This article covers workflow exceptions within iplicit's authorisation workflow engine – the process that routes documents such as invoices, orders and journals to the correct approver. A workflow exception happens when a document doesn't match any step's criteria and gets sent to the catch-all user instead of an approver.

How a workflow exception happens

When you submit a document into an authorisation workflow, iplicit checks it against each step's criteria in turn – things like legal entity, document type, amount, department or other attributes. If the document matches a step, it's routed to that step's approver. If it doesn't match any step in the workflow, iplicit can't work out who should approve it, so it sends the document to the catch-all user and flags it as a workflow exception.

Why a workflow exception can appear midway through the workflow

If a document reaches an exception partway through the steps, this is usually because a step is set to "Catch" rather than "Skip to next" within the authorisation workflow. "Catch" tells iplicit to send any unmatched document straight to the catch-all user at that point, rather than letting it continue to the next step to look for a match.

Why a workflow exception can appear at the end of the workflow

If a document passes through every step in the authorisation workflow without matching any of them, and the final step is also set to "Catch," iplicit sends it to the catch-all user once it reaches the end.

Common reasons a document doesn't match any workflow step

Within an authorisation workflow, a document commonly fails to match because of one of the following:

  1. The document type hasn't been accounted for, and no "All" option has been added as a step
  2. The legal entity, cost centre, resource, department or other posting attribute hasn't been included in any step
  3. The document amount doesn't fall within any step's range (for example, steps cover under or over a set figure, but not the exact figure submitted)
  4. The workflow is set to evaluate header-level details only, but a step includes detail-level (line-level) criteria, so the document skips that step
  5. The document includes an attachment, but the matching workflow step doesn't require one
  6. A recent change – such as a new department, document type or legal entity – hasn't yet been reflected in the workflow's step criteria.

These are the most common causes. Other combinations of workflow criteria can also produce an exception, so always check the specific rules configured on the workflow in question.

How to resolve a workflow exception

To stop a document being sent to the catch-all user, review and adjust the authorisation workflow rather than the document itself:

  1. Open the authorisation workflow the document was submitted to
  2. Check each step's criteria against the document that triggered the exception – legal entity, document type, amount, department and any other attributes
  3. Identify which value on the document isn't covered by any step
  4. Add or amend a step so that value is included, or add an "All" step to catch document types not otherwise specified
  5. Check whether any step is set to "Catch" when it should be "Skip to next," so unmatched documents continue through the workflow instead of stopping early
  6. Resubmit the document once the workflow has been updated, to confirm it now routes to the correct approver.
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