PeopleSoft Learning

PeopleSoft applications are helping to make paper and email-based forms a thing of the past so that you will know what was submitted, when it was submitted, and who approved it. We recently released Forms and Approval Builder as a part of Common Components 9.1. Forms and Approval Builder allows you to build electronic forms that are configurable by business analysts, enabled with approval workflows, and immediately deployable and auditable to enable you to replace paper and email-based forms. Forms and Approval Builder is currently available, at no additional charge, to all PeopleSoft 9.1 customers. It was part of the FSCM Feature Pack March 2011, and it is also available in the Enterprise Components 9.1 Common Objects Bundle 1 2011 for use in any PeopleSoft 9.1 Pillar, including, of course, HCM. It does require PeopleTools 8.51.03 or greater.

Form Design

PeopleSoft Forms and Approval Builder enables business analysts to create electronic, routable forms without having to use PeopleSoft Application Designer. A typical form can be designed and in use within 30 minutes and requires no writing of code.


The intuitive wizard guides you step by step through establishing a form. Options include adding instructions to the form, similar to what you would find on the back of a paper form; adding attachments to the form for users to read, submit, or both; and being able to create your own fields on the form. These fields can be plain text, numbers, date and time, yes/no, fields that prompt against existing PeopleSoft records, and code fields. The code field type enables you to build a list of items on the fly that a person who is filling in the form can select from when perusing the drop-down list. You can create these user prompt values in the code fields without having to enter them in a standard PeopleSoft record beforehand.

Main Menu > Forms > Design a Form

Fields can be organized into one or two columns on the page, and every field on the form has the option of being made required to ensure that users thoroughly complete the form.


You specify the location of the form in the PeopleSoft Main Menu through an easy-to-navigate folder hierarchy, and you select the flow of approvers that the form will follow using the approvers from within the Approval Workflow Engine.

There is also the ability to make forms available for limited periods of time.

Efficient and Effective Forms Management for your Organization

Knowing how many of each type of form are in the system and their approval status is essential in monitoring your business processes. PeopleSoft Forms and Approval Builder comes with its own summarization table, enabling you to see at a glance how many forms of each type have been created and how many forms are in each approval status. This central Form Management repository also enables you to activate and deactivate your forms within the system in one place, eliminating the need to go back into the design of each form and activate it.

The ability to find a particular form in an instant is also important in supporting efficient operations. Forms are searchable by subject, form type, priority, due date, and approval status to eliminate the need for searching through piles of paperwork.


Easy to Navigate Forms Available to Your Users When they Need Them

Any given form may be accessed through either the central forms repository or the link you designate for it in within the PeopleSoft Menu navigation. Users open a blank form; enter the required information; download, read, fill in, and upload attachments; and submit their form for approval.

Forms are available to the approver instantly, and approvals are also available as soon as they are granted.

Finally, because the Forms and Approval Builder utilizes the existing infrastructure of the Approval Workflow Engine and the Supplemental Data Framework, your forms and approvals are migrated like all other application data during an upgrade between PeopleSoft Releases.