Our purchase order approval workflow is stuck in an infinite loop between the buyer approval state and supervisor approval state. Orders above $10K threshold keep bouncing back and forth, never reaching the final approved status.
The workflow loops between buyer and supervisor indefinitely - buyer approves, it goes to supervisor, supervisor approves, then it mysteriously returns to buyer again. I’ve checked the SuiteFlow logs extensively and there are no error messages, just repeated state transitions showing the same cycle.
We recently tried disabling all custom scripts on the PO record to see if they were causing interference, but the looping continued. The workflow design looks straightforward with simple approval states and amount-based routing. This started happening after we updated from NS 2023.1 to 2023.2 last month. About 45 POs are currently stuck in this loop causing major delays with suppliers.
Look at your workflow’s ‘On Exit’ actions for each state. Sometimes there are field updates or scripts that fire when leaving a state that inadvertently trigger re-entry conditions for previous states. Also verify your approval routing logic - if the supervisor role assignment is dynamic and somehow includes the buyer role, that could cause routing confusion.
Are you using any scheduled workflow actions or time-based triggers? Sometimes there are hidden ‘Return for Revision’ actions with time delays that fire after approvals, sending the workflow back to earlier states. Also check if there are multiple workflow versions active - if an old version is still enabled, records might be switching between workflow versions causing the loop behavior. Go to your workflow list and make sure only one version shows ‘Released’ status.
I’ve seen this before. Check if your transition conditions are creating a circular reference. If the supervisor approval action sets a status that matches the buyer approval entry condition, it will loop forever. Look at what field values each approval state is setting and make sure they create a one-way progression.