Optimize Your Business with a Custom Costpoint Approval Workflow

Deltek Costpoint offers a powerful feature for creating custom approval processes, known as Approval Workflow (NEW) or WFA. This functionality allows businesses to establish a streamlined, multi-level approval process across various application screens. Moving beyond standard, fixed processes, WFA gives you the power to define your own rules, conditions, and roles for any existing Costpoint function. By leveraging a custom Costpoint approval workflow, you can significantly enhance your operational efficiency and control. 

This post will explore the benefits of creating a custom Costpoint approval workflow. We will detail how these workflows operate and walk through the process of designing, testing, and managing them to improve your business processes. 

The Benefits of a Custom Costpoint Approval Workflow 

Implementing a custom Costpoint approval workflow provides numerous advantages that translate into a more agile and reliable operational structure. By automating processes and standardizing procedures, you can transform how your organization handles approvals. The primary benefits include streamlined processes, improved efficiency, enhanced control, ensured consistency, supported compliance, and facilitated communication between teams. 

Each benefit contributes to a more robust and transparent system, reducing manual intervention and minimizing the potential for errors. Let’s look at how these advantages work in practice. 

The WFA Process: A Step-by-Step Guide 

Building an effective Costpoint approval workflow involves a structured approach, from defining the basic elements to activating the live process. The WFA process can be broken down into three main phases: defining prerequisites, designing the model, and finally, managing and monitoring the workflow. 

1. Define Prerequisites 

Before you can build the workflow itself, you must set up the foundational components within the Approval Workflow module. These prerequisites form the building blocks of your custom process. 

• Approval Roles: Define who has the authority to approve tasks, such as Project Managers or Employee Managers. 

• Role Filter Fields: Set specific criteria to control who sees which tasks. This is based on data conditions within the system. 

• Reject Codes: Create a list of standardized reasons for rejecting requests to ensure clarity and consistency. 

• Email Messages: Customize the notification emails that are sent to users. You can include direct links to the relevant approval screens for quick access. 

2. Design the Model 

With the prerequisites in place, you can start building the logic of your workflow using the Approval Workflow Models screen. This is where you map out the entire process flow for your Costpoint approval workflow. 

• Assign Screens: Link your custom workflow to one or more specific application screens in Costpoint. A single workflow can be designed to span multiple screens. 

• Add Steps: Create the individual nodes and activities of your workflow. These steps can be arranged to run sequentially or in parallel depending on your needs. 

• Set Conditions: Define the triggers and thresholds for your workflow. For example, you could set a condition that only requires manager approval if a purchase requisition exceeds $10,000. 

• Visual Mapping: Use the graphical outline in the Approval Flow Structure block to review the entire process. This visual representation helps ensure the logic is correct and easy to understand. 

3. Test, Activate, and Monitor 

Once the design is complete, the final phase involves testing, deployment, and ongoing management to ensure your Costpoint approval workflow functions as intended. 

• Test and Activate: Before going live, you can set the model to “Test Mode.” This allows you to verify the workflow’s logic without impacting real operations. Once you are confident it works correctly, you can click “Activate” to push it to your live environment. 

• Initiate and Execute: The workflow will trigger automatically based on the conditions you set when a user saves or creates a record. Approvers will receive email alerts and can act on tasks directly from the email link or their “My Approval Tasks” screen. 

• Status Tracking: Managers can use the “Manage Approval Workflow Case Status” screen to monitor progress. This screen provides a full historical audit trail and helps identify any bottlenecks in the process. 

Conclusion 

Standardizing your approval processes with a custom Costpoint approval workflow is about more than just boosting efficiency; it’s about building greater trust and integrity into your core business operations. When review processes are clear, documented, and automated, your teams can move faster and make better-informed strategic decisions. For organizations wanting to take their setup further, resources like Costpoint Elevate services or a Costpoint assessment can help ensure your workflows are fully aligned with your business goals. Additionally, exploring optimization solutions may reveal new ways to unlock even greater value from your Deltek Costpoint platform. 

Creating these custom workflows can sometimes be a complex undertaking. If you find yourself needing assistance, seeking expert help can save you valuable time and resources. Professional guidance can ensure you build and test your custom workflow correctly, allowing you to maximize the benefits for your organization.