The approvals work flow is as follows:
• AFE (Approval For Expenditure) or CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) approval can be started at any time once a tender has been created. It must either be completed or bypassed before the tender can be published. If bypassed, the tender cannot be awarded until it has been completed. Multiple financial approvers may be assigned to a tender from the department/business unit owning the tender all the way up to Head Office, these approvals will occur in the sequence the approvers are listed in. Once Financial approval is started, the first person on the list will receive an automated email from iSpec. As each approver on the list approves the tender, the next person will be sent an email requesting them to approve the tender until all financial approvals are complete or until someone bypasses the financial approval. This may be done in cases where it might be impossible to estimate the project cost until vendors have submitted their bids. At that point, when the financial cost is known, approval can be obtained.
• Publication approval can only be started once all the documents have been completed and publication dates have been set. This consists of two parts (if selected). First of all the Project Team members need to approve the tender and once they are done, the purchasing approver has to approve the tender (if the option is selected). All team approvers are alerted and can approve publication at the same time. The same applies to all purchasing approvers.
• Only if the selected publication approvals are complete and the AFE is complete or bypassed, can the tender be published.
• After the tender closing date, the Tender Committee needs to approve opening of the bids (if selected) before they can be opened. All members can are alerted and can approve at the same time.
• If selected, the Award approval needs to be done by the Tender Committee members before the contract can finally be awarded to a vendor. All members can are alerted and can approve at the same time. For all selected approval options, the system will automatically send alerts to the relevant approvers via email. Once the login, they will see a list of approvals and other outstanding action items under the My iSpec section. They may also navigate directly to the appropriate tender and will see an approval link there.
