Processing Time of Workflow Steps
You can define step specific processing times in days for the workflow steps. In the workflow steps you can also determine whether the sufficiency of the processing time is calculated on the basis of the transaction due date or the processing step start date.
When the processing time that was defined for the processing of the step is up, the transaction will be transferred to the processor's backup upon the next scheduled e-mail delivery. However, the invoice is always on the original processor's task list for 24 hours before it is transferred to the backup. The time frame only includes working days.
The user's backup is defined in the absence settings of the Users function. Transfer of a transaction to a backup person is also carried out even if the original processor is not absent. A transfer is not performed if the option No Backup Person is selected in the processor's absence settings.
In the Workflow Settings, you can define which weekdays are working days. For more information, see Workflow Settings.
Processing time calculation based on the transaction due date
The due date based processing time defines how many days before the due date, or before the next step, the step in question should be processed. If the number of days that is left for processing, as counted backwards from the due date, equals the number of days that is still needed for processing and a processor has not yet processed the relevant step, the transaction is transferred to a backup person.
If the transaction is being processed in the first step, the processing times of all the steps are added together when calculating the sufficiency of the processing time.
For example
Processing time: 3 days in the Review step and 2 days in the Approval step. Working days are from Monday to Friday. Therefore, the total processing time is 5 working days.
Invoice due date: October 26, 2010 (Tuesday).
The Invoice is saved on October 12, 2010 and will first be checked.
The invoice will wait for checking until October 18, 2010, at which point there are 5 days left until the due date, when the invoice will be transferred to the backup person for checking (19 TUE, 20 WED, 21 THU, 22 FRI, 23 SAT, 24 SUN, 25 MON, 26 TUE).
If the processing times are long, the transaction is transferred to a backup person at a very early stage, if the original processor has not processed the transaction in time. If, for example, for each of the two processing steps a processing time of five days is set, the transaction is transferred to the reviewer's backup person 10 days before the due date, if the reviewer has not processed the transaction by that time. If the transfer to a backup person should happen only close to the due date, the processing times must be set shorter.
Calculation based on the processing step start date
Calculation based on the processing step start date means that the processing time calculation is started from first working day following the start date of the currently active processing step of the relevant transaction. The processing step start date is the day when, for example, a processor was saved for the first processing step or the transaction was transferred from the previous step to the processor of the next step.
Starting from the first working day after the start date of the processing step, when the number of working days specified for the processing step has passed, the transaction is transferred to the backup person.
For example
Processing time: 8 days in the Review step and 5 days in the Approval step. Working days are from Monday to Friday.
Review step> October 4, 2010 (Monday).
Invoice due date: November 4, 2010 (Thursday).
The invoice will wait for review until October 15, 2010, at which point it will be transferred to the reviewer's backup person, if the reviewer has not processed the step (4 MON, 5 TUE, 6 WED, 7 THU, 8 FRI, 9 SAT, 10 SUN, 11 MON, 12 TUE, 13 WED, 14 THU).
The Approval step start date is the day when the invoice was transferred to the approver.
If the Review step of the invoice was processed, for example, on Thursday October 14, 2010, the invoice will wait for approval until October 22, 2010, at which point it will be transferred to the approver's backup person if the approver has not processed the step (the five working days provided for the Approval step: 14 THU, 15 FRI, 16 SAT, 17 SUN, 18 MON, 19 TUE, 20 WED, 21 THU).