I-expenses - expense report header approver - sql logic

Question

Hi folks,
I am trying to find a logic that can be used to identify the user that approved an expense report.
I cannot use the WF_NOTIFICATIONS table as this is flushed every 90 days.
This leaves 'AP_EXPENSE_REPORT_HEADERS_ALL.EXPENSE_CURRENT_APPROVER_ID' or 'AP_EXPENSE_REPORT_HEADERS_ALL.OVERRRIDE_APPROVER_ID' either connecting to PER_ALL_PEOPLE_F.
The problem is that I cannot understand the logic I should use to determine which field I should use.
Yesterday, I created a test expense report and nominated a user 'J Bloggs' as the approver, however, 'J Bloggs' did not have the necessary approval requirements, thus the report was sent to a 'A Smith' to approve.
The EXPENSE_CURRENT_APPROVER_ID contained the PERSON_ID of 'A Smith' and the OVERRIDE_APPROVER_ID contained the PERSON_ID of 'J Bloggs'.
At the moment, I am using the logic of use NVL(EXPENSE_CURRENT_APPROVER_ID, OVERRIDE_APPROVER_ID), however, there are some expense reports with neither field populated and with no workflow notfications I cannot find the approver.
Anyone shed any light?
Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi Cleme,
i-Expense approval is role based approval system.
In workflow / AME you create a rule for flowing the approval process in a defined way.
majourly 2 kind of approval process business follow
1) 1 stop go
2) Chain approval process
in one stop go, when employee submit an expense report then it does not require any supervisor approval, all are auto approved and it only need an AP approval, which AP audit team perform i.e checking reciepts ,bills for proof and check the varified check box.
and this completes your APEXP cycle.
in Chain approval process it first goes to your direct supervisor, if his job/role is higher then u then it waits for his approval in case his signing limit is lower than the expense claim then approval notification goes to the 2nd super visor(supervisor's supervisor).
In some business it's based on ammount also if 100K no approval required if 200k then only 1st supervisor approval required, like this.
lets say your approval process goes to 2 approvers at least in workflow/ame then when goes to 2nd approver then the 1st approver id is overwriten by the 2nd supervisor id.
In case you are planing to print a customize report like below format;
Expense Report Expense_Claim_By Date Approved_By Amount
Then the approver details you will get only in WF_Notifications_details table
you need to capture the details from here only
you can filter the notification_subject %EXPENSE_REPORT_NAME% ..
and you will get all the lines in WF table for that particulat Expense report from start to end.
Thanks,
Ajit