Approve or decline requests in Approvals

Approvals is one list of everything that waits for your decision: expense claims, time off, purchase requisitions, journal entries above the limit, discounts and purchases above Studio's limits, job reviews, write-offs and the approvals workflow rules ask for. You decide here, or open the record and decide there; either way the app's own checks apply.

Before you start

• No right is needed to open Approvals: you see the requests you may decide, and the ones you asked for.
• Approvals comes with every plan.

Steps

Decide a request

1. Open Workflows → Approvals. Waiting for me is open, with how many requests are past their deadline.
2. Read each row: What (the kind and the record, and Step 1 of 2 when there are several steps), Asked by, Amount, Why and Deadline. Escalated means it came to you because someone else was late.
3. To decide in place, type a Note if you like and select Approve, or type the reason and select Decline. A note is required to decline.
4. For a request that shows Open instead, select it: some kinds, such as a timesheet period, are decided on their own page.
5. To read more first, select the record's name. The request's page shows the steps, who it is Waiting for, the history and Open the record.
6. On that page, under Your decision, type a Note and select Approve or Decline.

Follow what you asked for

1. Select Asked by me. Each request shows its State: Waiting, Approved, Declined or Withdrawn.
2. Open a request to see where it stands.
3. Select Remind to nudge the approvers, or Withdraw if you no longer need it.
4. To add something, type in Write a comment for the approvers and select Comment.

Good to know

• Never your own. The person who asks can never approve their own request, and nobody approves two steps of the same request. Two people on a step means two different people must approve it.
• Deadlines count your organisation's business days (your country's weekend). A request past its deadline escalates once, to the owner, the next step's people or a named person, who is told; the person who asked is told too.
• A changed record asks again. If a discount or a total changes after approval, the approval does not cover it and a new request starts.
• On Today. Requests that wait for you appear on Today, with Approve in place where the kind allows it. Expense claims, purchase requisitions and HR requests show there under their own app, once.
• The apps keep their rules. Procurement, Expenses, HR and Books keep their own approval steps; Approvals adds the shared list, deadlines, escalation, stand-ins and history. See posting approvals in Books.
• History. Every step, comment, reminder and decision is kept on the request and in the record's history in the audit log.
• Away? See let someone decide while you are away.