What Is an Approval?

An approval is the act of approving something. In ShareDo, this is represented by an approval task being sent to an appropriate party. The result of the approval then triggers a particular course of action. Approvals can be used for internal or external authorisation to proceed with an action. This could be moving from one phase of work to another, asking a client to approve a purchase order or change request. For example, a document could have an approval process attached. If the document is approved then it can be sent out, if the document is not approved then it must be reworked.

In ShareDo, users receive approvals in their worklists, or they can receive email notifications. Approvals can be used in many contexts across the application, including approvals for phase changes of work, documents, fees, and payments.

Approvals can be single or multiple step. A single approval can be sent to more than one person. Approval steps can also be automatically skipped if not required.

What Does an Approver See?

Approvers are able to see items requiring their approval on their workbench. Specially configured lists give both the approver and approvee the ability to view their approval items.

Each approval that is sent to an approver is sent in the form of a task. The type of task that is sent depends on the configuration in the approval model. Approval tasks work like any other task. To approve or reject the item, the approver sets the phase to approve or reject. The task provides the detail of the item that needs approving, and will usually provide a link to the item. The task's priority can also be specified, and the user can filter their list of tasks according to priority. In the case of document approvals, direct access is given to the document itself.

Your users are also able to use their notification settings, accessed from the notification button at the top of the screen, to determine how and when they receive notifications for approvals. An approval task will always be placed in their inbox, however, users can also choose to receive emails or in-app notifications around the notification process.

Can I Use Approvals With External Parties?

Where third parties are accessing the external ShareDo portals, you are able to use approval models as a way of getting approvals from your client. They will receive approvals into their task list just like internal users, or can be configured to receive email approvals.

What Happens When an Approval Is Rejected or Approved?

When an approval is approved, the action requiring approval will complete. For example, a document that requires approving prior to sending, once approved, will allow the author to send the document. Where an approval is set to rejected, the user will not be able to proceed with the action.

What is a multi-step approval?

There are some situations where an approval may need to go through more than one stage. For example, if you are submitting a large payment, there may be an authorisation from your team and then finance. The approval model supports the addition of approval steps. These can be added and reordered. They can also have 'matching rules' applied to them so that they only fire where required. For example, you may configure a two-step approval process for payments to your team lead and then one to finance. However, if the payment amount is under £1000, you may not need the authorisation from finance.

Where Do I Configure Approvals?

Approval Element	Where to configure
Approval Setup Approval setup is done in the approval global feature. When configuring approval models, this configuration should have been pre-defined at system setup Configure which task types can be used for approvals - what will be presented to the approver. This also defines the approval types for which each task type can be used and the success and rejected phase for each approval step. The system comes with a number of set approval tasks.	This is configured in the approvals global feature found at Launchpad > Admin > Features > Manage global features > Approvals.
Approval Models Approval models allow you to specify an approval process, including the task type, to whom the approval should be sent and other details.	Approval models are set up within Modeller at Launchpad > Modeller > Work types > Approval models

Approval Models

Approval Model Canvas

Approvals are configured using the approval model canvas. This allows you to configure the high-level details of a model and individual approval steps.

Approval Types

There are a number of different approval types within the system. When creating an approval model, you are asked which one you want to initiate.

Approval Tasks

When an approval step is fired, an approval task is created. The type of task that is sent to the approver can be configured within your approval model. The task can be embedded with details about the item being approved, including details such as title or reference. In addition,  for certain approval types, e.g. documents, there is a direct link to the item being approved.

Creating an Approval Model

For detailed instructions on how to create an approval model, view the how-to article for creating an approval. This section gives a high-level overview of the different components that make up an approval model.

Approvals can be made up of one or more steps. Approval steps are executed in the order in which they appear on the canvas. The following table describes the settings for each step of an approval.

Approval Type	Description
Basic Settings	This contains the high-level settings for the model, such as the name and whether the model is enabled or not. This also includes the work type to which the rule is applicable Element Description System Name A unique system name for the approval model Name A meaningful name that describes the purpose of the approval model Description A description of the purpose of the approval model Icon A font awesome icon that represents the approval flow sharedo type context The work type to which the approval will apply Always approve Used for approval processes which will automatically approve an item (frequently used in document templates)
Task Details	This area allows you to configure the details of the task that will be sent as part of your approvals process. This includes the task type, title and description, due date offset. Field Description Task Type Specifies the task type that will be triggered for the approval. This will appear in the approvers worklist. Title Determines the title of the approval task - note that tags can be used to insert items such as the work type title. Use the context browser to find tags. Description The description that will go onto the task and will be read by the approver. This can include tags that describe the work item e.g. title. Use the context browser to find tags. Priority The task's priority. The user can filter their list of tasks according to priority. Due Date Offset The number of days / hours / minutes / working days until the approval task will be due for completion. Process Tags Process tasks are used within execution engine plans to identify specific instances of tasks and trigger workflow. For example when a specific thing is approved it may trigger another action to occur.
Approval Assignment	Approval Assignment allows you to select an allocation rule. Allocation rules apply a set of matching criteria to determine a user or team who should perform an action. For example the matching rule may look at the value or location of a piece of work. The result of the approval assignment will determine to whom the appproval task is sent.
Auto Approval	The auto approval section defines scenarios where no approval is required. For example the priority of a service request is to low to require approval prior to closure.
Manual Reassignment	This section provides an extra piece of security to define when certain users or teams cannot be reassigned or delegated an approval. This could occur if the approver chooses to reassign the task or if they are on holiday and auto delegation occurs.

Where Can I Use Approval Models?

Document Templates

Approval models can be added to document templates. Go to Launchpad > Documents Admin > Document Templates and open up your document template. In the approval configuration section, you are able to specify an approval model.

Payments

Approval models can be applied to payments. As payments are a work type, the approval is applied to the appropriate work type and phase transition.

Fees

When fees change, an approval process can be configured to provide an approval prior to the update to fees.

Jump to Phase

The jump to phase feature allows users to make unusual transitions between phases. An approvals process can be added to this via the jump to phase feature.