Can approvals escalate for receipts if no action is taken in a certain time frame?

Yes. However, it is important to distinguish the two types of escalation for receipts. Receipts with a single approval node (Composing) vs. Receipts with more than on approval node (Submitted) both follow the Due Date, but operate on a different framework.

When a receipt is generated against a purchase order or contract, it is in Composing status because the act of receiving is not simply an approval of the receipt. If the approval flow contains only one approver, and the person receives against the order or contract, the status of the receipt moves automatically from Composing to Approved status. If the Approval Flow contains an additional approver, after the first person receives the items, the second person is triggered as an approver on the receipt, which is in Submitted status.

• The Submitted Receipt will escalate according to the values set in parameters: Application.Approvable.ApprovalRequestEscalateWarningPeriod and Application.Approvable.ApprovalRequestEscalationPeriod.
  
  • Also keep in mind that what is set in EscalationsByApprovableType.csv and run in the Import Escalation and Withdrawal Periods By Approvable Type data import task takes precedence over these parameters.
• A single-node, Composing, receipt does not escalate in the traditional sense. The parameter, Application.Receiving.ReceiptEscalationNotificationPeriod, is the parameter used to control these receipts. However, once the Due Date is passed, plus the value of this parameter, all the system will do is send a notification to the receiver's supervisor letting them know that the receipt has not been received. The supervisor will not be added to the approval flow.
  • The parameter requires the single approval node to have a user on it, not an approval group or list.

Please keep in mind the following:

• The Due Date is controlled by multiple factors:
  
  • If the realm is using the Need-By Date parameter, please reference the following article: https://support.ariba.com/item/view/KB0398101
  • If the realm is not using the Need-By Date parameter, the Due Date will be the day purchase order was generated + Default Lead Time.
  • If the realm is not using the Need-By Date, or Default Lead Time, the Due Date will be the day the purchase order was generated
  • Finally, the task that controls receipt notifications runs once per day in the early morning hours of PST.
    
    • Thus, if a Due Date was on Wednesday, but the task already ran for the day, the notification will send the following day.

Finally, please note escalation will not occur when the approver is a group, or approver list. However receipts will be still counted as an escalation on the "Escalated" dashboard tracker based on the above criteria.

Purchasing > Receiving