https://www.sikich.com

Enhancing Workflows with Approval Tier Levels in NetSuite

Daniel Tam

Oct 11 2024

3 min read

Are you experiencing bottlenecks in your approval workflow processes in NetSuite due to team members being out sick, going on vacation, and many more reasons? You might also be experiencing difficulties in maintaining a business process in delegating another user to approve on behalf of the other user on PTO and then removing the delegation afterwards. Sikich’s NetSuite consultants have a solution for you to optimize the process in your approval workflows inside NetSuite.

How to Optimize NetSuite Approval Workflows

What Sikich has developed for our existing and new clients is an approval tier list functionality which uses the Hierarchy Tier Level approach on an employee basis. The workflows will work the same way it used to work, where only the next approver or Administrator will be able to approve the transaction.

However, Sikich will add another layer on top of the regular approval by allowing the user with a higher approval level to approve the transaction created by a user with a lower approval level. This optimization to the workflow assigns an approval tier level to an employee, and the tier level assigned will be where the workflow will look when a transaction is going through the approval process.

This optimization can be added on selected workflows, on all workflows, and even on certain approval states in a workflow. We have seen this work well in journal entry approval workflows, vendor bill approval workflows, and invoice approval workflows, as these are transactions you might be rushing to enter into NetSuite at your month end reconciliation and closing process. If someone is listed as the next approver and is not able to approve because they are not in the office, someone with a higher tier approval level can approve on their behalf to avoid transactions not being posted.

Through this optimization, Sikich can help remove some headaches you may be experiencing such as

transactions not posting due to approver being out of office,
maintaining delegation process whenever a user is out of office, and
having an overly complex workflow.

We are happy to review and access your current process to see if this optimization is a good fit for your business.

If you’d like to learn more about optimizing Workflows via the Approval Tier Levels or anything else about NetSuite, you can contact us at any time! You can also learn more about great tips for NetSuite on our YouTube playlist or our other blog posts.

This publication contains general information only and Sikich is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should you use it as a basis for any decision, action or omission that may affect you or your business. Before making any decision, taking any action or omitting an action that may affect you or your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor. In addition, this publication may contain certain content generated by an artificial intelligence (AI) language model. You acknowledge that Sikich shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by you or any person who relies on this publication.

About the Author

Daniel Tam

Daniel Tam is a consultant on the NetSuite team. Daniel has a background in corporate accounting, integrating accounting systems, maintaining vendor and client relationships, and improving business processes. He also has experience in data analytics and visualization using tools such as Tableau.