf of the original
approver does the approval flow diagram display the name of the user who approved or denied the request,
with the original approver’s name in parentheses.
Depending on your authorization, you can edit the approval flow during the preparation of your request in
order to add additional approvers or watchers. An approver is anyone who has the authority to approve or
deny your request. A watcher is someone who cannot approve or deny your request, but who might need to
be notified of the progress of the request. For example, a receiving manager might want to follow the
approval of a purchase in order to prepare for the arrival of a shipment.
Some approval requests are sent to users who belong to specific groups. This might be for requests that
require intervention or an action from an administrative user, such as a member of the Purchasing Agent or
an Invoice Manager group. This is often the last step in the approval process. Any member of the group can
act on the request.
In larger organizations that often have complicated transactions, managers might create a queue. A queue is
like a group, but it allows assigned members to take ownership of specific transactions and helps managers
to balance workloads and assign transactions for faster processing.
Editing the Approval Flow

The default approval flow for an approvable is based on approval rules defined for that type of approvable.
Preparers can modify the approval flow before submitting the request or during the approval process.
Approvers can modify the approval flow after the request is submitted.
When users add approvers, the following restrictions are enforced:

• If you are the preparer, you can add new approvers before or after existing approvers or in parallel to the
entire approval flow.
• If you are an approver or a watcher, you can add new approvers before or after existing approvers or in
parallel to them. You cannot add approvers before an approver who has already acted on the request, or
before a watcher. You can also add an approver if you are in the process of approving a request.

Chapter 2 Working with Approval Flows Editing the Approval Flow
• If you are authorized, you can add or delete approvers whether or not you are included in the approval
flow.
The menu triangles to the right and left of each approver node let you add and move approvers.
Click a triangle to display a menu of the actions you

can take in that position in the diagram
To delete a node, click this button
Adding Serial Approvers

 To add a serial approver to an approval flow:
1 Click the Approval Flow tab of the approvable.
2 Review the approval flow. Click an approver’s name to see details. If the approver is a group, all members
belonging to that group are displayed.
3 To add the new node before an existing node, click the triangle to the left of the node.
To add the new node after an existing node, click the triangle to the right of the node.
4 Select Add Serial Approver.
5 Fill out the information in the Add Approval Request dialog box.
6 Click OK.

Editing the Approval Flow Chapter 2 Working with Approval Flows
Adding Parallel Approvers

 To add a parallel approver to an approval flow:
1 Go to the Approval Flow tab of the approvable.
2 Click the triangle to the left of one of the first (left most) nodes in the diagram. This is the only position
from which you can add a parallel approval flow.
3 Select Add Parallel Approver.
4 Fill out the information in the Add Approval Request dialog box.
5 Click OK.
Moving Approver Nodes

The approver nodes you can move, and the positions to which you can move them, depend on your role, the
position of the approver node in the diagram, and how the approver was added.
• You can move approvers that you added.
• You cannot move approvers to be before approvers that have already approved or denied. Also, you
cannot move approvers that have already approved or denied.
• You can move approvers to a position adjacent to active or pending approvers only.
• Only authorized users can move approvers included in the default approval flow. For more information,
see the Ariba Groups and Notifications Reference Guide.
• You cannot create a new parallel approval flow by moving existing serial approvers.

Chapter 2 Working with Approval Flows Editing the Approval Flow
 To move an approver node:

1 Click one of the triangles adjacent to the node you want to move. (It does not matter whether you click the
triangle to the left or right of the node.)
2 Choose Move Approver.
3 Click the yellow highlighted square where you want to move the node.
Clicking this highlighted square moves the Alain Fontaine node

to the left of the Archie Rooney node
Deleting Approver Nodes

As in the previous release, the approver nodes you can delete depend on your role, the position of the
approver node in the diagram, and how the approver was added. For information, see the Ariba Procurement
Getting Started User Guide.
 To delete a node:
• Click the delete button in the node.
Delete button
Tips for Editing Approval Flows

• The preparer of a request receives a email notification when an approver is added to the approval flow.
• If you add an approver to the approval flow, you can later remove that approver. However, only authorized
users can remove approvers included in the default approval flow.
• If an approval list or group is designated as a required approver, any member of the list or group can
approve or deny a request for the list or group, at which point the request moves to the next approver in
the approval flow if it is approved.

Approving or Denying Requests Chapter 2 Working with Approval Flows
• Parallel approvers or watchers are notified of a request at the same time as the first approver or watcher in
the approval flow.
• A user with the necessary privileges can add approvers to a submitted request, even if that user was not in
the approval flow.
• Actions taken while a request has the status of Composing (such as adding approvers) do not appear in the
summary on the History tab; actions are recorded only after the status changes to Submitted.
Approving or Denying Requests

If you are included in the approval flow for an approvable, you receive a request through email when the
approvable requires your attention, and the request is displayed in your To Do content item. When you act on
a request, the approval flow is updated to indicate the action you took (for example, your approval or denial).
You can approve a request only if you are the active approver.
If you are the only person or the last person to approve a request, the status of the request changes to
Approved, and the preparer is notified by email that the request has been fully approved.
If you deny a request, the status of the request changes to Denied. For information about how the system
handles denied approvables, see “Denied Approvables” on page 46.
Your company can choose whether to limit access to approvables by purchasing unit and group membership,
so that as a member of a group you are responsible for specific purchasing units. For example:
• You are affiliated with Purchasing Units A and B
• For Purchasing Unit A, you are a member of the Invoice Manager group
• For Purchasing Unit B, you are a member of the Invoice Manager and Purchasing Manager groups
Under these circumstances, you have access to:

• Invoice-related approvables for Purchasing Unit A
• Invoice-related and purchasing-related approvables for Purchasing Unit B
Any limits on access to approvables include limits on searching, reporting, and being included in approval
flows.
For more information about email approvals, see “Using Email or PDA Approval” on page 41. For more
information about working with requests in your To Do content item, see “Approving or Denying Requests
from Your To Do Content Item” on page 44.
Escalations
If an active approver does not take action on a approval request after a certain length of time, the request is
automatically escalated to the approver’s supervisor. Your site is configured with the following schedules for
escalation:
• A warning period of 7 days by default, after which you and your supervisor will receive a reminder email
notification for pending requests that you have not yet acted upon.

Chapter 2 Working with Approval Flows Approving or Denying Requests
• An escalation trigger of 14 days by default. If the escalation time period has passed and you have not
taken action on a request waiting for your approval, the approval request is escalated to your supervisor,
unless your supervisor is a member of the No Escalation group. Escalating an approval request means that
your supervisor is added to the approval flow of the request.
Approvers can still view as well as approve items even after an escalation has occurred. When any one
approver acts on an escalated request, the request is removed from the inbox of all the other approvers who
received it as a result of the escalation.
Members of the No Escalation group do not receive escalation messages, and the approval request remains
in the To Do list of the delinquent approver.
Requests are escalated only if the delinquent approver is a specific user. If the approver is a group, no
escalation messages are sent to the group members, and the pending requests are not escalated to their
supervisors if no member of the group takes action.
Members of the Customer Administrator group can configure escalation periods and escalation warning
periods for each type of approvable.
Automatic Withdrawal Due to Inactivity

In the default configuration, submitted approvables that have been inactive for a certain length of time are
automatically withdrawn from the approval process. (Inactive means no new changes or approvals have been
submitted.) When an approvable is withdrawn, the status returns to Composing.
Approvables that have been denied and approvables that were automatically submitted (for example,
purchasing card charges and invoice reconciliation documents) are never automatically withdrawn.
Your site is configured with the following schedules for automatic withdrawal:
• A warning period of 21 days by default, after which the preparer, approvers, and watchers are notified of
when the approvable will be withdrawn.
• A withdrawal trigger of 28 days by default, after which the approvable is withdrawn from the approval
flow. The preparer and active watchers are notified of the withdrawal.
Members of the Customer Administrator group can configure withdrawal periods and withdrawal warning
periods for each type of approvable.
Note: Escalation of an approval request does not affect the withdrawal schedule for that type of approvable.
For example, if the withdrawal period is 28 days, the approvable is withdrawn after day 28 of inactivity
regardless of when (or whether) the approval request was escalated.
Using Email or PDA Approval

In the default implementation of your solution, the ability to act on approval requests using email or a
personal digital assistant (PDA) is disabled. When you receive the notification message, you can open the
approval request, but you cannot approve or deny the request without logging into the site to approve the
request.
If your site has been configured for email approval, the email notification includes additional buttons that
allow you to approve or deny requests by clicking the appropriate Approve or Deny button or by replying to
the approval request using approval keywords and optional comments depending on your message format

settings. You can act on approval requests using email on a personal computer or using a PDA device such as
a smartphone (for example, Apple iPhone, Palm Treo, RIM BlackBerry, or Nokia Nseries). For more
information, see “Approval Message Format” on page 42.
When an email approval is submitted, the Ariba solution validates it. If there are errors (for example, an
invalid value in a field), the approver and the requester receive an email about the errors. The approval flow
is blocked until the errors are corrected. After the errors are corrected, the approval flow is unblocked, and
the approver can then resubmit the approval.
You can approve or deny requests directly from individual email notifications only, not from summary
emails. If you set your approval preferences to receive summary emails, click the link in the summary
notification to display the request, and then approve or deny the request. For more information, see
“Changing Approval Notification Preferences” on page 52.
If you want to approve or deny requests from email addresses other than the primary address identified in
your user profile, contact your system administrator. If your company has enabled email verification, and
your alternate email addresses are not registered in the system, approvals and denials you send from those
addresses will be rejected. The requests remain in your To Do list.
Your site might be configured to reject approvals from users to whom you have forwarded the email
approval notification to delegate the approval or denial of a request. The user receiving your forwarded
message can view the request if they are authorized to do so, but they cannot approve or deny it. In order to
delegate approval requests, you must delegate approval authority to another user. For more information, see
“Delegating Approval Authority” on page 49.
If you forward an email approval notification, the approval flow diagram still shows the original approver,
not the delegated approver. The email approval feature does not allow you to add or delete approvers, or to
change approvers in the approval flow.
Approval Message Format

Depending on your email account or PDA features and your preferences, you can control the message
format sent to your email account or PDA. The message format also determines how you approve or deny
your requests. Note that your site can be configured to use either HTML (default) or text format. If your site
is configured for text format, you cannot override it to use HTML, but you can ‘downgrade’ HTML
messages to plain or compact text.
You set your email format preferences on the Edit Default Preferences page. On the command bar, click
Preferences > Edit default preference.
The two parameters controlling your email and PDA format preferences are ‘Receive email notifications in
Text format’ (plain text) and ‘Receive email notifications in compact text format’ (compact text). Plain text
contains embedded links and allows users to approve or deny requests using check boxes, that is the email
notification will have a pre-configured message where users enter an ‘x’ into the appropriate check box to
either approve or deny a request.
Compact text does not include embedded links and requires a user to type customizable keywords to indicate
approval or denial followed by an optional multi-line comment. In the default configuration, the keywords
are Approve, Deny (not available for invoice reconciliations), Reject (for invoice reconciliations) and
Approve Rejection (for invoice reconciliations).
HTML formatted messages contain HTML markup with buttons and embedded links to allow you approve
or deny a request.

The following table explains the result of various combinations of checking these parameters if your email
notification preference is configured for immediate notification of submitted approval requests:.
Message Format Parameters Results

Default message format is HTML
plain text = checked Message format is compact text. Type Approve/Deny keywords with optional
compact text = checked comment.
plain text = checked Message format is plain text. Use check boxes to approve or deny a request.
compact text = unchecked
plain text = unchecked Message has compact text followed by regular HTML content. You can either
compact text = checked reply using the Approve/Deny buttons, or, if this is not supported by your
PDA, type Approve/Deny keywords with optional comments.
plain text = unchecked Message is HTML only. If your PDA does not support this format, then you
compact text = unchecked cannot receive or reply to these messages.
Default message format is Text
compact text = checked Message format is compact text. Type Approve/Deny keywords with optional
comment.
compact text = unchecked Message format is plain text. Use check boxes to approve or deny a request.
Email Approval Exceptions

For the following types of approvables, email approval is not available or is restricted:
Purchasing Card Reconciliations

For purchasing card reconciliations, if you are the first approver, you must supply content to finish filling out
the request. Therefore, you cannot approve these types of approvables by email, and you must log on to your
Ariba solution to finish the approval process. The email notification you receive for these requests only
includes a link to the application.
Email approval is also not available for any subsequent approvers even if they do not have to enter additional
data or take additional actions. All approvers of purchasing card reconciliations must log on to the
application to finish the approval process.
Invoice Reconciliations
For invoice reconciliations, if you are the first approver, you generally must supply content to finish filling
out the request, or you can reject the entire request. Depending on the status of the invoice reconciliation,
you can perform the following actions from the email notification or using your PDA:
• IR is in Reconciling state:
Members of the Invoice Manager, Invoice Rejection Specialist, Invoice Specialist, and Procurement
Manager groups can open or reject the IR. You can reject an IR from the email notification, but when you
open the IR, you must log into your site to take action.
All other users on the approval flow can open the IR only.

• IR is in Approving state (IR is reconciled):

Members of the Invoice Manager, Invoice Rejection Specialist, Invoice Specialist, and Procurement
Manager groups can perform the following actions via email:
• Open
• Approve
• Reject (if your site is configured to allow rejection of IRs in Approving state)
• Approve Rejection (if your site is configured to require approval of rejected invoice reconciliations).
All other users on the approval flow can open the IR, approve the IR, or approve the rejection of the IR
only. Approve Rejection is the action you perform to approve the rejection of an IR by a previous approver.
If you approve an IR with validation errors, you will receive an email notification that the approval failed:
Subject: Could not process message <title of previous message>
The message body contains an explanation that the approval of the IR could not be processed because
there are invalid fields in the invoice reconciliation, a link to the IR, and the original message. If you
belong to a group that allows editing of IRs, click on the link to access the IR, correct the validation error,
and then approve the IR.
• Receipts
For receipts, if you are the first approver, you must supply content to finish filling out the request.
Therefore, you cannot approve receipts by email, and you must log on to your application to finish the
approval process. The email notification you receive for these requests only includes a link to the
application.
All subsequent approvers of receipts receive email approval messages that allow them to approve or deny
directly from the email message.
Approving or Denying Requests from Your To Do Content Item

You can approve or deny a single request, or mass approve or deny multiple requests. If you choose the mass
approval option, you cannot review details of the requests.
Note: Certain types of approvables, such as invoice reconciliations, purchasing card reconciliations, and
receipts, cannot be mass approved. Also, because any sorting you do is lost when you return to the
dashboard, do not use the To Do content item to reconcile invoices.
 To approve or deny a single request:

1 Select the request to approve or deny using one of the following options:
• Click the request in your To Do content item, which displays the details of the request. Requests
waiting for your approval have a status of Submitted.

• In your To Do content item, click the View List… link and select Approve. The To Do page is displayed.
Click the ID or Title field to select the request. The Approval Summary page is displayed.
Note: In the default configuration, the To Do page lists up to 500 requests waiting for your approval.
This limit is configurable by Ariba Customer Support.
2 Review the details of the request. Edit the approval flow, if required. For more information, see “Editing
the Approval Flow” on page 36.
3 Do the following:
• Click Approve to approve the request. If more approvals are required, the request is moved to the next
approver in the approval chain.
• Click Deny to deny the request. The preparer and any watcher are notified.
• Click Edit to edit the request before approving it.
Note: You cannot edit and then immediately approve a request. After submitting your edits, open the
request again from the To Do content item or the To Do page.
4 On the Comments page, enter an optional comment.
5 By default, approved requests are assigned a default label (Archive Item) to make it easy for you find
them later through a labeled search. If you don’t want to assign a label to your approvable, clear the
Archive items to label check box.
6 To assign a different label, select another label from the Archive items to label pull-down menu or create a
new label for the approvable.
7 To submit the approval or denial, click OK.

Denied Approvables Chapter 2 Working with Approval Flows
If you selected the approval request from the Approval Summary page, you can click the check box to go to
the next request summary waiting for your approval.
 To approve or deny multiple requests:

1 In your To Do content item, click the View List... link and select Approve. The To Do page is displayed.
In the default configuration, the To Do page lists up to 500 requests waiting for your approval. This limit is
configurable by Ariba Customer Support.
2 Click the check boxes for the requests you want to approve or deny. The requests can be different types.
3 Do one of the following:
• Click Approve to approve the selected requests. If more approvals are required, the requests are moved
to the next approver in the approval chain.
• Click Deny to deny the selected requests. The requesters or preparers are notified.
4 On the Comments page, enter a comment, select a label, and click OK to submit the approval or denial.
Denied Approvables
When an approver denies a request, the status of the approvable changes to Denied, and no approver can take
action on it. The Denied state is a final state that cannot be changed unless the request is resubmitted.
After an approver denies an approval request:

• No approvers can take further action on the approvable unless the requester resubmits it. The Approve and
Deny buttons are not available for any approvers, including the approver who denied the request.

Chapter 2 Working with Approval Flows Denied Approvables
• Parallel approvers that were active when the request was denied can no longer take action on the
approvable through either the user interface or through email. The approvable moves to the Watch list for
those approvers. The Approval Flow tab displays a message explaining that the request was denied, as
shown in the following figure.
This figure shows Archie Rooney’s view of the approval flow after parallel approver Fred
Gifford denied the approval request.
Note that there are no Approve and Deny buttons available, and a message explains that
the request has been denied.
• Parallel approvers do not receive any more approver notifications for the denied request. Instead, the
system sends a message to the other active approvers, explaining that the request was denied. (This is the
same message that is sent to the requester.)
• If an approver tries to approve a request through an email that was generated before the denial, the system
sends another message explaining that the request was denied by another approver.

Finding Approved or Denied Requests Chapter 2 Working with Approval Flows
Example Denial Scenarios

This section describes three denial scenarios. Refer to the following figure as you read the scenarios.
At the beginning of each scenario, Approver 1 and Approver 2 are both active approvers.
Scenario 1
Actions: Approver 1 approves the request, and the system sends an approval request to Approver 3.
Approver 2 denies the request before Approver 3 has taken action on it.
Result: For Approver 3, the approvable moves to the Watch list. Approver 3 cannot take action on the
approvable. If Approver 3 tries to use email approval to approve the request after Approver 2 denies it, the
system ignores the approval and sends an email to Approver 3 stating that the approvable was denied by
another user.
Scenario 2
Action: Approver 1 denies the request.
Result: For Approver 2, the approvable moves to the Watch list. Approver 3 does not receive an approval
request notification. The approvable does not appear in the To Do list of Approver 3.
Scenario 3
Actions: Approver 2 denies the request before Approver 1 takes any action.
Result: For Approver 1, the approvable moves to the Watch list. If Approver 1 tries to use email approval to
approve the request after Approver 2 denies it, the system ignores the approval and sends an email to
Approver 1 stating that the request was denied by another user. Approver 3 never receives an approval
request notification, and the approvable does not appear in the To Do list of Approver 3.
Finding Approved or Denied Requests

When you approve or deny a request, it is removed from your To Do content item. If you need to review your
previously approved or denied requests, or want to change the approval of a request, you can find them
through the Search content item.
If you applied a label to a request during approval or denial, you can click the label under Saved
Searches/Labels in the Search content item to find all the requests you approved or denied. If you did not
assign a label, use the following procedure to find your approved requests.

Chapter 2 Working with Approval Flows Delegating Approval Authority
 To find previously approved or denied requests:

1 In the Search content item, click the type of approvable to find, or choose the type from the More... link.
2 Enter the request ID or title, or leave the fields blank and click Search. Refine the search using the search
options.
Your system may be configured with a public search to allow you to quickly review requests you approved.
In this case, you will see a link labeled <approvable_type> Approved By Me under Saved Searches/Label on the
Search content item, or on the Search page as a public search, where <approvable_type> is the respective type
of the request you want to find.
Note: Certain types of approvables, such as invoice reconciliations, purchasing card reconciliations, and
receipts, cannot be configured for Approved By Me searches.
Finding Requests If You Are a Watcher

You can view requests for which you are a watcher from the To Do content item. Click the View More... link,
select Watch, and review the requests on the View Requests page.
Delegating Approval Authority

You can delegate your approval authority to another user (the delegatee). That user then receives all
system-generated email notifications regarding requests that require your attention. That user can review,
approve, and deny those requests on your behalf.
Delegating approval authority does not change the approver name shown in the approval flow. However,
when the delegatee logs on and approves on the delegator’s behalf, the approval flow diagram of the request
displays the name of the person who approved the request. If the request was approved by the delegatee, the
name of the delegatee is shown with the name of the delegator in parenthesis.
Notes:
The delegatee cannot delegate authority back to the initial approver if the start date is only one day away.
Some approval processes in your organization might be configured to prevent delegatees from approving
their own requests when the delegator is their supervisor. For more information, see the Ariba Approval
Process Management Guide.

Archiving Approval Requests Chapter 2 Working with Approval Flows
 To delegate your approval authority:

1 Choose Delegate authority from the Preferences menu on the command bar.

Delegatee Choose a name from the available choices, or click Search for more to select a different
name.
Delegation Start Date Select the start date and time.
Delegation End Date Select the end date and time.
Delegation Reason Enter the reason you are delegating your approval authority to the user you selected.
Notification Click the check box to continue to receive email regarding approval requests during the
time your authority is delegated to the other user. The user to whom you delegate your
approval authority also receives the email.
2 Click Next. The Approval Flow page is displayed.
3 Review the approval flow required to let you delegate authority. You can add approvers if needed.
4 Click Next. Review the details of your delegation. To make changes, click Prev to return to previous pages.
5 Click Submit.
The delegation takes effect when your request has been fully approved.
Archiving Approval Requests

You can remove approval requests from your To Do or View Requests page by archiving them. Once they are
archived, you can search for them in the Search page.
You might want to archive approval requests that were already approved or denied by another member in the
approval group, or those for which you are a watcher. Note, however, that you can also archive active
approval requests waiting for your approval.
Note: If you are an active approver for certain types of approvables, such as invoice reconciliations,
purchasing card reconciliations, and receipts, you cannot archive them. You can, however, archive them if
you are a watcher.

Chapter 2 Working with Approval Flows Creating Approval Reports
 To archive approval requests:

1 On the To Do page (or the View Requests page if you are a watcher), select the approval request you want to
remove.
2 Click Archive To Label. You can archive to the default label Archive Items, or you can assign a different
label you had previously created, or create a new label.
 To find archived approval requests:

1 On the Search page, select the type of the approval request and click the label under My Labels, or from
the Search content item on your dashboard, click the label under Saved Searches/Labels.
2 Use the search filter options to narrow your search.
Creating Approval Reports

Use the following prepackaged reports to review the approval history and pending approvals for each type of
approvable. You must be a member of the Report Manager, Invoice Administrator, Invoice Manager, Invoice
Agent, Purchasing Manager, Receiving Manager, Tax Manager, or Payment Agent group to be able to create
approval reports.
Run this report... To see this data...

Approval History A detailed history of all approvals (including denials) from all completed approvables,
such as requisitions, invoices, travel authorizations, and so forth.
This report displays approval completed (approval history) approvable counts by

approvable ID, approvable title, approvable type, approvable status, action date, approved
by user, approver, reason, and state in detail view, filtered by submit date.
Drill down or filter further by approvable status, approvable type, and approved by user.
Pending Approval A detailed report of all approvals that are in process.
This report displays pending approvable counts by approvable ID, title approvable type,
approver, assigned date, and reason in detail view, filtered by submit date.
Drill down or filter further by approvable status and approvable type.
Note: If an approval flow contains parallel approvers, and one of them has denied the
request, the approvable is still listed in the Pending Approval report with the name of the
other parallel approver. This occurs even though the parallel approver is considered to be
only a watcher as soon as the request is denied. You may want to refine the report to
exclude approvables in the Denied state, since they are no longer truly pending.

Changing Approval Notification Preferences Chapter 2 Working with Approval Flows
Changing Approval Notification Preferences

You can set email notification preferences for each type of approvable for which you are involved in the
approval flow, and you can set unique preferences for each type. If you choose to receive notifications
consolidated in summary messages, notification messages are consolidated in a batch and sent to you by
scheduled tasks that are run once daily.
 To change default preferences for email notification messages:

1 Click Preferences > Change email notification preferences on the command bar.
2 On the Edit Email Notification Preferences page, choose the type of approvable in the Edit preferences for pull-
down menu.
3 Select your email preferences.
For this option... Do this...

When I am an approver Select Send email summary to have the system send you a daily batch email that
includes all notifications generated in response to a request.
(also applies to receivers
and reconcilers) Select Send email immediately to have the system send you the approval email as
soon as it is generated.
When I am a watcher Select Send email summary to have the system send you a daily batch email that
includes all watcher notifications generated in response to a request.
Select Send email immediately to have the system send you the watcher notification as
soon as it is generated.
Each time my document is Select this option to receive a message each time your request or a request for which
approved you are a watcher is approved.

Chapter 2 Working with Approval Flows Working with Approval Queues
For this option... Do this...

When my document is Select this option to receive a message when your request (or a request for which you
fully approved are a watcher) is fully approved.
When I need to approve a Select how often a notification is sent to you when a request is waiting for your
document approval:
• Never send
(also applies to other • Send once
required actions, such as
• Send repeatedly (individual email notification is sent once, and after that, the
reconciling and receiving)
notification is included in a summary email sent once per weekday until the
approver takes action or is no longer the active approver)
When my approval is Select how often a notification is sent to you when your approval of a request is
overdue overdue:
• Never send
(also applies to other • Send once
required actions, such as
• Send repeatedly (individual email notification is sent once, and after that, the
reconciling and receiving)
notification is included in a summary email sent once per weekday until the
approver takes action or is no longer the active approver)
The approval of a request becomes overdue when you are an active approver and you
have not taken action within the escalation warning period. See “Escalations” on
page 40 for more information about escalations.
When I am a watcher Select how often a message is sent to you when a request is submitted and you are in
the approval flow as a watcher:
• Never send (Watcher notifications are still sent when the user is both a watcher and
an approver and both nodes are active at the same time in the approval flow.)
• Send once (The system sends watcher notifications when the request is approved or
fully approved if the Send Email check box is checked for those stages.)
• Send repeatedly (The system sends watcher notifications once per day when the
request is approved or fully approved if the Send Email check box is checked for
those stages. For other approval flow activities, such as denial or withdrawal, the
system adheres to the Notification Frequency preference called When I am a
watcher, described earlier in this table.)
4 Click Save.
5 Click the check box for a preference to enable that preference. Clear the check box for a preference to
disable that preference. Click Reset to return the preferences to their default settings.
6 Click OK.
Working with Approval Queues

If you are assigned to an approval queue, either individually or as a member of a group, you can obtain
approval requests of any type from the queue and assign them to yourself to work on. You can also return
items to the queue, which makes them available to other queue members.
The queue manager determines how many items can be retrieved from the queue at a time, can assign items
to specific queue members, and can see who is working on the queue items and how many days the items
have been assigned. Because queues are designed to support high volume approvables and exception types,
notifications are not sent to queue members.

Working with Approval Queues Chapter 2 Working with Approval Flows
For more conceptual information about approval queues, see the Ariba Approval Process Management
Guide.
 To retrieve unassigned requests in a queue:

1 In Common Actions, click My To Do.
2 In the To Do Controller, do the following:
• Click Unassigned Queue Items.

• Choose an approvable type and a queue from the pull-down menus.
The pull-down menus contain all the types of approvables and queues that you can view. You cannot
retrieve an item unless you first choose a queue.
3 Do one of the following:
• To retrieve and open an approvable, click Get and Open Next Item.
• To retrieve an approvable to work on later, click Get Next Items.
The request appears on your To Do page and you are identified as the owner in the workflow. The number
of days the request has been assigned also appears on the To Do page.
The oldest requests are first in a queue. You can also use Search Filters to find specific types of
approvables in a queue. Typically, you can retrieve one item at a time, but this number is configurable by
the queue manager.
4 Take the appropriate action on the item, as described in “Approving or Denying Requests” on page 40.
For information on resolving exceptions, see the Ariba Invoice Professional Invoicing User Guide.
 To return a request to a queue:

1 Select one or more requests in the To Do list.
2 Click Return to Queue.
The request returns to its original position in the queue.

Appendix A Approvable Document Prefix Reference
This appendix lists the default prefixes assigned to the approvable types used in procurement and invoicing
solutions. Ariba Customer Support can customize approvable document prefixes, so you might see different
prefixes from the ones listed in this appendix.
• “Purchasing and Receiving Approvables” on page 55
• “Purchasing Card Approvables” on page 56
• “Catalog Approvables” on page 56
• “Contract Compliance Approvables” on page 56
• “Service Procurement Approvables” on page 56
• “Invoicing and Payment Approvables” on page 57
• “Travel and Expense Approvables” on page 57
• “User Profile Approvables” on page 57
Purchasing and Receiving Approvables

The following table lists the default prefixes of purchasing and receiving approvables. For approvables
associated with purchasing cards, see “Purchasing Card Approvables” on page 56.
Prefix Approvable Type

ASN Advanced ship notice
BPO Blanket purchase order contract
CC Copy order
CRC Copy receipt
EP ERP order
MT Milestone tracker
OC Order confirmation
PO Direct order
PR Purchase requisition
RC Receipt
SH Shopping cart

Purchasing Card Approvables Appendix A Approvable Document Prefix Reference
Purchasing Card Approvables

The following table lists the default prefixes for approvables associated with purchasing cards.

PCC PCard charge
PCCR PCard charge reconciliation
PCO Purchase card order
Catalog Approvables
The following table lists the default prefixes for catalog-related approvables.

KIT Catalog kit (also called kit data update)
SDU Supplier data update (also called catalog approvable)
Contract Compliance Approvables

The following table lists the default prefixes for approvables associated with contract compliance.

C Contract
CR Contract request
Service Procurement Approvables

The following table lists the default prefixes for approvables associated with service procurement.

ES Contractor expense sheet
P Collaboration proposal
R Collaboration request
SC Category definition
SCR Category definition request
SV Contractor survey
TS Time sheet
UR Counter proposal

Appendix A Approvable Document Prefix Reference Invoicing and Payment Approvables
Invoicing and Payment Approvables

The following table lists the default prefixes for approvables associated with invoicing and payment.

CIR Cancel invoice request
INV Invoice
IR Invoice reconciliation
PAY Payment
PMT Payment transaction
Travel and Expense Approvables

The following table lists the default prefixes for approvables associated with travel and expense.

ER Expense report
TA Travel authorization
TAO Travel authorization order
TAOC Travel authorization order confirmation
User Profile Approvables

The following table lists the default prefixes for user profile approvables.

SPR Supplier profile request
UP User profile

Ariba Approval Workflow

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Getting Started User

Ariba Invoice Professional™

Ariba Procurement Content™

Document Month/Year of Updated Short Description of Change

Ariba Procurement Getting Started User Guide iii

iv Ariba Procurement Getting Started User Guide

Revision History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii

Chapter 1 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chapter 2 Working with Approval Flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Ariba Procurement Getting Started User Guide v

Editing the Approval Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Appendix A Approvable Document Prefix Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

vi Ariba Procurement Getting Started User Guide

• “Logging In” on page 7

Ariba Procurement Getting Started User Guide 7

Reviewing Your Access Rights

8 Ariba Procurement Getting Started User Guide

Your Home Dashboard

Understanding the Dashboard Pages

Each dashboard tab may display the following components:

Ariba Procurement Getting Started User Guide 9

Command Use this command to…

Logout End your session and exit the Ariba system.

The following table describes the commands on the command bar:

Command Use this command to…

Recent Access the most recently viewed or worked-on approvables.

10 Ariba Procurement Getting Started User Guide

Command Use this command to…

Ariba Procurement Getting Started User Guide 11

Dashboard Tab Configuration

12 Ariba Procurement Getting Started User Guide

Cleaning Up the To Do Content Item

 To clean up your To Do content item:

2 Click the Clean Up button above the list of approval requests.

Customizing the Dashboard

Type of Content Content Items and Descriptions

Ariba Procurement Getting Started User Guide 13

Type of Content Content Items and Descriptions

Adding Content to the Current Dashboard Tab

Customizing Saved Search Content Items

14 Ariba Procurement Getting Started User Guide

 To customize a saved search content item:

2 Select the option you want.

Editing Properties for the Current Dashboard Tab

 To edit properties for the current dashboard tab:

Ariba Procurement Getting Started User Guide 15

Adding New Dashboard Tabs

Deleting Dashboard Tabs

2 Click Configure Tabs and choose Delete Tab.

3 If prompted, confirm that you want to delete the selected content.

Rearranging Content Items on Dashboard Tabs

16 Ariba Procurement Getting Started User Guide

Managing Changes to Dashboard Tabs

Comparing Dashboard Tabs to Template Settings

 To compare your dashboard tabs to template settings.

2 Click a dashboard tab to compare it to the default template settings.

Ariba Procurement Getting Started User Guide 17

Resetting Your Entire Dashboard to Template Settings

 To reset your dashboard to the template settings:

2 Click OK to confirm that you want to revert your entire dashboard.

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