I have a site collection hosted on SharePoint Online. At the root of the site collection I have a list called "Employee List". Each employee has a contact record with some additional columns, the two important ones for this discussion are "Employee Name" and "Reports To". Not all employees are users on SharePoint so do not have logins. Management is all on SharePoint so the Reports To column is a Person or Group type. I have created a site column that is a lookup of the "Employee Name" column called "Employee Lookup". I use this site column in other lists to attach items to the employee.
The problem that I am running into is on a workflow on a financial report list on a subsite (two levels down from the root). When an Excel spreadsheet is turned in by an employee, a secretary puts into the MFR (financial report) list. This list uses a content type that has the "Employee Lookup" site column in it. What I want to do is have a workflow that starts automatically when a document is added that looks that the "Reports To" field on the connected Employee in the Employee List and start an approval process with the "Reports To" as the person to approve it.
When I try to create a workflow, the Employee List is not an available source because it is not a list on the same subsite, it is on the root of the site collection.
