Why didn't an approval process work properly?
Why didn't this approval rule trigger?
Why am I no longer listed in a particular approval flow?

Your company fully controls the configuration and change to your approval flows, so if you did not change a particular approval flow yourself, it was most likely changed by another user in your company.

Because your company's procurement site is highly customized according to your own business needs, there is no definitive answer as to why an approval rule did not work properly. However, you can use these tips to investigate and troubleshoot a particular approval flow.

First, look at the recent version of the approval process in question:

1. Click Manage > Approval Processes.
2. Select the approval process you want to review by scrolling down, searching by title, selecting the Created or Last Modified date, or selecting a particular type of approval from the Approvable Type pull-down menu.
3. As a best practice, locate the State column, and scroll down to the Active version of the particular approval process you want to review.
4. Click the title for more details.

After completing the previous steps, you can review each tab, in any order, to determine why the approval process you selected is functioning a certain way:

1. Access the History tab to see if there were any recent changes:
   
   
   • If another user made a recent change that altered the approval process functionality, you will see that in this section.
   • You can reach out to the user who made the changes to figure out what was edited.
   • Alternatively, you can access past a version to investigate what specific changes they made by clicking the title.
     
     
2. Click the Approval Rules tab to review the rules that determine how this approval process functions:
   
   
   • Hover over each approval node to read the full description of added rules.
   • Read the description and action of any rule in question for more information on what each rules does.
   • See the Ariba Approval Process Management Guide for additional information regarding each rule and condition.
     
     
3. Visit the Filter Rules tab to view any filter rules added to this approval process:
   
   
   • View the rules listed in the Filter Rules Added section.
   • Click the radio button to the left of a rule you want to view. This populates the associated Action and Condition sections for the rule you selected.
   • View the description for more details on how that rule functions.
   • For more information regarding the different types of filter rules and what they do, see the Ariba Approval Process Management Guide.
     
     
4. Go to the Approval Edit Rules tab to view any edit rules added to this approval process:
   
   View the rules listed in the Edit Rules Added section.
   Click the radio button to the left of a rule you want to view. This populates the associated Action and Condition section for the rule you selected.
   View the description for more details on how that rule functions.
   For more information regarding the different types of edit rules and what they do, see the Ariba Approval Process Management Guide.
   
   
5. Navigate to the Testing tab to test how this approvable functions in its current state.
   
   

When reviewing each tab, click Edit at any time to adjust the current configuration of the approval process you are reviewing. Depending on the specific configuration of your company's approval processes, you might not find any information in some of the sections.

These steps are intended to provide common troubleshooting and investigation tips you can use to determine why a particular issue occurs with one of your approval processes.

Approval Process Management Guide

Core Procurement > Core Administration > Approval Flows
Core Procurement > Core Administration > Approver lookups
Invoicing