When you subscribe to SpendLogic’s Source Justification module, you will also have the option of turning on Workflows.  This feature allows you to assign the source justification to someone else in your company for completion.  Typically, if not completed by the procurement agent or supplier manager, these are assigned to someone in Program Management or in a technical specialty, such as Engineering.

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In some companies, engineers and program managers write source justifications instead of the buyers and supplier managers. To increase efficiency and avoid double work, SpendLogic has created a workflow that allows non-buyer personnel to complete source justifications right inside SpendLogic. For companies taking advantage of this time-saving feature.

You’ll see a new menu item at the top that says Workflow Requests. Otherwise, SpendLogic looks exactly the same. To use this feature, start a new report as usual and be sure to include a source justification. ♪ [music] ♪ Now, when you open the Source Justification tab, you’ll see that you’re faced with a dropdown. Your first choice is to indicate “No assistance required.”

Click Submit and complete the source justification yourself. Hitting Cancel allows you to choose a different option. ♪ [music] ♪ In this case, I want to assign this report to Demo Engineer, so I’ll choose this person from the list and hit Submit. I’m shown a confirmation message that this, in fact, occurred.

At this point, SpendLogic will send an email to the intended recipient and let them know that a workflow request has been issued. The email they receive lets them know who the request is from and provides them with a link to log into the system. On clicking the link, they’re taken to SpendLogic. Once they log in, they’re taken to their Workflows tab. For users that are assigned only workflow privileges, you’ll see that they do not have options at the top of the screen to create new reports.

They have only the option for workflows. When they have a new workflow request, they’ll see a pulsing red ball indicating that the request needs to be addressed. Clicking on the edit pencil takes the recipient into the Source Justification module, at which point they’re asked to choose a report. Notice that the engineer also has the line items and Reports tabs. The engineer has view-only access to whatever the buyer or supplier manager has entered into SpendLogic.

Clicking on Choose Report, I see that there are no reports to choose from, so I need to create a new one. If there had been other source justification reports created for the parts on this PO, by anyone in the company, the engineer would’ve had an opportunity to choose a previously completed report and been given the opportunity to modify it rather than start from scratch.

Once new report is chosen, the source justification inputs must be completed and then submitted. ♪ [music] ♪ If the individual determines that edits need to be made, they have the opportunity to do this on this screen.

Otherwise, the request is considered complete. In the same way as before, SpendLogic then sends an email to the original requester letting them know that the workflow is completed. Clicking through to SpendLogic, the workflow request screen now shows the same flashing red ball. Navigating to the workflow screen and filtering on all, I see my completed request. Also on this screen, I can see all of my requests and view the age of those which are incomplete.

This is helpful in making sure reports don’t get lost in the priority stack. When I edit the report, I can now see the completed source justification. If I determine that something needs to be updated, I can either email the workflow recipient and work out the details, or I can simply click Edit and make the changes myself. ♪ [music] ♪ At this point, I can continue to complete the rest of my report.

Thanks for watching. If you have any questions on this or any other feature of SpendLogic, be sure to check out our Help Page, or drop us a line at [email protected].