Using Approval Groups in EPM Planning

Approval groups are a welcome addition to the workflow approvals setup in EPM, which now allows you to submit segments of data defined by multiple dimensions, rather than just one or two.

In the past we’ve been limited to submitting by Entity, with an optional secondary dimension; now however, with approval groups, we can setup approvals to submit portions of data which are much more specific and reference combinations from multiple dimensions if needed.

For example, if the Revenue team is split into 3 Product streams, plus another stream for Cost submissions, then a combination of Entity, Account and Product is needed.

Step 1 – Setup Approval Groups

The first step is to create the required approval groups under Application -> Approval Groups. Create a new approval group and add the relevant dimensions.

For example below, for Fuel Margin, I’ve selected the Revenue/COS and Fuel metric accounts, combined with the Fuel products. This means when this approval group is submitted, only the Fuel products will be locked for the Revenue/COS, rather than locking all Products. 

 You can then create additional approval groups for each area so they can be submitted separately. For example, below we have groups for four different Margin areas, split by Product.

 

Step 2 – Setup Approval Unit

Once the approval groups are created, we can setup the approval unit as normal. There are two different ways to reference the approval groups via the Extended Approval Flow dropdown, using either:

• Approval Group – use the approval groups as the basis
• Secondary – similar to a using a secondary dimension, except you can reference the approval groups, rather than a single dimension (this way is my preference)

 

For this demo, I will use the Secondary approval flow, as I found it the simplest setup. In the next tab Primary and Subhierarchy Selection, select the relevant Entities to enable for approval as normal.

Then for entities that need more detailed submissions using approval groups, select HSP_SubmissionGroup in the dimension dropdown. Use relative generation 1 to select all approval groups initially. Then remove any unnecessary approval groups from the Selected Members area, using the member selector.

Then in the Assign Owners tab, you will see the combinations of entity and approval group, to assign either groups or users as owners. For example below, the ‘ROI Sites’ entity is now broken down into the different margin/cost areas, using the approval groups created earlier. We can then assign different owners to each of the sub-areas within ROI.

 

Review the promotional path to ensure the approval unit setup meets the required workflow.

Step 3 – Assign and Start Workflow

From within Workflow -> Approval Unit Assignment, you can then assign the relevant Scenario and Versions to the new approval unit.

Note: you can only use each Scenario-Version combination against one Approval Unit, e.g. Budget-Working can only be assigned to a single unit.

Start the workflow from the Manage Approvals area. This is easiest using the Tree View, accessible from the View dropdown in the top-right corner.

Step 4 – Using Approvals

Once the approval unit has been started, the relevant user groups will be able to promote, approve or reject each entity combination, broken down into the sub-groups specified.

For example, if the ROI Sites: Fuel Margin Approval is promoted, then this will lock the combination of ROI Sites (Entity), Fuel (Product) and Margin (Account) only. Other users can then work on the Food or Store Margin and submit that separately when it’s ready.

In summary, if you’ve been avoiding using EPM approvals due to the limited functionality, I’d recommend giving approval groups a go as it’s much more flexible!