You update the approver in the ERP automatically by linking the manager from the HR system to their user in the ERP on email address or number, and setting them there as approver or supervisor. When someone leaves, the employee gets an end date in the ERP, so their approval rights stop on the day they leave.
This article is about a problem finance often only sees during an audit or a stuck timesheet: who is actually allowed to approve in the ERP, and does that still match HR?
The problem: two lists of managers
In the ERP, managers approve hours, expense claims and invoices. Who may do that should follow what HR records. A new manager after a reorganisation, a departure, a manager position that is temporarily empty: in HR it is correct straight away, in the ERP it often stays as it was.
Without an integration you see two things happen. An employee who has left still approves invoices, because their user in the ERP was never closed. And timesheets get stuck with someone who is no longer responsible, because the new manager was never set as approver.
Why you cannot simply copy the manager from HR
In HR, the manager is another employee. In the ERP, the approver has to be a user, often in the same company. You have to link those two on a key that is fixed in both systems, such as the email address or the employee number.
After that, where the approval sits differs per ERP:
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. A timesheet belongs to a resource. The employee therefore has to be linked to a resource, and the manager becomes the approver of that resource.
- Oracle NetSuite. The supervisor approves expenses if there is no separate approver. The supervisor can come from HR. A separate expense approver and the limits are a choice for finance.
- Visma.net ERP. Approvals run through work groups. The manager owns a work group and the employee is in that group. If the employee gets a new manager, they move to that manager's group and the approval moves with them.
- Exact Online. The manager may not be a subordinate of the employee, and must work in the same company.
Leaving: the approver who stays
The biggest risk is when someone leaves. An employee who has gone and can still approve in the ERP is a gap in your internal control.
A good integration always passes on the end-of-employment date, so the employee gets an end date or the status terminated in the ERP. In SAP S/4HANA that is extra important. On replication, S/4HANA sets the validity of a user to 31-12-9999 by default. Without an end date from HR, an employee who has left will keep approving there.
Anyone looking at this from access management will find more under identity and access management: approval rights in the ERP are access too.
Edge cases where it gets stuck
Even when the basics are in place, there are situations where the approver cannot follow straight away.
Open timesheets in Business Central. Business Central does not let you change the approver while timesheets are open or submitted. The change has to be retried after the approval. If it stays stuck, someone should be told.
An empty manager position in Workday. In Workday, the manager position of an organisation can be temporarily empty. If you then pass on no approver, expenses are left with nobody. The manager of the parent organisation is then the logical replacement.
A manager without an account in the ERP. Not every manager works in the ERP. Some are in another company or in another country. Finance or the administrator then gets an alert and chooses a replacement approver, for example someone in the Netherlands.
What stays with finance
An integration from HR sets the manager. It does not set limits for expense claims or separate approvers. Finance determines those in the ERP, and that is how it should stay. HR knows who someone's manager is, finance knows up to what amount someone may sign.
How KoppelHet builds this
KoppelHet links managers on a key that is fixed in both systems, sets the manager as approver or supervisor in the place the ERP has for it, and passes on the end date when someone leaves. In the platform you can see which managers have no user in the ERP. An approver that cannot be changed because of open timesheets, we retry after the approval and report if it stays stuck. An integration from HR to ERP falls into our basic class; as an indication, allow two to four weeks.
We build that per organisation, with building blocks that keep coming back. Examples are Workday to Microsoft Dynamics 365, Workday to Oracle NetSuite, Personio to Visma.net ERP and HiBob to Exact Online.
The whole topic is on managers and approvers, and the overview on HR to ERP. On which cost centre the approved hours land is explained under departments and cost centres. More about the systems: Workday, Oracle NetSuite and Visma.net ERP.