EEX 9.1+: Expense Report Send Back For Revision Stuck in Approvals In Process if Special Characters are Used in the Approval Comments (Doc ID 1602133.1)

Last updated on AUGUST 29, 2023

Applies to:

Symptoms

Expense Report transactions that have been Sent Back For Revision by an Expenses Approver (Pre Pay Auditor in this case), get stuck in 'Approvals In Process' status (PS_EX_SHEET_HDR.SHEET_STATUS = 'PAR'), with the Approver's Flag set to 'Yes' (PS_EX_SHEET_HDR.APPR_PROCESS_FLAG = 'Y'). This happens when the Pre Pay Auditor has entered in the Comments section to justify his/her action some text, which includes hidden characters containing special properties.

REPLICATION STEPS:

   - Log into the FSCM Online Application as User ID VP1
   - Navigate to: Set Up Financials/Supply Chain > Product Related > Expenses > Management > Approval Setup > Transaction Definition
   - Open the Expense Reports Transaction Definition, and make sure to select the approval levels of: Reviewer and Pre Pay Auditor
   - Log into the FSCM Online Application as User ID EXA1
   - Navigate to: Employee Self-Service > Travel and Expenses Center > Expense Report > Create
   - Add a brand new Expense Report with a couple of Lines on behalf of Employee ID KU0021
   - Submit the Expense Report, and confirm that it got routed for approval to a Reviewer and Pre Pay Auditor
   - Log into the FSCM Online Application as the Reviewer User
   - Navigate to: Manage Self-Service > Travel and Expenses Center > Approve Transactions > Approve Transactions
   - Review successfully the submitted Expense Report
   - Log into the FSCM Online Application as the Pre Pay Auditor User
   - Navigate to: Manage Self-Service > Travel and Expenses Center > Approve Transactions > Approve Transactions
   - Open the submitted Expense Report
   - In the Comments section, enter the text contained in file 'GCS_PPA_Test_Comments.txt', make a copy-paste. Note that this text will have some hidden special characters with properties.
   - Click on the 'Send Back' button
   - Check that the Approvals Console is empty for the Pre Pay Auditor
   - At the EX_APPROVAL Subscription Contract level, the Message Instance is in status of DONE
   - Log into the FSCM Online Application as User ID EXA1
   - Navigate to: Employee Self-Service > Travel and Expenses Center > Expense Report > Modify
   - Upon performing a search, the returned Expense Report is nowhere to be found
   - Navigate to: Employee Self-Service > Travel and Expenses Center > Expense Report > View
   - Search the affected Expense Report, and open it
   - The transaction is in ‘Approvals In Process’ status, while it should be Pending

To gather more information concerning this scenario and its related problem, refer to the available Replication Steps Word Document containing the complete configuration and the replication steps necessary to reproduce the issue.

The affected Expense Reports, they get stuck into 'Approvals In Process' status (PS_EX_SHEET_HDR.SHEET_STATUS = 'PAR'). Additionally, the Pre Pay Auditor is still listed in the Pending Actions list, while it has already done Send Back For Revision. This is incorrect, as the Expense Report is now sitting in a limbo, and cannot be corrected online.

Hidden special characters containing incompatible properties should be detected by the system when trying to save the comments from the Approver User, and make sure to have them automatically removed, or have the system throw an Error Message stating that the text has to be reviewed and the incompatible characters removed. Otherwise, the Expenses Approval Workflow functionality should work as per expected, and handle the transaction as a Sent Back For Revision one, updating all required records properly.

Changes

Cause

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