Document Approval Workflow Guide

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Overview

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Features

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Approval Chain Configuration

• Define sequential approval steps (up to 10 approvers)
• Assign specific users or roles as approvers
• Mark steps as required or optional
• Set due dates for each approval step

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Status Tracking

• Real-time approval progress visualization
• Pending, approved, rejected, and skipped statuses
• Approval history with timestamps and decision notes
• Dashboard widget for pending approvals

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Notification Integration

• Automatic notifications to next approver
• Reminders for overdue approvals
• Status change notifications to document owner
• Escalation notifications for critical documents

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Setting Up Document Approval

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Creating an Approval Chain

• Order: Sequential position (1, 2, 3…)
• Approver: Select user or role
• Required: Mark if approval is mandatory
• Due Date: Optional deadline for decision

Step 1: Department Head (Required, 3 days)
Step 2: Finance Director (Required, 5 days)
Step 3: CEO (Optional, 7 days)

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Initiating Approval

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Approval Process

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For Approvers

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Receiving Approval Request

• In-app notification (bell icon)
• Email (if enabled in preferences)
• Dashboard widget: “Pending Approvals”

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Making a Decision

• Document moves to next approval step
• Next approver is notified
• Status remains pending_approval

• Document status changes to rejected
• Approval chain stops
• Document owner is notified with rejection note
• Owner can revise and resubmit

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For Document Owners

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Tracking Approval Status

• ✅ Approved steps (green checkmark)
• ⏳ Current step (yellow pending)
• ⚪ Pending steps (gray)
• ❌ Rejected (red X)

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After Rejection

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After Final Approval

• Document status changes to approved
• Document owner receives notification
• Document can be marked as final/published

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Approval Chain Templates

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Common Templates

<Steps>
1. Author's Manager (Required)
2. Department Head (Required)
3. Compliance Officer (Optional)
</Steps>

<Steps>
1. Requestor's Manager (Required)
2. Controller (Required)
3. CFO (Required if amount > $10,000)
</Steps>

<Steps>
1. Policy Committee (Required)
2. Legal Review (Required)
3. Executive Director (Required)
4. Board of Directors (Required if major policy)
</Steps>

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Creating Reusable Templates

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Due Dates and Reminders

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Setting Due Dates

• Set days after submission (e.g., “3 days”)
• Or set specific calendar date

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Automatic Reminders

• 1 day before due date
• On due date
• 1 day after due date (overdue)

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Escalation (Optional)

• If no decision after X days → notify approver’s manager
• If critical document → send daily reminders

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Dashboard Widget

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Pending Approvals Widget

• Documents awaiting their approval
• Due dates (color-coded by urgency)
• Quick approve/reject actions
• Overdue count

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My Documents Widget

• Documents in approval process
• Current approval step
• Days in approval
• Approval progress percentage

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Permissions

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Who Can Configure Approval Chains

• Document owner
• Org admins
• Users with “Manage Documents” permission

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Who Can Approve

• Users explicitly assigned in approval chain
• Users with roles matching approval step role
• Org admins (override capability)

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Approval Override

• Skip approval steps
• Fast-track documents
• Override rejections
• Modify approval chains on active approvals

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Best Practices

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Reporting

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Approval Metrics

• Average approval time by step
• Rejection rate by approver
• Documents stuck in approval
• Compliance with due dates

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Audit Trail

• All decision timestamps
• Approver names
• Decision notes
• Status changes

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Troubleshooting

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Approver Not Receiving Notifications

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Cannot Submit for Approval

• No approval chain configured
• Missing required fields in document
• Document already in approval
• User lacks permission

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Approval Stuck

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Wrong Approver Assigned

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Security

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Access Control

• Approvers can only see documents in their queue
• Document content respects existing permissions
• Approval notes are visible to all approvers and owner
• Audit trail visible to org admins only

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PHI/PII Handling

• Approval notes should NOT contain PHI
• Documents remain encrypted at rest
• Email notifications don’t include document content
• SMS notifications not used for approvals (security)

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Advanced Features

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Conditional Approvals

• Document category
• Dollar amount
• Site/department
• Custom field values

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Parallel Approvals

• All must approve (AND logic)
• Any can approve (OR logic)

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Approval Delegation

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Integration

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Notification System

• Approval requests → notification created
• Decision made → notification sent to owner
• Overdue → reminder notification

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Audit Logging

• All approval actions logged
• WHO approved/rejected
• WHEN decision made
• WHAT note was added

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Workflow Automation

• Trigger actions after final approval
• Auto-publish to specific sites
• Move document to “Published” folder
• Create follow-up tasks

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Related Documentation

• Document Management
• Notifications System
• Advanced Document Features
• Audit Logging - See audit event contracts