HR Processes and Forms Workflow Activity Report

This guide explains the purpose and function of the report and how to track forms as they
progress through workflow.

Contents
Description and Purpose ................................................................................................................. 1
Using the Report ............................................................................................................................. 2
Description and Layout ............................................................................................................... 2
Report Results ............................................................................................................................. 5
Process Step Details .................................................................................................................... 6

Description and Purpose

In the HR Payroll system, forms are submitted into workflow for approval. Forms are routed
from approver to approver through the HR-Payroll Inbox. The HR Processes and Forms
Workflow Activity Report is used to track and monitor forms through the approval process.
The report allows Unit Administrators to see several key pieces of workflow information for
forms:

A list of all forms submitted into workflow.

Current location and status of each form.
Entire workflow route of the form from beginning to end.
A list of all organizations involved in the approval process.
Individual approvers for each step in the approval process.
Contact information for each approver.

The report maintains data confidentiality. Users outside of the Central HR Office can track any
form, however they cannot open and view the information contained on the form.

1. The Forms Workflow Activity Report is an SAP report, similar to the Employee
Information Report, Reported Time Database Report, and others. The report is accessed
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HR Processes and Forms Workflow Activity Report

through the EBS portal by clicking the report link under Unit Administrator >
Administrative Services.

Using the Report

Description and Layout
The workflow activity report is simple and easy to use:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Select the Application.

Define the Process Selection filters.
Define the Output Selection (optional).
Execute the report.

The main parts of the selection screen are:

1. SAP Navigation Bar: Navigate forward and backward between screens; standard to all
SAP reports.
2. Execute button: Click to run the report. All SAP reports use this same button to run the
report.
3. Application: Determines the type of forms to include in report results.
Personnel Administration: Include only forms that take action on a
person/employee, such as hiring, appointment, change of status, and termination
forms. This application includes all forms except the following:
Change Faculty/Academic Staff Position
Create Faculty/Academic Staff Position
Change Support Staff Position
Create Support Staff Position

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HR Processes and Forms Workflow Activity Report

Personnel Development - Include only forms that take action on organizational

management or create or change positions. This application only includes the
following forms:
Change Faculty/Academic Staff Position
Create Faculty/Academic Staff Position
Change Support Staff Position
Create Support Staff Position

The Process Selection Area contains additional criteria.

Process Reference Number: Search for a single form. Every submitted form receives a
unique process reference number. Enter that number in this field to locate only that
specific form. The preceding zeroes are not needed.

Process: Select a specific process.

The process is the same as the name
of the form. Look up the process that
the report will search for. The image
to the right shows a listing of
available processes that can be
selected for this field.
This lookup provides a listing of all
processes regardless of the
application selected. Remember that
the report is driven by application.
For example, if the Personnel
Administration application was
selected but the chosen process was
Change Academic Faculty/Staff
Position, the report would yield no
results because a change to a position
is not a Personnel Administration
application.

Process Initiator: Search for a process by initiator. Enter the MSU NetID of an HRPayroll system user to view processes they have submitted. To maintain confidentiality,
the actual form cannot be viewed from the report. This allows you to see if another user
has initiated a process.

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HR Processes and Forms Workflow Activity Report

Process Status: Search for forms by status. Use the lookup to select a process status.
Currently, there are more processes statuses available than are used. The only four
processes can be selected are:
Draft
Started
Completed
Withdrawn
Process Start Date: Determines the period of time to be searched. By default, the date
range is from 1800 to 12/31/9999. Change this only if you want to limit results to a
specific period of time, such as processes that were submitted last week.
Personnel Number: Searching by personnel number is not recommended as it will
not provide any valid results. Available only when the Personnel Administration
application is selected.
Object Type: (Personnel Development only; not pictured) Search for forms that apply to
only a certain object type, typically an organizational unit. Enter O to search by
organizational unit.
Object Key: (Personnel Development only; not pictured) If an object type is selected,
then this field is required. If object type O is entered, enter the Organization Unit
number here.
Processor: Search by processor/approver. Enter the MSU NetID of an approver to view
forms for which that person was a processor. Note that this does mean that person
processed a particular form, just that they could have processed a form. You can use this
field to narrow results to forms applicable to your unit.

The Output Selection area contains two checkboxes that provide additional options for
Personnel Administration forms only:

Get Effective Date: Forces the report to display the effective date of the action. For
example, to see that a form submitted this week is for an action that will take effect three
months from now. If you choose this option it will take longer to run the report.
Get Hire Employee Names: Forces the report to include and display names on new hire
forms. By default, the report does not list the names of new hires because they are not yet
in the employee database. If you choose this option it will take longer to run the
report. When using this option, be sure to also apply other filter criteria such as initiator
and date range to render the report more quickly.

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HR Processes and Forms Workflow Activity Report

Report Results
Once the report is executed, the report results are displayed.

1. The standard SAP Report tool bar allows you to customize the view, layout and filtering.
The following columns appear, from left to right:

Process Name: The type of form.

Ref. No.: The process reference number displayed when a form is submitted.
Initiator: The MSU NetID of the person that submitted this form into workflow. Use this
to see which Unit Administrator submitted a process.
Process Status: The overall workflow status of the form:
Started: Submitted into workflow.
Draft: Saved as a draft but not yet submitted.
Completed: Has been through all approvers.
Withdrawn: The initiator has withdrawn this form from workflow.
Object Key: The specific object the form/process impacts. For Personnel Administration
processes, this is the personnel number of the employee. For Personnel Development
processes this is an organization unit or position number.
Last Name and First Name: The specific person a process is acting on. By default, the
report does not display the first and last name of new hires that do not have a Completed
status. This is because the new hire does not exist in the employee database until the form
completes workflow. You can force the report to pull the names of the new hires and
display them in the report by checking the Get Employee Names checkbox before
running the report. This will cause the report to take longer to run.
Start Date: The date the initiator first saved the form. It is not the date that the form was
submitted into workflow.
End Date: The date that the form completed the workflow approval process. This column
is blank until it completes workflow.

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HR Processes and Forms Workflow Activity Report

Error Description: If a form encounters an error during workflow, it appears here in red.
The HR Workflow Administrator will contact the initiator to resolve the issue. If there is
no error, this column is blank.

Process Step Details

In addition to the summary information on the opening screen of the report, you can view each
individual step in the approval process for a process/form on the report using the Process Step
Details button. The detailed steps for the highlighted process are displayed beneath the report in
the Process Step Details area. This is where you find out if a form has been approved or
rejected.

1. Approvers button: Select a step and click this button to view the approvers for the
highlighted step. For steps that have not been completed, it shows who has permission to
approve the form at that step. For steps that have been completed, it shows the approvers
name.
2. Approving Orgs button: Click this button to open a window that shows all the
organizations involved in the approval process. Central HR does not appear as an
approving org, but remember that the majority of forms need Central HR approval before
the process is completed if it is not withdrawn or rejected.
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HR Processes and Forms Workflow Activity Report

Below are descriptions of the columns in the Process Step Details area, from left to right.

Step Name: The process name from the report along with the name of the person this
action applies to.
Step Status: Indicates what happened at each step. Some of the available step statuses
include:
Process Initiated: The initiator submitted the form into workflow.
Approved by Dept/Fund: The approver approved the form.
Implied Approval: The approver is a primary approver for this org unit and level,
and had previously approved the form.
Awaiting Central HR Approval: The form is waiting for final approval from
Central HR.
Note on Step Status for Graduate Assistant Processes: The order in which Graduate
Assistant forms are processed by Central HR is determined by the assignment begin date,
to help prioritize Central HR approvals. After all departmental approvals have taken
place, the system places any forms with an assignment begin date more than 60 days out
into a holding tank. Within 60 days of the assignment begin date, the system brings the
form out of the holding tank and places it for Central HR approval. The step status for a
Graduate Assistant form will not display Awaiting Central HR Approval unless the
current date is within 60 days of the Graduate Assistant assignment begin date. You can
expect Graduate Assistant forms to be processed by Central HR within a reasonable
amount of time before the actual assignment start date.

Processor: The MSU NetID of the person that took action.

Approver Level: The approval level of the person that took action. Central HR and
initiator are identified as approver level 00.
Approving Organization Unit: Initiators and Central HR are identified with an org unit
of 00000000.
Approving Organization Unit Description: The full name of the approving
organization.
First and Last Name of the approver.
Approver Email ID: The work email address of the person that took action.
Approver Phone Number: The work phone number of the person that took action.
Start Date: The date the action was started. For an initiator, this is the date the form was
submitted or saved as a draft. For an approver, this is the date they opened or assigned the
form to themselves for processing.
Start Time: The time of day the action was started.
End Date: The date the action was completed. Compare this to the start date to see how
much time an approver spent processing the form.
FWD to Expert: Indicates if the form was forwarded to an expert during a particular
step.

12/20/2011

Copyright 2011 Michigan State University. All rights reserved.

Reference Guide (RGHR-0004)