How Approval Workflows are Handled

A Document Approval workflow can be configured to meet various business needs. Specific ideas related to how a document can flow through the approval workflow will be discussed in this topic.

Document Approval workflows will only be initiated when the workflow is configured and enabled for a folder and a documents status is set to released. A document status can be set to released either through uploading a document with a released status, checking in a document as released, or through changing the document release status to Released. Process owners can develop an effective approval process by insuring that notifications, rejections and escalations are configured correctly.

Document Approved

When aall approval tasks are approved successfully throughout the entire workflow it will be changed to a released state after the last approval sequence of the workflow. If other workflow sequences exist after the last approval, they should be sequences that do not require further approval or collaboration to officially release the document. By default, serial or parallel sequences after the last approval allow users to change the document. These changes are logged in the database for traceability.

Notification Only

The Document Approval Workflow can be configured to notify a group of people only. An approval sequence is not required in this situation, for a document to be Released. Notifications may be included with more complex Document Approval Workflows. Notifications are configured on the Notifications tab of each task sequence.

Document Rejected and Routed back to Previous Sequence

Document Approval Workflows may be configured to return to a previous sequence if the document were rejected. When a document is rejected and returned to a previous sequence the user who gets the returning task has two choices. They can check in a new revision of the document or they can replace the current revision of the document depending on if this feature is enabled. Once the user has updated the document they need to complete their task to send the documents through the existing workflow, or the workflow that brought the document back to the user.

If the user chose to upload a new revision of the document, both revisions will remain in a Pending Approval state until the approval process ends successfully. At the end of the workflow only the last revision will be released, all previous revisions that were rejected will be set to Unreleased.

Documents can only be configured to return to a previous sequence when rejected for Approval type tasks only. To configure a workflow so that it returns to a previous sequence, navigate to the Approval tab of the Approval sequence and modify the settings for the rejection outcome to return to previous sequence.

Document Rejected and Workflow Ended

When a workflow is ended based upon an approval being rejected the document release status will be set to Unreleased. You may notify key business personnel of this rejection by configuring the notification of the specific task sequence. The document may be resubmitted back into the workflow process by one of two ways. First the document may be checked in replacing the current revision. The status can then be changed to released which will initiate the workflow again. The second way to initiate the workflow is to check in the document as a new revision with a released status.

The workflow can be configured to end only in Approval type tasks. To configure a workflow to end when the approval task is rejected, navigate to the approval tab of an approval type sequence. Select the radio button that says end workflow for a negative outcome.

Document Rejected and Workflow Continues

When a workflow continues even though an approval was rejected, the document released status will be set to Unreleased with one rejection. You may notify key business personnel of this rejection by configuring the notification of the specific task sequence. The document may be resubmitted back into the workflow process by one of two ways. First the document may be checked in replacing the current revision. The status can then be changed to released which will initiate the workflow again. The second way to initiate the workflow is to check in the document as a new revision with a released status. If the workflow process contains additional steps after the rejection, users may collaborate and modify the document. They may also add an approval sequence to give the modified document to a specific set of approvers.

The workflow can be configured to continue despite a negative outcome only in Approval type tasks. To configure a workflow to continue when the approval task is rejected, navigate to the approval tab of an approval type sequence. Select the radio button that says continue workflow for a negative outcome.